Trojan man

Greece Athena High School won the Section V boys basketball title Saturday night, and it's the biggest sports story of the year, or at least part of it.

I'm not saying that because I'm a Greece Athena alumnus - the Trojans' victory is a fitting climax to the story of Jason McElwain, the hoops hero whose story has taken over everything from ESPN to Oprah.

Unless you've been in a cave for the past few weeks, you've heard that McElwain is an autistic kid who, Rudy-style, was given a chance to play for his school's varsity basketball team in their last home game. In that game he sank six three-pointers en route to 20 points in four minutes in that game. Kobe Bryant didn't come near that kind of scoring power in his 81-point game earlier this year.

As much as McElwain has gotten - and deserved - attention, the best part of the story for me is how the school, particularly his fellow students, has been rallying around him. The J-Mac story is not only a story of overcoming physical struggles, but it's a triumph of community over individualism, a lesson that the entire country could benefit from.

When I graduated from high school, I didn't look back. Simply put, I was not proud of the school I came from.

That's why I can't get enough of the McElwain story. It is the first time since I graduated that I have been proud of my school and the fact I was a Greece Athena product.

I had some great teachers and made my best friends there - the problem was the selfish politics of school administration, teachers, programs and the students that began to permeate the school's culture turned it into a wasteland.

Greece Athena is a school in a slightly upper-middle class suburb of Rochester, N.Y. It has one of the largest concentrations of Republicans in Western New York. It also has an over-inflated ego. The football team is a perennial contender, just like the soccer teams, baseball teams and every other sport. Sports were a feeding ground for big-fish egos - both students and, mostly, parents - who want to own the high school pond.

Even the arts departments - particularly the music department - are rife with politics and egos. In some cases, that attitude translates to the teachers and coaches, too. In a nutshell, it was "Desperate Housewives" mixed with "Fame" and "The Program," except suburban, less important and more desperate.

It's a typical story, but Athena was at the mercy of cliques, and there was an inescapable selfish mentality throughout the school - in the kids, the teachers and everywhere else.

Then McElwain came along. Watching the video of the game where Greece head coach Jim Johnson put McElwain in the game, it's obvious the students, the families and everyone there had something to unify them. It was pure mania when McElwain hit each of his six three-pointers. The gym exploded with joy, and when students rushed the court and hoisted him on their shoulders to end the game, you couldn't help but get goose bumps.

I don't doubt for one second that the energy in that gym is what gave McElwain the ability to score 20 points in four minutes. It was that energy, that excitement to see someone who needed the support of a community, which makes me proud. It was the first time I'd ever seen my community excited for something bigger than themselves.

There are reports that the McElwain story is going to go to the movies, but in reality the story is way better in real life - committing it to the extravagances of Hollywood will only cheapen it.

I really hope that McElwain's success will translate into the Greece Athena community becoming better than the sum of its parts, but I don't expect it. Another four years from now, the kids who lived through this story will have moved on and it's possible the Hollywood and media circus will cheapen the value of the lessons this story teaches. Pessimists could even argue - with some validity - that McElwain is nothing but a fad.

But he's the best story of the year, especially when most current sports stories involve prima donna athletes and collective bargaining agreements. This story could only be made possible by a community that cares about those that need support - a community of which I'm proud to say I came from.