31st of January, 2022: The Green Devils Boys Varsity Basketball faced off against the Clearwater Central Catholic Marauders Boys Varsity Basketball in St. Pete’s senior night, as controversy from the student section sidetracked attention from the game during the 3rd period. 

Seniors Jason Hollenberg, Max Lich, Ryan Doolittle, Derrick Mitchell, Nick Armstrong, and Jayden Green were honored at halfcourt by Coach Blackwell along with their families. Following, St. Pete looked hot in their warmups and brought the same energy to the court in the 1st period. All of the seniors besides Derrick started the game and started strong. Following multiple steals and scores, the injured Marauders were falling behind fast. Dime passing and heads up court awareness resulted in multiple dunks by Jayden, Nick, and Derrick, with St. Pete finishing the period leading 19 to 6. 

In the second period, the Marauders, who were both short literally in stature and figuratively of their best players, struggled to get anywhere close to the basket, making most of their few points from range. St. Pete’s seniors continued to dominate, as Derrick Mitchell in particular racked up 2’s from his serious vertical and powerful slams. However, seniors slowly became subbed out in favor of juniors, who even while continuing to rack up points, drew the attention of seniors in the stands, who began calling out the ratio of seniors to juniors on the court during the 2nd period. CCC scored their first points of the period at 3:10, and St. Pete immediately countered with 3 of their own. The dominant performance continued as Max Lich was put back into the game to the entire student section’s delight, and his rebounding and scoring drew great applause. Late in the period, Ryan Doolittle was fouled by a CCC player who took a hard fall afterward and took close to a minute to get up. Afterward, Doolittle made some of his first free throws of the night following major inconsistency. Then, with seconds left, St. Pete finished the half with a statement steal and dunk to finish the period up 49 to 12. 

Halftime put display to the senior basketball cheer squad, who put on an energetic performance at mid-court. CCC won the tip after halftime and opened with 3 points at 6:45. Playing much closer defense did little to help slow St. Pete’s roll, but the senior student section did not appreciate the points being made because of the lack of seniors on the court. After multiple periods of hearing the student section, Coach Blackwell erupted at the seniors, who defended themselves by saying they just wanted their friends to play. After a stern warning, the student section subsided, much to their own chagrin. All the while, both juniors, and seniors continued to sweep the ball away from the CCC offense and compounded on their massive lead. St. Pete ended the 3rd period still up, now 60 to 21. 

The final period ended without much drama. Seemingly in a sense of recognition, a squad of seniors started the 4th but were quickly subbed out within the first 3 minutes. A precision pass from Jason Hollenberg to Max Lich resulted in more light work of the St. Pete players, and a hot flash by Doolittle from distance continued to grow the final margin even wider. To end the game, #0 for St Pete, a junior, attempted a massive dunk, but slammed the ball in just the right spot, sending it spiraling through the air. Consequently, this sent the bench spiraling into laughter. The game ended with a grand total of 70 points for the Green Devils, 25 for the Marauders.

This game showed a lot of what St. Pete has this year: talent and teamwork. This was shown through a simple quote by Derrick Mitchell, who when asked about his total points for the game, responded simply “I don’t count”. That seems to be the mentality of this team – what they are doing is not individual, not for one’s own PR. As of right now, all this team has on their mind is a deep run in districts.