Thomas MacMillan Photo
While other schools lay empty for winter break, Wilbur Cross filled with hollering basketball fans taking part in a new tradition created by a local civil rights warrior and entrepreneur.
Hamden’s Green Dragons and the Cross Governors faced off Tuesday night in the final game of a four-game serires at Wilbur Cross High School in East Rock. Cross took the game 73 – 59.
Tuesday marked the fourth annual Vanguard Athletics Big City Holiday Classic, a day of basketball organized by civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Michael Jefferson. Outside the courtroom, Jefferson runs several side projects, including a website called vanguardathletics.com, which offers high school athletes a way to promote themselves to college recruiters. For the last four years, Jefferson has been organizing one or two days of high school basketball games over winter break.
Jefferson said the tournament came about through a simple love of the game.
“I’m a fan,” Jefferson said during the second half of the Governors-Dragons game. Several of the people in his circle of friends are head coaches, he said: His brother, Steve Jefferson, coaches at Hyde, and he’s close with Kermit Carolina, the erstwhile basketball coach and current principal at Hillhouse High. They and others told him it would be a good idea to have a winter, early-season, basketball event, Jefferson said.
Jefferson said he invites the best teams around to play. It’s not an official tournament in itself. The games go towards each school’s regular season record.
On Tuesday, fans paid to see four games involving six boys teams and two girls teams: Hamden Hall vs. Weaver, Hyde vs. Bulkeley, Cross vs. Hamden, and Hillhouse girls vs. Career girls. The winning teams were Hamden Hall, Hyde, Cross, and Career.
Jefferson said the event is not a moneymaker for Vanguard. His company barely breaks even on the day, he said. “It’s just a quality event for players, coaches and students.” The Board of Education supports the event by letting him use the gym, he said.
Coach Anthony Hill and Michael Jefferson (right).
In addition to the sports site, Jefferson runs another web business called Recent Encounter. The site aims to help people connect with a special someone they may have seen on the street and not gotten a chance to talk to.
The day’s final game saw the Governors squaring off against the Green Dragons. Anthony Hill, head coach for the Governors, said he has hoping for a repeat performance of the two team’s meeting earlier this season, when the Governors came out on top by 12 points. As it turned out, the Governors did even better, ending up with a 14-point margin over the Dragons.
While the Governors were never down, they left the court only six points ahead at the half.
“Hustle! Hustle!” Hill shouted at his team as they headed for the lockers.
During halftime, Hill impressed the importance of defense on his team, he later explained. He told them to be “stronger with the ball.”
“The beginning of the third quarter was important,” Hill said. Cross came out strong and widened its lead, finishing 14 points ahead.
Coach Hill credited strong play by 6’3” senior Gerald McClease, number 22. “He’s a special player,” Hill said. “He was making us go.”
Hill also said 6’3” junior Kyle Holmes, 33, and 6’6” senior Alex Conaway (pictured), 21, were looking good.
As the tournament wrapped up, Hill said there ought to have been more teams, but it’s hard to convince teams to come play in New Haven. “They don’t want to come here.” The competition is too fierce, he said.
Carolina, whose Hillhouse boys would have played Tuesday if their opponent hadn’t dropped out, said out-of-town teams fear the “basketball history” in New Haven. “A lot of teams are afraid of the New Haven aura.”
Despite the difficulty of attracting teams, Carolina said the Vanguard Athletics Big City Holiday Classic is “great for the city of New Haven.” It’s great for families and former students to have a time during the holidays to watch games and catch up with old friends and classmates, he said.