Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 -  by Grant Eskelsen
The Gazette Newspaper  www.gazette.net

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It didn’t look like it was going to end this way.

Coach Mike McCray and his Stanford Cardinal were running and gunning, feeding Basketball Coaches Without Boundaries Junior Division MVP Shakil Cain (Crestwood Middle⁄Frederick), who finished with 18 points, and had a very comfortable 21-14 lead at halftime of the Junior Division championship against the Kentucky Wildcats.

But coach A.J. Atmonavage and the rest of the Wildcats didn’t want to quit without a fight. And led by point guard, Joe Atmonavage (Thomas Johnson Middle⁄Frederick), A.J.’s son, they didn’t go away.

‘‘The kids just get over here to play,” A.J. Atmonavage said.

The younger Atmonavage had 13 points, all in the second half, and with no time on the clock, his 3-point attempt off an inbounds play went all the way around the rim before finally falling off as Cain and the Cardinal hung on for a 37-34 win.

The game was the final one of the season for the BCWB, which was celebrating its seventh — and judging by the hundred-plus strong group of family, friends and fans crowding College Estates Park in Frederick — very successful season.

‘‘The guys [board of BCWB] give back to the community and really do a top-notch job of running it,” A.J. Atmonavage said.

Founded in 2000 by Raymond Whiten as a means of giving kids in sixth through 10th grade from the Frederick area a place to play and to keep kids occupied in the summer. Now it has more than 240 kids playing on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, while also pushing an SAT study group.

And the kids keep coming back. Joe Atmonavage and Cain are already in their third year in the league, and looking forward to starting back again next year when in the Senior Division. Atmonavage’s teammate Brian Chase watched older brother Eric participate in the Senior final right after his game, the elder Chase leading his Knicks past the Trailblazers, 70-51, in the Senior Division final. The sense of camaraderie and continuity was strong.

‘‘Our biggest accomplishment is the way our league has grown with the support from parents and the community,” BCWB president Dwayne Whiten said.

But with the momentum of the league already running strong — Whiten has a waiting list of coaches ready to take over a team when a volunteer coach steps down — Saturday’s games, and the list of special awards handed out, was the fitting culmination to a special summer.

Teams, coaches and even referees refuse to lose sight of the bigger picture, that it’s all about having fun.

‘‘We don’t ever want to see anybody’s head down,” coach Raymond Whiten Jr., a graduate of the program and soon-to-be freshman at Allegany Community College, said. ‘‘It’s about fun.”

The kids are definitely having fun. Both the younger Atmonavage and Cain said the same thing about what the best part of the summer was: ‘‘Playing basketball.” And who can blame them, when the league encourages fast-break basketball, has scoreboards and a clock that they cart to courtside tables for every game, and is looking to buy a piece of land to build their own courts on?

No, Saturday’s Junior Division game was about the love of basketball, with players jumping up and down, diving on the asphalt court after loose balls and in the main enjoying life. McCray got a mixture of ice and water dumped on him by his players, while waiting to get their trophy.

But perhaps the best sight of just how much fun the games and friendship were was the reaction of Robert Anash of Frederick, a guard for Kentucky. While the Senior Division championship players were starting to warm up, Anash carried over the trophy Kentucky had received for finishing second to his coach, wondering what to do.

‘‘You can keep it,” Atmonavage said.

‘‘Really?” Anash said, his smile and eyes growing bright. ‘‘Cool!”

That it was.