Around this time every winter, when seasons end and seniors say goodbye, the trickle of well-wishing emails and texts from Newton North stars of yesteryear send boys’ basketball coach Paul Connolly back in time.
Newton North is a perennial Bay State Conference contender and state tournament presence, of course, but some of the throwback names and kind words attached to them them draw Connolly’s mind to one era in particular.
Ten years ago this month — when a younger, childless Connolly was in his fifth season leading the Tigers — North set what remains the gold standard for the program.
A Tigers team anchored by Globe All-Scholastics Anthony Gurley and Corey Lowe beat Holy Name, 67-58, to capture its second consecutive Division 1 state championship, capping a perfect 27-0 season.
Well before the celebration and just before tipoff, however, there were tears.
In the bowels of the DCU Center in Worcester, during those precious pregame moments, Connolly exited the locker room, leaving his senior-heavy team to itself.
That’s when it hit them: This was their last game. Many of the seniors had played together since the start of middle school — seven years prior — and win or lose, it was going to end after those final minutes.
And so the Tigers had themselves a cry. Connolly walked in, and — not totally sure what was happening — reminded the teary Tigers they had a game to play.
Those details are courtesy of Lowe, who came clean all these years afterward without a hint of regret.
“The guys will probably get upset with me for saying this,’’ Lowe said. “Luckily, we went out there and took care of business and went out on top.’’
That they did. Gurley scored a game-high 27 points. Darius Abramson added 21. North overcame a brief second-half deficit and put the game out of reach by the waning seconds, ending a 51-1 two-year run and solidifying its place among the best Massachusetts high school basketball teams in memory.
Back home, they were local celebrities.
“Not to sound cheesy or anything, but it was kind of movie-like,’’ said Jason Riffe, a senior captain with Gurley and Lowe. “Everybody knew us. We had middle-school kids or elementary-school kids coming up to us, asking questions. I remember giving a kid in my neighborhood my sneakers at the end, signing autographs.
“It was cool, little stuff like that that I’ll always remember.’’
For today’s Tigers, who were hardly old enough to remember much of anything in 2005 and ’06, the title-winning teams are a little more tangible than mere school lore or a couple of banners hanging in the gym.
The athletic department organized a homecoming of sorts in January, and the 14 of the 22 players who made it back were honored during a halftime ceremony one home game.
“Believe it or not,’’ said John McNamara, a captain in 2004-05 who now coaches the program’s freshman team. “Even though it’s 10 years later, people still talk about those teams . . . It was a pretty tight-knit group. We still are.’’
That get-together was, for some of the Tigers, more of a hangout than a reunion. Their lives diverged, but through college graduations, weddings, and other significant milestones, many have kept in touch.
Lowe and Riffe, who met close to a quarter-century ago as kindergarteners at Lincoln-Eliot Elementary, are still best friends. Two weeks ago, actually, they popped in a DVD of the state semifinal game against Central Catholic at the then-TD Banknorth Garden.
Riffe is a case study not in fate, per se, but in how the smallest, seemingly inconsequential details can alter a life. After a North tournament win over Madison Park that year, a Taft coach saw Riffe’s photo in the Globe, which led to a phone call, which led to Riffe’s postgrad year at the Connecticut prep school, which led to Riffe playing football at Bryant (his senior season he set the program record for career tackles).
Without any of that, it’s hard to say whether Riffe would be where he is now, teaching at Newton Central High School and coaching football at Framingham State while living in his hometown with his girlfriend, Nicole Gray, and their infant son, Clyde, born March 3. (Clyde shares a birthday with Lowe. “Corey is pretty fired up about that,’’ Riffe said.)
Gurley, inducted into the athletic hall of fame at Newton North earlier this month, played at Wake Forest for a year before transferring to UMass and suiting up for the Minutemen. He averaged 18.7 points per game as a senior and finished with 1,331 career points in Amherst. He’s still chasing the dream, playing professionally in Iceland with previous stops in Canada, France, Israel, Hungary, and the NBA Development League.
He also runs the Boston-based iHoop Academy — which offers skill clinics and private lessons, in addition to partnering with BABC, the premier AAU team — with Alexis Mongo, North’s sixth man in ’06.
Lowe starred at Boston University and had a brief pro career overseas. Now living in South Boston, he’s worked in sales in recent years but is looking to transition back to working in athletics in some capacity.
And then there’s Connolly. He remains Newton North’s head coach, helping funnel the town’s talented basketball pipeline into success at the varsity level.
The Tigers, 22-3 entering Saturday’s Division 1 South final against Catholic Memorial, are still searching for another state title. That they’ve had so many good teams without winning the ultimate prize is a reminder to Connolly and others how difficult it is to do what the Tigers did a decade ago.
“To win a game in the state tournament, it’s a great year. If you win two games, you’re on a little run. Three games, it’s magical,’’ Connolly said.
“Every year around this time you hear kids talk about it, they want to win a state championship. Of course, that’s quite the dream. It’s a lofty goal, but I look at it more as a dream. Dreams do come true.’’
Tim Healey can be reached at tim.healey@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @timbhealey.
