San Antonio faces Austin for basketball bragging rights
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It a battle for some basketball bragging rights, the San Antonio area beat the Austin area 130-118 in a star-studded high school basketball game at the Jordan Clarkson All Star Weekend game Saturday at Round Rock High School.
Named in honor of the Utah Jazz player and former San Antonio Wagner star, the event was funded by Clarkson and organized by his father, Mike Clarkson, and Tim Littlefield. It brought together some of the top senior players from the Austin and San Antonio areas.
The Austin team has 15 players: Jae’lyn Brooks (Round Rock), Marcel Bryant (Cedar Ridge), Zach Engels (Westwood), CJ Evans (Killeen Harker Heights), Blake Fisher (Manor), Antwone Gonzales (Killeen Shoemaker), Jah Gulley (Lockhart), Hudson Johnson (Stony Point), Reese Miller (Round Rock), Major New (Lockhart), Kaden Smart (Hutto), Julian Smith (LBJ), Jivenson Sylvestre (Northeast), Antawn Taylor (Killeen Harker Heights) and Jose Waring (Georgetown).
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Northeast head basketball coach John A. Smith, who spent years living and coaching in San Antonio, coached the Austin team. He was assisted by Cedar Ridge head coach Quinton Black and advised by recently retired Bowie head coach Celester Collier.
Smith, who worked as the lead assistant at San Antonio Wagner and then took over the Northeast program before the 2021-22 season, said before he game that was looking forward to representing the Austin area and facing off against plenty of familiar faces.
“It’s a blessing and an honor to have Mike and Tim entrust me to be the head coach for Team Austin,” Smith said. “It’s exciting because I came to Austin from the San Antonio region. While I’m all in with my 512 kids, I know and have coached some of those 210 kids. (Wagner players) Austin Nunez and Kevin Garcia will definitely give me a hard time, for sure.”
Smith said he was particularly excited about working with Collier, a coaching pioneer who retired after four decades on the bench.
“We have a great group of kids here in the Austin region from a lot of great programs, but the thing I’m most excited about is having CC (Collier) on my coaching staff as we will honor him for his historic and tenured contributions to Bowie and the game of basketball overall.
“I’m just blessed to bring my energy and platform to ATX and uplift this community in a positive manner to help all kids get the recognition they deserve.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: San Antonio beats Austin in high school basketball all-star game