Shawn Jansen: Merced boys -- all for one, one for all

Coaching can be a frustrating profession.

Sleepless nights, migraine headaches, long hours and gray hair all come with the job.

However, the rewards can be very gratifying.

The tough times, well, there is a reason many coaches burn out early.

Which brings me to a conversation I had with an old friend, who has been coaching high school baseball for the better part of the last decade.

I was driving back home after making the trip to Danville to cover Merced's NorCal Playoff game against San Ramon Valley when he called.

After three straight losses, he was looking to vent.

He felt his team was too talented to be 1-3.

"The problem is with these kids playing year-round on different travel teams it's almost like they've become mercenaries," he said. "They don't understand that they're playing for their school, representing their school when they play.

"They don't care about the team. They're more concerned about their playing time, their stats and making the all-league team."

He's tried to convey his concerns to his team, but hasn't had any luck getting through to his current group of teenagers.

His fear is that they'll turn it around enough to win their league championship again and make the playoffs, but they won't ever play to their potential.

And that's scary for any coach.

As we talked, I started telling him about the Merced boys basketball team.

Everything my friend hasn't seen in his team, I've seen in Merced all season.

This team got it.

I believe a big reason for Merced's success this season was because this group of players not only played well together, but they loved playing for each other.

Being around this group, you could see why Merced coach Marcus Knott enjoyed coaching them.

Almost all these players grew up playing together with youth travel teams and AAU teams.

Talent can only get you so far.

It's not that Merced lacked talent, but there wasn't a Jarrett Sparks or Allen Huddleston-type player this year.

It was more of a collaborative effort.

Every player was an important piece to the puzzle.

There was a couple big pieces in post players Brian Cooksey and Tyrone Bowie, who could score down low or face the basket and do some damage.

Reggie Nelson was more of a slasher, but he could hurt teams from outside on any given night.

Otis Caery was Merced's most potent outside threat and Marques Barron did most of the ball handling and the dirty work inside.

It seemed like every night you were looking at the same box score. There would be four or five players scoring in double figures.

Other players like Jaquari People, Manny Orozco and Yingkong Moua also played their significant roles in Merced's rotation.

They all had their roles on offense and they all got after it on the defensive end.

It was a team with a blue-collar attitude.

A team that came ready to outwork its opponent just about every night.

Statistics were an afterthought.

It's sad, but you don't see it all that often.

I remember a conversation with Nelson at the University of the Pacific after Merced's win over Grace Davis.

I pointed out to Nelson how strange it was to see Merced up by 13 points in the second quarter with Nelson scoring zero points and Cooksey spending most of his time on the bench in foul trouble.

Nelson's response was telling.

"I could care less about scoring," he said. "As long as my team is scoring, I'm happy. All I care about is if we're winning."

Now, a lot of times I'm around high school athletes who will just try to say the right things to the newspaper reporter.

You can tell by the way they say it if they are just saying it, or if they truly believe it.

When you talk to Nelson, however, there's no doubt. You know he believes everything he's saying.

And it wasn't just Nelson.

The entire team felt that way.

If Caery wasn't hitting his outside shots he was upset. He wasn't upset because he wasn't scoring. Caery was upset because he felt he was letting his teammates down.

To do something special and put together the kind of season Merced enjoyed this year, you have to have players like that. Players that put the team before themselves.

When that does happen it's fun to watch.

It's also easy to understand why there was so much emotion after Tuesday's loss to San Ramon Valley.

This group wanted to keep playing together. They weren't ready for the season to end.

But I can guarantee you when they look back at this season they'll have nothing to regret.

Shawn Jansen is a Sun-Star sports reporter. He can be reached at 385-2462 or via e-mail at sjansen@mercedsun-star.com.