By Gus Saltonstall

The Upper West Side has a new champion in its midst.

The MS54/Booker T. Washington Middle School girl’s basketball team at West 107th Street won the city championship at the beginning of March by defeating Evergreen, the top school in Brooklyn, by a whopping 43 to 16.

Kyle Wilson, who coaches the team alongside Frank DiPasquale, told West Side Rag that the championship was the “culmination of a three-year journey.”

“I’m just super proud of this team, we had a goal and we stayed focused,” Wilson said. “It’s not easy to end a season with a trophy.”

The road to the city crown wasn’t an unchallenging one for the 14-girl squad made up of sixth through eighth graders.

The UWS team played 13 regular season games and five playoff games, including two instant-classic nail-biters in the Manhattan bracket semi-finals and final. MS54/Booker T. Washington Middle School came out triumphant in a double-overtime matchup against The Center School, and then defeated the two-time defending city champion Robert F. Wagner Middle School in the borough final, with a left-handed layup in the closing seconds.

“Those two Manhattan games were the toughest playoff games we ever played,” Wilson said. “When the games were close, there were no nerves or anything, they just stayed locked in.”

“It was more relief for me after the championship,” Wilson added. “You work so hard starting in October with the team, and you have this goal that isn’t even about wanting a championship because it’s cool, but instead because you know how hard these girls work and they deserved to be able to end the season on that positive note.”

Wilson credited much of the success to the team’s ability to come together as a unit.

“They all play at a high level, they work really hard, and they think really carefully about what they’re doing and how to to be the best group together, not just on individual skills,” Wilson told the Rag. “The team is close. There is definitely a core group of eighth graders who were on the team as sixth graders together, so they’re really tight-knit, but all of the players who have joined since are also close.”

Two of the eighth grade starters did not initially sign up for the basketball team in sixth grade, but Wilson pushed them to after seeing one of them shooting around impressively in the schoolyard, and the other playing soccer.

Both ended up being big-time players on the team for all three years.

“The girls might not all be best friends outside of the team, but when they’re together, it feels like they are,” he continued. “We are really focused on doing our best, but at the same time we have a lot of fun, it can get silly at practice. There’s such a positive vibe with the girls together on the team, and they’re all very supportive of each other.”

Wilson, who oversees the team’s 3-2 defensive zone, has coached the team since the 2015-16 season. He also coaches the boy’s squad at MS54/Booker T. Washington.

The offensive side of the ball on the girl’s team is overseen by DiPasquale.

“I hope they continue with whatever sports they want, and they continue to treat it thoughtfully,” Wilson said about the eighth graders who will be moving on to high school. “That it is not just about drills, but they had to really think about the way they played together. Even if they don’t play basketball in high school, when you grow up you play in leagues and other things, so I hope it is something they can always enjoy.”

“I hope they come back and visit!” Wilson exclaimed.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here.