There Goes An Alpha Man Boynton High Basketball Coach Brother JERRY BELTON has seen a lot of clouds over the past year. Fortunately, the proverbial "silver linings" also cropped up. Pledging Alpha, through Beta Chi Lambda Chapter (Muskogee, Oklahoma), had its trying moments. But the silver lining (or should it be gold) came when the Northeastern State University graduate was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha. Brother Belton's trials in his professional work, as coach of the basketball team at Boynton High School (Boynton, OK), took a bit longer to overcome. In fact, Brother Belton's involvement in Boynton's quest for a state basketball championship date back to the days when he was a student and player on the team he now coaches. The squad landed runner-up roles in both 1972 and 1973. This year, with Jerry Belton as coach, the Boynton Cardinals again tried to go all the way. The atmosphere for the quest was not exactly the best — with racial turmoil, internal problems and a school burning a year ago complicating the already high-pressure situation facing Belton's young charges. Worse, the Cardinals were placed on probation by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association and Jerry was not sure his team would even be allowed in the playoffs. In fact, as the playoffs neared, two sets of brackets were drawn up — with and without Boynton. But the Cardinals were admitted and they went all the way — to capture the school's first-ever state basketball championship. In retrospect, Brotehr
Belton thinks that all of the adversity might even have helped his team. "Our players drew closer together through all of this," he said, "We had our problems and we had to talk to the players individually quite often to explain tothem what we wanted to do and what we were capable of doing." The team's experience and their ability to transcend made this quest a lesson in life as well as an athletic event. And the young students had a fine teacher — an Alpha Man.
Incidentally, another Alpha Man also figures in the accomplishment. Brother Tanzy Lockridge, Alpha's Oklahoma State Director, retired this year as Superintendent of the Boynton Schools. The Cardinal's triumph was a dynamite retirement present!
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The Sphinx / Summer 1980