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Eastview's rally cry

By Aaron Paitich, Special to the Star Tribune, 02/11/11, 11:20AM CST

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Young team finds connection, success in African phrase: Ubuntu


Eastview's Joey King, center was fouled by the Eagan defense as he drove to the basket. Marlin Levison, Star Tribune

“Uncommon” was the Eastview football team’s motto this fall.

Peers would walk around the hallways holding their hands up in the shape of a “U.” The school rallied around it, and now they’ve rallied around the boys’ basketball team and a new saying: “Ubuntu,” an African belief that translates roughly to “I am because we are.”

It’s the ultimate team concept. To many, it’s a way of life rather than a state of being.

“Everywhere we go we’re chanting it,” junior forward Joey King said. “Everybody’s taken it in and really used it to push us to become closer together and become more of a family. It definitely means something to us.”

The Boston Celtics rallied around it to win the 2008 NBA championship. Eastview is hoping for a similar effect.

For a young, inexperienced varsity team with some injury problems, it’s exactly what it needed.

Senior guard Shane McSparron has been out a few weeks because of a hip flexor, but returned to play in Tuesday’s victory over Burnsville. McSparron was averaging 11.3 points per game. Junior Sam Burt tore his patellar tendon in the fall and will undergo surgery this month.

Yet the Lightning and Ubuntu keep winning. Through Tuesday, Eastview was 15-3, and 9-2 in a three-way tie atop the South Suburban Conference.

“Smoke and mirrors,” coach Mark Gerber said with a laugh.

Solidifying the team is its unquestionable leader, senior Frank Veldman. The three-year starter brings a wealth of not only basketball experience, but big-game versatility in all senses of the word. Veldman has been to the state tournament in football, basketball and as a three-time high jump, long jump and triple jump qualifier.

The team’s best defender, he is also averaging more than 10 points per game. If he were a bit more selfish, that total would be higher.

But Veldman embodies Ubuntu.

“His leadership and his experience is what this team needs so much of. He just brought our team together with how he approaches practices, games and everything,” Gerber said. “How he sacrificed individual things that he could be doing.”

Balanced scoring and staunch team defense have kept the Lightning in every game. Eastview is among tops in the state for fewest points allowed and recently held Bloomington Jefferson to 24.

But a spectator can’t watch Eastview without noticing King. The 6-8 emerging star is averaging 17.1 points and is considered a Division I prospect. He began playing some varsity about 12 games into last season as a sophomore and has since blossomed after an offseason of intense dedication.

“He’s really bought into the whole process of becoming a special basketball player,” Gerber said.

His athleticism has dramatically improved. Last year, teammates would rib him for thinking he could dunk when King could barely get the ball over the rim. Now?

“They don’t really joke around after some of the things I do these days,” King said.

Similarly, Eastview as a team is no joke, either.

Team leaders

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