Last second shot by Tam Hoang wins the game for Team Hoang.
Last week, Coronado High School’s ASB put together, for the third year in a row, the faculty basketball game between the teacher rivalry: Tam Hoang and Joshua Chao. Both are known around campus to be phenomenal English teachers, and both are known to bring their skills out on the basketball courts for pickup games after school. Being the third year, Team Chao and Team Hoang had split evenly the past two years 1-1. This game was the tiebreaker to determine which English teacher is the better “baller.”
Prior to the game, each team captain decisively selected its players from the CHS faculty to begin practicing for the long-awaited match. Mr. Chao selected the following faculty: Davin Heaphy, Amanda Vanasse, Luke Bernardy, Nicole Belong, Ian Silverman, John Coolidge, Jenny Moore, and Eric Pondrom. Team Hoang features Matthew Stoever, Sean Castillo, Nathan Aldworth, Timothy Hopper, Karoly Tippets, Kelly Telebrico, Karl Mueller, and Natalie Cruz. Throughout the week, students signed posters outside of Mr. Hoang’s and Mr. Chao’s classrooms to show their support for either team.
Friday night came, and the stands were packed with students coming to support their teachers. Sophomore Maya Vidal, a member of CoSA Musical Theatre, gave us a performance of the national anthem, and Teams Chao and Hoang were ready for the jump ball.
Both teams were going back and forth in the first quarter to let Team Hoang lead 10-8. Leading the team in shots was Mr. Hopper, with two three-pointers in the first ten minutes of the game. Meanwhile, Mr. Chao, Mr. Heaphy, Mr. Bernardy, and Mr. Silverman had each scored a two-pointer for Team Chao.
At halftime, both teams received coaching from ASB representatives on strategy. Mrs. Vanasse came back with excellent defense and a two-pointer. Mr. Chao continued make his layups to come back and lead his team. However, Mr. Silverman and Mr. Aldworth (History Department) may have started their own rivalry, as Mr. Aldworth blocked several of his shots. Near the end of the fourth quarter, Team Chao led 30-23. Team Hoang now had two minutes left to make a comeback. With one minute left, Team Chao had not made a single shot, and Hoang had made two two-pointers and a free throw.
Less than thirty seconds were left, the ball traveled end to end twice, until ten seconds were left and Team Chao had a free throw. After missing that free throw, Mr. Hoang drove the ball all the way down and shot a buzzer beater from behind the three-point line to win the game 31-30.
Team Hoang now leads 2-1 in wins of the annual faculty basketball games. For the next year, Mr. Chao will have to practice extra hard to redeem himself in next year’s basketball game to break Hoang’s two-win streak. Good luck to them both!
