Jekyl and Hyde Trojans: Good News, Bad News

By Ted Keith

It was bad enough that Garden City's boys basketball team had just lost -- again -- at home -- in another blowout. Great Neck South did the honors, ruining the Trojans' conference home opener with a 67-52 win Tuesday, Jan. 6, that was not as close as the final score indicated. It was another frustrating game for everybody, especially two of the Garden City seniors, Matt McFarland and Tim Crowley.

McFarland, undoubtedly the team's top player, and Crowley, one of the top reserves, had seen their playing time dwindle and they contributed just seven points in the GNS debacle. For various reasons, some of which were caused by coach and players not seeing eye-to-eye, McFarland and Crowley, the team's two biggest crowd-pleasers, tendered their resignations in the lockerroom afterward.

McFarland had been rumored to be displeased with his situation for a few weeks. A three-year varsity man, he had just completed a football season in which he was named both All-Long Island and All-State and had tri-captained the team to an 8-1-1 record. Perhaps the losing was more frustrating to him than others, but it's likely that the most plausible explanation lies in his third sport. As one of the lacrosse team's most valued commodities, McFarland needed to avoid injury for the sake of both his senior season and the colleges he was being recruited by. He had sat out the second half of the Trojans' embarrasing thirty-point loss to Elmont in the second half of the consolation game of Chaminade's Haggerty tournament over the holiday break with a muscle pull. With other ailments nagging him and the specter of a dark season looming, he pulled the plug on his year.

Crowley also was unhappy ("personally frustrated," as he put it), but unlike McFarland, he did not rule out the possibility of a return, though he stressed it would not be of his own volition. "If he asked me to come back and I thought I could help, I'd consider coming back," he said.

Crowley and McFarland are not the first Trojans to leave this year. Through mutual agreement, senior forward Andrew Brenner did not play this year after backing up on last year's playoff team. For head coach Tom Martin, the loss of his starting center and backup guard left him with a depleted roster of ten players, but he will stick it out with those ten unless injuries force him to pluck a few youngsters from the junior varsity.

Martin would not speculate on why McFarland and Crowley left, preferring instead to look ahead to the rest of the schedule. The first game "post-mutiny" was Thursday at fourth-seeded Lawrence. The fifth-seeded Trojans pulled off a surprising 54-45 win. The victory raised Garden City's conference record to 2-1, with both wins coming on the road. Martin partially attributed the success to the team's "much more positive attitude. You never know what's going to happen. Last year's team was inexperienced, but overperformed. This year there's been a lot of improvement and there's a much more positive attitude."

Junior Billy Garvey started in place of McFarland and scored six points. He was one of eight Trojans to score, led by junior Garrett Gleeson's 13 points, including five in the fourth.

The real key to McFarland's departure is his size. He's 6'3" and strong as well as experienced. He will be replaced by Garvey and junior Bobby Reeves, who scored five points at Lawrence. Crowley's most effective weapon was his outside jump shot, which would be more open when teams frequently double teamed McFarland. Pat Holden is the team's best shooter and he'll need outside help from junior point guard Pete Leibman if the Trojans are to continue their winning ways in conference.

Martin was not sure which of his teams would be showing up the rest of the year: the one that finished last in its own tournament and got blasted by Elmont and Chaminade or the one that has two conference road wins. "You never know what's going to happen," he said. "Pre-season judgments are just a roll of the dice." Either way, they'll be doing it without McFarland or Crowley.