By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — East High head coach Darrell Barley choked back tears when he recalled the game four years ago.
Barley’s Eagles entered the 2019 post-season as the top seed in the Class A2. Then winners of seven straight, East brought a 21-1 record to the Blue Cross Arena for a meeting with No. 6 Pittsford Sutherland (15-8) in the sectional championship. Senior guard Chaz Washington (with 1,202 career points) scored 15.9 points per game for that team. Junior forward Zechariah Harris-Scott had 16 double-doubles and averaged better than 18 points.
The Eagles were looking to end a five-year championship drought.
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Pittsford Sutherland had something else in my mind. The Knights held East nearly 30 points under its season average in a 53-49 Sutherland victory.
Barley watched as his youngest son Damani (then a ninth grader) went scoreless in the championship. Coming into the contest averaging better than 11 points per game, the younger Barley finished 0-for-7 from the floor and failed to get to the free throw line throughout the contest.
When it was over the son didn’t hide from the defeat.
“He told me after that loss ‘I’m sorry, Dad. It’s my fault.’ ”
Four years later, the elder Barley credits that setback with a first in the East High program history.
This past Saturday, the Eagles turned the tables on Sutherland with a 59-54 in the 2022 Class A2 championship, the third straight in program history.
Damani finished with a game-high 19 points on Saturday and earned Tournament MVP honors.
“He played a bad game,” Darrell Barley said of the contest in 2019. “Then to have a chance to come back and win his senior year against the same team, is priceless… priceless.
The loss has taken on a different meaning for Dad and head coach.
“I told him that was the best loss of my career. It led to three more sectional championships. We had to refocus, regroup, train harder and work harder in the off-season.”
With Saturday’s win, Damani Barley and teammate Kai McCullough accomplished something together that no other East High teammates have in the past: they won three consecutive sectional titles.
“I can’t say how valuable Kai and Damani have been to this program,” commented Barley in his 22nd-year as head coach at his alma mater. “Probably two of the most valuable pieces I’ve had.”
East boys’ basketball leads Section V with 27 championships. Dating back to 1928 and ’29, East has won back-to-back titles on five different times (’28-’29, ’66-’67, ’73-’74, ’78-’79 and again ’89-’90). The current streak is longest in program history.
“I’m just proud of these guys,” Darrell Barley said of the duo who both recently scored the 1,000th point of their individual careers. “They stuck together. For us to come back to prominence, those two guys were spearheads.”
East continues its season against Pittsford Mendon in the Class A regional qualifier. The Eagles will look to return to the state quarter-finals for the first time since 2014. A 7 p.m. tipoff is scheduled at Gates-Chili, tonight (Wednesday).
Here is a preview of the matchup.
Damani Barley, who just this week signed an NIL agreement with Salvatore’s Pizza on East Main Street, has several Division I offers to play college basketball. He will attend prep school next year and reclassify as part of the 2023 class.
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