‘Beacons’ make school history as Little East champs

Serghino René

Even in his dreams, UMass Boston head basketball coach Charlie Titus could not have predicted a conference championship. In fact, he went into the season feeling a bit nervous after becoming familiar with his team.

“I’m not going to lie… I was scared when I realized what I had to deal with,” said Titus. “I had a bunch of cocky and confident young men who believed in themselves a little too much. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing at first.”

It was definitely a good thing. The players were setting high and lofty goals, beyond what they had been able to prove like holding teams to a certain number of points and increasing their free throw percentage.

“Yeah, coach was right,” said team captain, Charles Yuan. “Coach thought that we were getting ahead of ourselves because we had nothing to show for it. He didn’t want us to set ourselves up for a fall, but we were confident.”

Little did Titus know that their confidence and drive would win them their first Little East Conference Championship in the school’s history against the number one seed in the conference, Keene State. After the first few games of the season, Titus was convinced that his team had the competitive edge to become conference champions.

If that’s not enough to boast about, Titus was named the conference’s 2005-2006 Coach of the Year for the second time since the 1996-1997 season. In addition, junior forward Tony Barros and sophmore guard Amigo Paniagua were named First Team All-Conference. Barros was named the league’s Player of the Year, making him the first UMass Boston player to earn that honor.

“I’m an old school type of guy,” said Titus. “I played college basketball in the late 60s, early 70s and went right into coaching afterwards. It was a different kind of game then and I’ve had to adjust over the years. However, I still believe some of the classic concepts of the game are still valuable and will never go out of style. I like to run and press my players as well as execute some offense. Defense is the backbone of a team because they win games and championships.”

As the players’ confidence grew, so did the passion of the coaching staff. If the guys really believed in themselves and wanted to win bad enough, then they would be willing to do whatever it took to win. With that in mind, they pushed the boys harder in practice with the intent that they would leave feeling like they’ve learned something.

“You could see it in their eyes,” said Barros. “The coaches were just as confident as we were and we could feel it.”

“The coaching this year was professional,” said Yuan. “It was like a breath of fresh air, especially with the introduction of our assistant coach [Lance] Tucker. Last year was chaos, but this year was something different... with a new approach to the game.”

Initially, no one on the team could agree on the one factor that led to the team’s success. For some, it was the close relationship among the players. For others, it was buying into the concepts of the coaching staff. Eventually, it became clear their main source of support came from the chancellor, Michael Collins. He was the backbone of the Beacons and Titus believes he understood the importance of sports in an academic setting and the sense of pride and support that comes along with it.

“First and foremost I am a fan,” said Collins. “I believe in developing culture, spirit, pride and enjoyment in a university setting. Performing well in the classroom and participating in activities make a well-rounded student.”

“In the past, there weren’t many fans in the stands,” said Barros. “The chancellor played a big part in getting the support we needed. There were faculty, students and even families supporting us.”

For the Beacons, this season was an example of how a little confidence can go a long way. This will never be forgotten, one that will stand out among the rest.

“If you want to want to win a championship, you just have to do it,” said Titus.