Belen Jesuit continues dream basketball season by clinching first ever trip to state
The bedlam had calmed and the noise had quieted inside the Belen Jesuit basketball locker room late Friday night.
Wolverines coach Chachi Rodriguez finally had a tranquil moment to address his team.
But when he got to the word, “Lakeland,” Rodriguez couldn’t fight back the tears any longer.
Belen’s basketball team has achieved milestones this season even Rodriguez admits have exceeded the expectations of many.
But the Wolverines continued to believe they could reach higher on Friday night after defeating one of the state’s traditional powerhouses, Miami Norland, 70-58 in the Region 4-5A final to secure the school’s first ever trip to the state final four.
Belen (26-4) will take on Orlando’s Jones High on Thursday in a Class 5A state semifinal at either 2 or 4 p.m. at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.
Belen fans and alumni packed the school’s gym and rushed the court after the final buzzer sounded, joining the Wolverines in a raucous celebration that lasted several minutes until Rodriguez was able to corral his team into the locker room for a postgame chat.
That’s when things got emotional for Rodriguez, who is in his seventh season at Belen, and whose team had not made it past the regional semifinal round before this season.
Rodriguez is no stranger to state championships, however.
Rodriguez is one of two coaches in Miami-Dade County history to win state titles at two different schools (Champagnat Catholic and Coral Reef), along with Columbus’ Andrew Moran (also won at Miami Christian), and with Friday’s win, became the only such coach to guide three different teams to the state final four.
But this one felt special for Rodriguez as he watched a senior-led team that has not frequently been the tallest or perhaps the most purely talented - as was the case again on Friday against the Vikings - yet still find a way to win meaningful games.
“It’s really just effort and being clear,” senior guard Javi Rosell said. “It’s just being peaceful in your head throughout, despite all the noise and the crowd. It’s about channeling all your nerves and the adrenaline rush into the way we play defense and everything else will flow. We’re mature and we feel like we can handle any new situation.”
Rosell led Belen on Friday with 22 points and hit four of the Wolverines’ nine three-pointers in the game. With 22 seconds left, Rosell took a spill onto the court and stayed down with a muscle cramp. After being treated by the team’s trainer, Rosell rose up and walked back to Belen’s bench as the crowded gym chanted “M-V-P.”
The game pitted the top two ranked teams in Class 5A and two of the state’s most successful coaches in Rodriguez and Norland’s Lawton Williams, who has led his team to six state titles - the most of any coach in Dade history.
The Vikings were vying to reach state for the first time since 2015.
“We were playing one of the greatest coaches in state history and you knew they’d make adjustments,” Rodriguez said. “If you would have told me we would win by 12, I’d have said no way. It stinks to have to beat him, but at least we both got here and that’s a cool thing.”
After Norland’s Caleb Clark scored the game’s first six points on back-to-back three-pointers, Belen closed out the first quarter on a 19-7 run and never trailed again.
Carl Parrish led Norland with 19 points and Clark finished with 11 points. Triston Wilson had eight.
Rosell wasn’t the only contributor for the Wolverines. Ryan Cuellar also had 13 points. Kevin Garcia had seven points and Josh Perez had six.
The Wolverines never slowed down, using their signature up-tempo style of play, crisp passing and pressure defense to keep the visiting Vikings “on skates” as Rodriguez would say later, praising his team’s effort.
“We had a key phrase for them and that was ‘rat race,’” Rodriguez said. “They joke about it but like I tell people, we don’t have horses. We have rats. Rats can win a rat race. But not a horse race. We’re not gonna get taller, so we have to do what we’ve got to do.
“This might be the best group of leaders I’ve ever been around. It shows on the court. Everybody picks each other up.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 11:15 PM.
