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Third Ward High

The 2010 Yates championship team proved nobody does it better.

A A A Comments (8) By Paul Knight Wednesday, Apr 7 2010

...continued from page 5

The Yates kids went on spring break, and when they returned, two months of events had been planned to honor and celebrate the team. The players had to show up at a Third Ward grocery store on a Saturday, and signed autographs for two hours. A rally at City Hall and a parade through the Third Ward were also scheduled.

The celebration started with another pep rally at the high school at the end of March. Bun B of UGK made an appearance, and the Yates Crimson Chorale performed a song, "G-O Wise," written for the coach.

Bryan Williams

The players attended church service in the Third Ward the morning after winning the state championship.

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Now that Wise is losing most of his players to graduation, he moves on with an untested group. Of the three underclassmen on varsity, only sophomore Clyde Santee saw any significant playing time in the playoffs. In the state championship game, for example, Santee played six minutes. Junior Trey Dickerson played one.

"Our sub-varsity team is doing well, and they're learning our system, so we can keep building the program and be successful year in and year out," Wise says. "But this team did things that no one in the country was doing, that no team has ever done. This team was special."

Like the hallways in the school, the outside of Yates is bleak. Besides a flagpole, a small bed of flowers and a lion statue in a rusted cage, there isn't much. The new hand-painted sign that's been planted almost looks gaudy.

"National Champions 2009–2010," the sign reads. "Jack Yates Lions. Let the tradition live on."

paul.knight@houstonpress.com

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tom jenkins 04/12/2010 5:53:00 PM

"Be glad they are playing an organized sport and not committing crime." it's only a matter of time...just look at the skin color.

tom jenkins 04/12/2010 5:52:00 PM

"Be glad they are playing an organized sport and not committing crime." it's only a matter of time....just look at the skin color.

EC_Esq 04/12/2010 6:57:00 AM

Letter to Rick Reilly: As to your story on Coach Wise and the Yates High School basketball team in Houston, Texas, (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4977305), I have two words for your Mr. Reilly: FUCK YOU. Yes, fuck you for taking the one thing in many of these kids lives that is pure and good and making it seem less-than because of some personal self righteous definition of "sportsmanship". Many of these kids have nothing and the one thing they can do well, (hell, they can do great), is play basketball. And you have the stones to write in a nationally syndicated column that they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so simply because no one else in the state, or country for that matter, can hold a candle to them? Well fuck you Rick Reilly. You want to see a GOOD article on the subject? An article that goes beyond the scores? Check this one out, http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-04-08/news/third-ward-high/, and next time try not to write about things or people you know nothing about.

Gary Packwood 04/09/2010 4:35:00 PM

Great article. Congratulations champs! You deserve it. But the parents as usual are trying to 'make politics' out of most anything that comes along. The author of this article said. ...Like the hallways in the school, the outside of Yates is bleak. Besides a flagpole, a small bed of flowers and a lion statue in a rusted cage, there isn't much. The new hand-painted sign that's been planted almost looks gaudy. ..."National Champions 2009–2010," the sign reads. "Jack Yates Lions. Let the tradition live on." :: I am not going to feel guilty about that rusted cage and gaudy sign just because parents did not pick up the phone and call Project Row Houses in the Third-Ward and ask for a little help from one of the most famous art colonies in the entire US of A. Just a few donated bucks from 'passing-the-hat' or a bake sale would have purchased the raw materials to be used by all those artists at Project Row Houses to help with a P.L.A.N. for that garden and the sign. You just don't get much traction from guilt in 2010. Less guilt and more planning please. :: GP

Stephen 04/09/2010 3:40:00 PM

I am so pleased with this article. I was hoping that someone would step up and stand up for our city when it is undre attack by ignorant outsiders. Thank you and well done. Go Yates.

Dianne 04/09/2010 12:16:00 AM

Others will not give us proper respect; it is to be expected. Doesn't matter though because we are no. 1. It is written!!!

Miss Tee 04/08/2010 10:04:00 PM

Yates basketball team exhibited grace despite all that they faced for being winners. Give these young men a break. Be glad they are playing an organized sport and not committing crime.

Geezy 04/08/2010 5:52:00 PM

It was only inevitable that people like Rick Reilly would inject their "moral superiority" through some sort of classless article. He had been on this tangent for quite awhile, after the Tiger Wood "scandle" became nothing more than news he needed something else to move on to. For someone that has A)Probably never met Wise or B) Probably never met the Yates players his article was utterly personal. I've yet to figure out why. What they did over the past 2 years is legit. I remember the first time I stepped foot in a collegiate atmosphere to play ball. A local phenom at the time named Rodney Williams welcomed me by going chest to chest and dunking the hell out of someone. Point being that you either man up or go home. Other teams chose to go home before the game started, and they were embaressed because of it. Yates. It was fun watching you, I am not so sure I will look at the State tourney the same ever again. Much love.

Third Ward High

The 2010 Yates championship team proved nobody does it better.

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