Many people say they’re just happy to be somewhere, but on Friday, Feb. 7, Mountain View Preparatory Academy head boys basketball coach Jimmy Ventura truly was.
“I told these kids, I wish the eighth-graders I had when they were sixth-graders,” he said after the Ocelots lost their debut in the state small school basketball championship to state runner-up Many Farms Community School, 37-26. “Because if I did, they would’ve won. No doubt in my mind.”
Chris Bean, one of the few Mountian View Prep students with basketball experience from his days as a guard at Cottonwood Middle School, scored 19 points to carry an Mountain View Prep attack that could never quite take the lead away from the Cougars, who maintained at least a two-possession lead through most of the first half and into the third quarter thanks to a dozen points off breakaway baskets.
“I know we were still technically within striking distance, but they snuck away on us a little bit,” Ventura said. “Just one of our rebounds, and they were off to the races. These kids, that’s what they do — get up and down the court.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Feb. 12, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
