By CHRIS MCMANES
Courtesy of Chris McManes
The trophy that the Archdiocese of Washington presents to the boys 14U Mid-Atlantic city championship team is not meant to be a permanent award. But don’t tell that to St. Jerome. The parish has had the trophy in its gymnasium since 2022.
And that’s where it’ll stay for another year.
The Jaguars won their ninth Mid-Atlantic title and fourth in a row Feb. 25 with a 47-29 victory over St. Thomas More. With 10 minutes to play in the second half, St. Jerome left little doubt that it would reign victorious over its Southeast Washington opponent by racing to a 38-6 lead.
Yusuf Zaid led the Jaguars with 11 points, and Alex Dye had nine. Four other players, including playoff MVP Dylan Higginbotham, all scored six points.
Courtesy of Chris McManes
The win was especially satisfying for head coach Joe Sego (say-go). First, it occurred at DeMatha High School, from which he graduated in 1994. Second, it made him the first Washington-area Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) coach to win four straight boys basketball championships.
While the Jaguars were expected to burnish their hoops tradition with another title, they also entered five tournaments and won four. The only one they failed to win came in the Bullis Invitational against an AAU team. The championship pushed the Jaguars’ record to 40-6 (.870 winning percentage).
“We’ve been so successful all year long,” said Sego, who has captured seven CYO Mid-Atlantic crowns. His mentor, Dick Brown, won St. Jerome’s first two in 1978 and 1985.
Sego said he would prefer to have more of a challenge from CYO teams, but with the ever-increasing rise of AAU programs and the drop off of other parishes in the DMV, that has not happened. He, too, sometimes loses top players during the season because they leave to play in AAU tournaments.
“CYO competition has been down since the pandemic,” Sego said. “But it doesn’t affect how hard we work. The championship game is always kind of our celebration. Whether we’re playing a good team or bad team, it ends our season. And it’s special because I don’t just look at this game; I look at all the battles we had.
“This is our way of putting a bow tie on the season.”
Because of his on-court success and connections that help place young men in high schools, Sego is frequently sought out by parents to coach their sons. If the boys don’t attend St. Jerome Academy or church, they have to go to a Catholic school or be a member of a Catholic parish that doesn’t field a team.
To ensure that his guys can play in as many competitive games as possible and are able to showcase their talents, Sego schedules several non-CYO clubs as opponents each season. This year, for example, the Jaguars defeated DeMatha’s freshman team (twice) and JV squads from Einstein and Archbishop Carroll high schools.
“It’s been a nice run,” Sego said. “This is one of the top five teams I’ve coached.” Mount Hope and Largo’s JV were the only high schools to beat St. Jerome. In the Mount Hope game (an 85-80 loss), Luke Roberts scored 40 points. He will return to the Jaguars next season. Sego often uses the losses to teach valuable life lessons. Mike Landi, who coached Sego when Sego attended St. Mark the Evangelist, on Adelphi Road, remembers one such occasion at a tournament three years ago.
“St. Jerome was losing by 20 points to Washington Jesuit Academy when Joe called timeout during the second half,” Landi said. “He sat his kids down and said, ‘There is no pouting in basketball. Now go out there and finish this game doing the best you can.’”
Landi is also proud of how Sego is genuinely concerned with his players’ well-being on and off the court.
“He cares about each and every player on his team,” Landi said. “I remember once following a loss that several parents wanted his attention, but he told them they would have to wait. He had a player who was crying, and a word with him at that moment was more important.”
Producing pro athletes
Sego has coached more players at St. Jerome who went on to NBA careers than most college coaches have. These include former NBA players Quinn Cook, Marcus Derrickson and Victor Oladipo, as well as current players Jeff Dowtin (Philadelphia 76ers) and Naji Marshall (Dallas Mavericks).
Cook, who now plays in China, won NBA Championships with the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. Oladipo is a former All-Star who’s working hard to return to the NBA. Derrickson plays in Korea and Kellon Taylor in Georgia (the country). Quanzi Samuels competes in Ukraine, and Kameron Taylor plays in Spain’s top pro league.
Sego also mentored Nick Cross, who just completed his third year with the Indianapolis Colts, and, while at St. Mark, Sego coached former Miami Dolphins All-Pro Cam Wake.
“The fact that our program has produced so many professional players — in the NBA, overseas and NFL — certainly helps with attracting new guys,” Sego said. “But it’s actually our commitment to training players year-round at little to no cost to their parents that brings new faces to our gym.”
Donnie Freeman (Syracuse) is another one of Sego’s former high-level athletes, as is Gonzaga senior Nyk Lewis, who has signed with Xavier. Lewis and St. Paul VI junior Jordan Smith led Sego’s “pandemic team” to a 25-0 record in 2020-21.
Smith scored 29 points Feb. 24 to lead PVI to back-to-back WCAC championships with a 58-54 win over Gonzaga. He can choose between dozens of college scholarship offers and has already signed a Name, Image and Likeness deal with United Talent Agency’s Klutch Sports Group. He is one of the most talented players in the nation.
After accepting his team’s latest championship trophy, Sego complimented St. Thomas More for continuing to play hard and thanked his assistant coaches, Tyler Hubbard and Carlos Hicks.
“We work tirelessly to prepare our players to succeed on the court and in the classroom,” Sego said, “and that’s why they’re so well prepared for future success.”
________________________
Chris McManes is a former St. Jerome baseball and basketball coach and now coaches baseball at DeMatha.
