Modesto JC’s ‘ugly ducklings’ of 1991 reunite at annual basketball tournament

The 1990-91 Modesto Junior College men’s basketball team will not be remembered as one of the school’s all-time best.

The Pirates’ record that season was an ordinary 15-16. On the court, they appeared slow at times and did not exactly pack the house at MJC Gym. They looked like a lot of Modesto teams over the years – not quite up to speed.

Yet the Pirates of 25 seasons ago hold a special place in school history. Remarkably, they’re the only MJC team in more than a half-century to win a league title.

By season’s end, they were called “ugly ducklings who turned into basketball swans” by The Bee. They merged chemistry, teamwork and attention to fundamentals and put together a late-season run that, for the people who watched it, still remains amazing.

“We moved the ball and shared it. There was no star,” said Tom Conway, 72, the MJC coach from 1983 to 1997. “They could shoot, and they were all good kids and all local. They were a fun group.”

Not even Conway, however, envisioned a league champion. Neither did his team.

“We felt like such underdogs. It actually relaxed us,” recalled Gregori High School coach Mike VanderMolen, a starting guard on that team. “Buying in (to being a team) was a big part of it.”

Modesto went 6-2 in the Camino Norte Conference that season and tied Merced for the league title, the school’s first in men’s basketball since Leon Lafaille’s Big 8 championship in 1957. That Merced swept both head-to-head matchups adds to the high odds MJC beat.

Many MJC teams brandished better talent and more glossy records. Only one in 58 years has taken home major hardware.

The 1991 Pirates will be honored Wednesday night on the second day of the 78th MJC Tournament. They’ll tell the old stories and, in all likelihood, recall the shock on their opponents’ faces.

Not much was expected of the 1990-91 Pirates. They returned only one starter, 6-foot-2 Clint Ladine, from a 9-20 team. A modest 1-2 showing at the MJC tournament was part of a 9-13 tuneup for league. The Pirates did not seem destined for great things.

They salvaged encouragement from a few factors. Their nonleague schedule was rigorous, and San Joaquin Delta’s departure for the Golden Gate Conference resulted in a streamlined eight-game CNC sprint.

Problem was, MJC was viewed as the league’s least-skilled team. Their lineup was typically local in origin and limited in talent. What the Pirates became, however, was something larger than the sum of their parts:

▪ Ladine (13.9 points per game, 4.8 rebounds), from Turlock, could score off the dribble and leaned hard on his experience.

▪ VanderMolen, who led Ripon Christian to a Division 5 state title, bombed from the perimeter.

▪ Chris Guptill, a 6-3 freshman and former Grace Davis star, climbed to a starting spot by Christmas and inspired his teammates with spirited blue-collar work.

▪ Shane Sperry (14.3 points, 7.5 rebounds), a 6-7 post from Ceres, blossomed as a sophomore and lent major physicality.

▪ David Foehringer, a point guard from Manteca, saved his best for key moments and seldom made mistakes with the ball.

Reserves David Antinetti, Kenton Long, Tim Hansen and Jim Cover also made noteworthy contributions. But to most observers, a league title probably was a bridge too far.

Modesto opened CNC play by blowing an eight-point halftime lead to Merced, then traveled to Santa Rosa for what became the season’s turning point.

The parents of assistant coach Dan Pacheco – today the head coach at Grace Davis – welcomed the team to their Petaluma home for a dinner the night before the game. Come tipoff time, both teams were shocked.

Only a few parents, media and game officials watched at the Bear Cubs’ gym. The game had been trumped by Operation Desert Storm, the beginning of the first Iraq war. The gym was filled by echoes and empty seats.

“Everyone stayed home to watch the war,” Guptill said.

“We watched the war at halftime,” Conway said. “There was a TV in the locker room.”

Uninspired, Modesto trailed by 15 until Sperry changed the game’s course with a punch that broke the nose of his Santa Rosa target.

“The Santa Rosa guy stuck an elbow in Sperry’s chest. We were getting pushed around and Shane decided, ‘We’ve had enough,’ ” said Pacheco, who coached the MJC defense.

Sperry was whistled for a technical, but Modesto rallied. The Pirates netted 19 of 23 free throws to win by three.

“That punch by Shane fired us up and it carried over,” Guptill said. “We weren’t better than anybody. We needed something like that.”

Earlier that day, Conway – accompanied by assistant coach Bill Baumgartner – knocked a 5-iron into the cup for a hole-in-one at Windsor Golf Club.

“What a day,” said Conway, who was inducted to the Stagg High Hall of Fame last year. “It was an omen.”

From there, the Pirates’ ship sailed downwind. They executed their offense, hit their free throws and applied tenacious defense against larger foes.

“It shows what people can do,” Pacheco said. “Everybody had a piece to give to the puzzle. We had kids who could compete.”

VanderMolen’s 19-footer in front of his bench as time expired lifted the Pirates over Sacramento. That set up the final CNC game, a trip to American River. A win meant the long-sought title.

Modesto responded with arguably its best game. It nursed a lead down the stretch, aided by a clutch baseline triple by VanderMolen after he stepped around a screen by Sperry and received a pass from Guptill. Still up by three, the Pirates withstood a furious barrage of ARC shots and rebounds in the final seconds.

When the buzzer sounded, the Pirates celebrated like no other MJC team in 34 years.

“The road trip to Santa Rosa brought us together,” said VanderMolen, who eventually launched his coaching career. “Modesto has taken its lumps over the years for playing the local kids and doing things the right way. It was nice to see it finally pay off.”

As fate dictated, Cinderella’s appearance was brief. MJC, watched by about 1,100 in its house, dropped its Northern California playoff game to Cañada. About a month later, Ralph Bradley – MJC’s beloved equipment manager since 1969 – died from an aneurysm.

“I didn’t know what an aneurysm was,” Guptill said. “Our team was hit by a lot of real-life stuff from the war to Ralph.”

A postscript: The relatively small CNC championship trophy is missing from the trophy case in the gym lobby.

If any trophy needs to be found, it’s that one.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 7:13 PM with the headline "Modesto JC’s ‘ugly ducklings’ of 1991 reunite at annual basketball tournament."