Best team in Moravia school history will be remembered (The Auburn Citizen)

Posted: 20 Mar 2010 05:39 AM PDT

Best team in Moravia school history will be remembered

By Michael Bonner / The Citizen

Saturday, March 20, 2010 12:25 AM EDT

They had the Blue Devils boys basketball team.

"This is nothing like I ever thought," Moravia boys basketball head coach Todd Mulvaney said. "These kids are like rock stars in that town."

The fandom began last year as the Blue Devils began a journey that concluded Friday with a 57-40 loss to Middle Early College in the state semifinals in Glens Falls. Last year, the Blue Devils lost in the Section IV, Class C semifinals and this year came back with a mission to get to Glens Falls.

With the quiet confidence the Blue Devils displayed all season, they knew they would reach Glens Falls, what they didn't know was how memorable the ride would be.

"You picture it in your head and you think it and you work hard towards it but you never know what's actually going to happen, it's got to happen," Mulvaney said. "And to actually make it happen, I think we're amazed we're still here."

After making it happen, the roster that lists only 10 never realized that its dream would balloon into that of a roster of hundreds.

Whether it was in Moravia, SUNY Cortland, or in the Glens Falls Civic Center, the Blue Devils' fans packed the stands showing their support. Not only did they fill up seats with their bodies but their voices filled every arena with noise. At each pit stop on the team's journey to the Civic Center, Moravia's following consumed that of their opponents. Their chants of "We can't hear you!" was true.

Arriving early, fans would hang a Blue Devil in every arena, portrait of the players with an American flag in the background and countless signs. Chants of "Over-rated," "De-fense" and the most unique to the town "M-O, M-O-R, M-O-R-A-V-I-A", echoed throughout, overpowering any chatter coming elsewhere.

"What they've done for this community, I don't think they know yet," Mulvaney said. "For a few years they are going to be the name and icon for Moravia basketball. It's just been an awesome year."

Thursday, as the team left for Glens Falls, the Moravia community was decorated with signs, banners and painted windows wishing their home team luck. The streets were lined with fans and students from the Moravia schools as the Blue Devils team bus was led out of town with a police escort.

"It was great," Mulvaney said. "It was great for them to live in that moment in their lives, something special where they feel that important."

But it didn't stop there.

Walking into any area hotel around Glens Falls , someone would be bound to run into someone from Moravia. According to Mulvaney, one hotel alone reserved more than 70 rooms solely for the fans of the Blue Devils.

When they arrived at the Civic Center, their fans took up two entire sections of the Civic Center with Moravia students lining the baseline with every seat available.

And as the Blue Devils walked off the court, four of them for the final time #- TJ Powers, Greg Pasho, Pat Mott, and Jeremy Stewart #- they did so to a standing ovation.

"I love each and every one of them. I told them, 'Nobody will ever take this from you,'" Mulvaney said. "What you've accomplished raised the bar so high for standards at Moravia so it's a credit to them. They all had great careers."

It didn't end exactly how they wanted but the four seniors along with the rest of the Blue Devils roster as a whole earned the respect their fans have shown them throughout the season.

When Mott and Stewart played as freshman, Moravia wasn't nearly as successful, on the bad end of double-digit losses they were so accustomed to winning toward the end of their careers.

Four years later, they, and a strong supporting cast, brought the school its first sectional championship, its first regional championship and first final four appearance in its history.

Their season ends having lost just three games #- Skaneateles, Lansing, and Middle Early College, one Section IV team, a Section III, Class B team, and currently the top-ranked team in Class C.

Also on the resume, Moravia won its division, league, and brought home a its league's sportsmanship award as well as the academic award given to the school with the highest GPA.

So as their fans treat them as rock stars, this season's edition of the Blue Devils has accomplished something much more.

It will end its season as the greatest team to ever put on a Moravia uniform.

"It's been very special, very special," Mulvaney said. "And these kids will have that with them forever. Nobody can take that away from them. "

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Saturday, March 20, 2010