Faith boys basketball puts first district title in record books
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
MARBLE FALLS — Even with two games remaining in the regular season, the Faith Academy of Marble Falls boys basketball team made history by winning its first district championship Feb. 6 with a 62-22 win against Austin San Juan Diego.
The Flames (16-4 overall, 10-0 in District 4-3A of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) have been playing basketball for about eight years. Randy Denton, the boys program’s fourth head coach, is in his third year at the helm with a 38-24 overall record.
Meanwhile, the Lady Flames (28-3, 10-0) earned their 97th consecutive district win and ninth straight district championship by beating San Juan Diego 83-18.
Faith next travels to the Texas School for the Deaf, 1102 Congress Ave. in Austin, on Feb. 10, and then to Temple Central Texas Christian, 4141 FM 93 West in Temple on Feb. 13. The girls play at 6:15 p.m. with the boys taking the court at 7:30 p.m.
Denton and girls head coach Jerry English aren’t shy about the mutual respect and admiration the two have for each other’s program.
Before he took over the boys team, Denton spent a year on English’s bench as an assistant coach. While the boys and girls squads do not incorporate the same plays, each approaches the sport in a similar way.
“The girls win in a certain way,” Denton said. “The whole expectation every time you walk out on the floor is you expect to win. We never go into a game thinking we’re not good enough to win.”
“I think Randy likes the style we play,” English said about his team’s uptempo, in-your-face, all-out-pressure approach on both ends of the floor.
At one time, some of the boys played basketball to stay in shape for other sports or to have something to do between football and the start of spring sports. Denton said that mindset was the first thing he wanted to alter.
So he went about changing the basketball “team” — playing only during the season — into a basketball “program” — incorporating an offseason plan that includes sport-specific training, summer basketball leagues and a commitment to improving throughout the year.
“We feel like the boys have a basketball program,” he said. “It’s something we did after basketball season. The boys put in the extra work during the summer because we’re trying to build a program.”
And it’s paid off. Faith is averaging 57 points a game this season with a field-goal percentage of 47 percent and 28 rebounds per game.
It also helped to have four players around which Denton could build the team: senior forward Joseph Woods, senior point guard Damien Charles and junior guards Rich Coleman and Rawley Jackson.
Woods and Coleman have spent the past two years with Denton, while Charles came on at the beginning of this season.
“Obviously, having Damien here helped speed up the process,” Denton said. “We’re a veteran team.”
English said Charles has been a real difference maker for the Flames.
“He’s a true point guard,” he said. “Not only can he deliver the ball to who needs it at the right pace, he is a true scorer, which is a somewhat different situation.”
And that makes it difficult for opponents to know how to defend, he said.
English, who is a member of the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame, had to think for several seconds about the last time he coached a girls team that won a district championship the same year the boys did. It happened while he was coaching in Sweeny in the 1970s and 1980s.
English said he thought the Lady Flames’ district winning streak wasn’t something the players focused on until he had a conversation with all-state senior point guard Taylor Denton, Randy Denton’s daughter.
She had suffered a leg injury the day before the two teams traveled to face Brentwood Christian on Dec. 11. Brentwood Christian was the Class 3A state runner-up a year ago.
“She said, ‘Coach, on one leg, I want to defend our winning streak,’” English recalled. “That’s when I realized it definitely meant a lot to our seniors.”
The Lady Flames won that game 38-33.
Since they’re the district champions, both teams have byes going into the regional tournament, which is Feb. 27-28 in San Antonio
Randy Denton has warm-up games set up against the Lake Travis junior varsity Feb. 16 then a home contest against St. Dominic Savio on Feb. 20.
English said the Lady Flames will travel to San Angelo to play in a Playoff Preview on Feb. 14 and to San Antonio Incarnate Word High School, 727 E. Hildebrand Ave. in San Antonio, at 6 p.m. Feb. 17.
jfierro@thepicayune.com