2016-2017 Year in Review: The Ganado Hornets
As the 2015-2016 high school basketball season was coming to a close the Ganado Hornets found themselves as the 26th ranked team in Division 4 with a 10-19 record.
There were high hopes as well as doubt for the little town of about twelve hundred people as they looked towards the next year of basketball. The Hornets knew that they would be reloading for the next season with 11 Juniors coming back for a senior year of ball. The bad news: they would be moving up to the higher ranked division now known as 3A.
With the 11 Seniors that would be on the roster the most pressure seemed to be put on one of them specifically. Jamaal Coleman who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and would be going into his third year as a varsity player. Before the season started Coleman signed to play with New Mexico Military Institute next year.
Ganado started off its season with five freedom games where they went 5-0 and had an average win margin of 19.8 points; they continued their winning streak into the winter break.
At the White Mountain Holiday Classic over winter break is where Coleman had his biggest showing against Chino Hills finishing the game with an impressive 38 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks. The next game would be where the Hornets received their first loss as they played St. Josephs, a team out of California that had won the tournament the previous two years.
After the break, the team won nine straight regional games and with only three games left until the postseason, the Hornets found themselves as the number one ranked team in 3A.
The team that had not yet lost a regional game found themselves at the Chinle “Den” where the wildcats being coached by “Rez ball” legend Raul Mendoza awaited them. After a long-fought game and a potential game winning shot missed by Coleman the Hornets were now 18-1 in division play. Two days later the second division loss came from the Tuba City Warriors, and the way the Hornets were playing seemed to be heading in the wrong direction as the playoffs were around the corner.
Sectionals came and the Hornets again met up with the Warriors. The shook-up Hornets lost 67-57 and watched as they dropped from the number one seed in the playoffs to the five seed.
After getting their first-round bye, the Hornets had a match up against the Page Sand Devils for the round of 16. The bad streak continued as the home team Hornets trailed by 9 at the half. The fourth quarter came and with 1.9 seconds on the clock Ganado was down 60-58. The team decided to put their trust in to the hands of the only junior on the team, and it was a good choice as he pulled up from three and sent the Hornets to the Elite 8.
Another close game against Sabino lead by their point guard Daryl Lincoln meant that the team would be going to the Final 4, a place that seemed almost impossible just a year before.
With the crowd roaring full of Hornet fans, it sadly was not enough to push this team to the 3A championship. The Ganado Hornets season came to a close with a loss to the Winslow Bulldogs 59-42.
Coleman ended the season averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds, and about 4 blocks per game. He let me know after the game “It wasn’t the ending we wanted, but I will keep working to get stronger and better.”
It was a magnificent turn around for this Ganado team going from 10-19 to 21-5 and although they did not win a championship I would say they blew everyone’s expectations out of the water.