Varela snaps 20-game losing streak in boys’ basketball while keeping close bonds intact
The misery is over.
After an 0-20 record last season, pride has returned to the Varela Vipers boys’ basketball team. The host Vipers beat Pinecrest Prep 61-55 on Tuesday night, ending their 20-game losing streak just in time for Thanksgiving.
“It feels amazing,” said Cesar Lacaci, who has coached Varela since the Kendall-based public school opened in the fall of 2000. “Our players have worked so hard and been through so much.
“I wanted this win more for them than for me because they are the ones suffering. They are the ones who walk the halls and hear the kids with the demeaning talk, that they can’t win games.”
That’s no longer true. And as soon as Tuesday’s game ended, Varela players starting hopping as if they were on pogo sticks. After shaking hands with the Pinecrest players, Varela’s boys ran toward their locker room, stopping every few feet to hug family members and friends.
“You get this type of emotion from these guys, it’s like we won a championship,” Lacaci said. “To me, that’s more gratifying than anything else.”
Lacaci, 48, is the longest-tenured coach at Varela, and he said one of the reasons the team has struggled to earn wins is that he doesn’t recruit players from other schools.
“I play the kids who come into my building,” he said. “I don’t judge anyone else. … I’m just old school.”
MOLDING MEN
Fourteen years after his last dribble as a member of the Vipers boys’ basketball team, Roberto Sasso got married.
The ceremony took place last year in North Carolina, and, of his eight groomsmen, seven of them were friends from his Varela days — everyone except his wife’s brother.
Sasso, now an associate athletic director at Seton Hall University, said his groomsmen car-pooled from Miami to make the big event, indicating the tight bonds formed at Varela.
“We’re all still in close communication,” Sasso said. “I had a great experience at Varela, even though we didn’t win a lot of games.”
Indeed, Varela has yet to win a state, regional or district title in boys’ basketball. But the Vipers are winners in other ways.
One of the virtues learned at Varela is determination, and that has been evident during the past year.
In 14 of Varela’s 20 games last season, the score was so lopsided that there was a running clock.
“Certain coaches continued to press to embarrass our kids or feed their own egos,” Lacaci said. “I was shocked.”
Despite the humiliation dished out by overzealous opposing coaches and the taunts inflicted by their fellow Varela students, no Vipers player quit the team.
“All of us want to play together, and [we have] passion for the sport,” said J.P. Morante, a 6-2 junior forward who has been on the team since his freshman year. “We trust the system.
“I believe in what [Lacaci] is saying. Everything that he teaches, I understand fully.”
ALL IN
Despite all the losses last season, Lacaci has the support of third-year Varela athletic director Ryan Schneider, who was previously the school’s girls’ basketball coach.
“We bounced ideas off each other when I was still coaching,” Schneider said. “[Lacaci] is an amazing guy. He knows basketball. He works his tail off. And he doesn’t take [junk]. He won’t take even a talented kid if he thinks he won’t fit into the program.”
Varela’s practices are detailed. At a recent two-hour workout, more than 20 drills and concepts were covered, each one timed down to the minute.
For the past nine years, Lacaci has coached the team mostly on his own. This season, however, he has two new assistants: Will Regalado and Derrick Bolanos, a former 6-foot guard at Varela.
Third in school history in career points, Bolanos was a Varela senior one decade ago when that team set a program wins record, going 15-7.
Bolanos, who went on to compete for Barry University as a scholarship player, believes the current Vipers team can do what the Varela boys did a decade ago.
“Out of all the teams I’ve ever played for, that [Varela squad] had the best team chemistry,” Bolanos said. “Everyone played their role. There were no egos, and it was a brotherhood on the court and off.
“This season, it’s the same way. We’re not the tallest, the most athletic or the most talented. But it’s a good group of guys. If we execute, we can be a contender.”
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
▪ Gulliver Prep 80, Grandview Prep 73 (OT): Haymore 27, Kaitlyn Sanders 21, Aguilera 15, Doctor 11, Krysten Sanders 2, Lopez, Santoro 2. Half: GP 31-29. GP: 4-0.
▪ Coral Gables 39 St. Brendan 37: CG – Mendez 8, Cruzata 7, Crabll 6, Arguello 4, Rodriguez 4, Pinera 4, Cohen 3, Viciedo 2, Morejon 1. STB – B. Silva 10, Piedra 8, Gonzalez 7, Fraga 5, Berrios 5, Alvarez 2. Rebounds: Pinera 10. Steals: Mendea 4, Viciedo 4. Assists: Cruzata 3. Blocks: Cohen 2. CG: 3-0.
▪ Krop 55, Central 37: Weingard 17, Walker 11, Hornstein 11. Rebounds: Mills 16, Walker 15, B. Knowles 11. Assists: Weingard 4. Steals: Mills 3. 3-pointers: Weingard, Hornstein, B. Knowles. Coach Ray Thompson earned his 300th victory as Krop head coach.
BOYS’ BASKETBALL
▪ Ransom Everglades 65, Northwest Christain 39: Neil Schiff 25 points including six three-pointers. RE: 3-0.
▪ North Miami 92, North Miami Beach 59: Carlos Hart 29 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals; Vee’lesk Avin 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals; Ronaldo Vescine 19 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists.
▪ Krop 78, Hialeah-Miami Lakes 45: Justin Reid 16 points, 10 rebounds; Danny Angel and Dashswn Joseph 12 points each; Ethan Amar 10 points, Nico Mesa 7 points. KR: 1-0.
GIRLS’ SOCCER
▪ Archbishop McCarthy 4, Cardinal Gibbons 1: Sophia Goetz 2 goals, Nadia Colon and Lili Katz 1 goal each. Jordyn Pitter, Eliana Ramirez and Bella Rocco 1 assist each. AM: 4-0.
▪ LaSalle 1, Ransom Everglades 0: Valentina Pafumi lone goal, Hanah Gonzalez assist. GK Ariana Paredes shutout. LAS 4-1.
BOYS’ SOCCER
▪ Palmetto 6, Killian 0: Cooper Menachem and Matt dela Osa 2 goals each. Josh Nelson and Nick Pukall one goal each. Peekay Stoffle 3 assists, David Lozano and GianFranco Militello one assist each.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 11:06 AM.