Basketball: Southern Command team makes bold prediction

  • Published
  • By Jake Shaw
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  David "DC" Campbell is hungry; he wants to win the Homestead Air Reserve Base intramural basketball championship so bad he can taste it.

If confidence, dedication and determination win championships, he may get what he wants this year.

"Whatever it takes, we are going to win it all this year," said the Marine Corps Staff Sgt. who plays forward for Southern Command's B team.

For the past three years, DC and many of his co-workers from Miami's Southern Command have made the short commute to Homestead to compete in the base's intramural sports leagues. They've put together impressive teams of athletic players who stand out as individual players. But despite forming two teams each year, they haven't yet clinched a championship in basketball.

Or softball.

Or flag football.

So what exactly have they been doing wrong? Is it a home-team advantage that allows the local teams to defeat Southern Command or is it something else?

DC says the teams from Southern Command are better prepared this year, and they also have a coach. "Last year I was a player-coach, and that didn't work for us," said DC, who averages 13 points per game.

So they asked a fellow basketball player to help them out. "They needed an unbiased person to coach, so I agreed," said Sgt. 1st Class Kathleen Grossett-Tate, who played for Army post teams in Germany and Fort Hood, Texas from 1982-1992.

She says the Southern Command teams have everything it takes to win. "Everyone knows their role on the team; they talk to each other, play all-around defense and they score. They are very unselfish and that is what separates them from the rest of the tournament teams," she said.

Coach Tate adds that the team has few weaknesses, but their run-and-gun style of play can be tiring. "We only have six or seven players on each team, so time management is imperative to make sure the players are well-rested to make a strong finish in each game," she said.

Coach Tate believes the two teams from Southern Command will eventually face-off in the final game of the playoffs to determine the champion. "Both teams have the talent to win the championship; we are our toughest opponent."

But DC, one of coach Tate's star players, doesn't agree. He believes his team's competition is one of the local teams, whose star player averages nearly 30 points per game.

"The MSG team is our strongest opposition, but we can handle them," said DC, whose team has already defeated the Southern Command's A team once this season.

Only time will tell if this is the year that DC and his teammates finally claim top honors in the base's basketball league. Regardless, a little humility might help, because the Southern Command teams have looked good in the past, but the championship has always eluded them.