2009 Boys Basketball All-Star Team

Edison High's Jameal York is The Bee's boys basketball Player of the Year.

Published online on Saturday, Apr. 04, 2009

A few days before Christmas, Edison High’s boys basketball team routed Central 83-58 for the Holiday Invitational Tournament title, and Tigers coach Arturo Ormond found Jameal York in tears.

This was the team glue.

This was the tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Crying.

“He said, ‘Coach, this is the first thing I’ve ever won,’ ” Ormond says.

There would be more — dramatically more.

“I couldn’t just stop there,” York says. “I had to keep going. I knew that’s not all I wanted.”

Today, the player better known as “Moody” — a nickname culled from many a tantrum until only recently — is a Central Section champion and The Bee’s Player of the Year.

“I don’t have mood swings any more,” he says. “But that’s my name and I still go by it.”

It’s a name that’s gained prominence since transferring from Washington after his junior year.

Playing both point guard and off guard, York averaged 16 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.2 steals as the Tigers went 10-0 in the County/Metro Athletic Conference, won the section D-I title after being promoted from D-II and finished 25-7 overall.

York scored 30 points in a playoff-opening 69-65 win at Clovis West before rallying Edison from behind in a 61-58 conquest of Buchanan in the semifinals.

Then, in the D-I final against Central at Selland Arena, it came down to a blink-of-an-eye play, one that he executed perfectly before 5,000 standing fans, separating himself from guards Robert Sandoval of Clovis East and Central Valley Christian’s Lance Reeves for The Bee’s POY award.

York, with his team trailing 65-64 and 0.5 seconds remaining, was responsible for making the inbounds pass underneath Edison’s basket. He was guarded by Jarred White, who left his feet repeatedly, arms extended and whipping back and forth like window wipers.

But York — calmly, patiently — surveyed the court, faked low and to the right, then went up and over White’s left shoulder, lobbing a friendly pass that Nat Harrison caught and launched in one motion, banking in the winner for a 66-65 decision and state-record 21st section crown as bedlam erupted among Tigers players, coaches and fans.

“He’s a dynamic player who can really go off on you,” Central coach Loren LeBeau says of York. “When he’s hot, he’s the best player in the Valley, no doubt. He has the ability to dribble, pass and shoot, and he’s a deep threat from beyond the high school [3-point line]; he can do the NBA mark. When he’s on, he’s very scary.”

York, exceptional at creating his own shot, was shifted from the point to off guard by Ormond in the second half of the season.

But in the pinch — and when in the storied history of Edison basketball has there been a tighter pinch than with 0.5 seconds remaining and a section outcome hanging in the balance? — the Tigers’ coach would reverse the shift.

“At the end of the game, when decisions had to be made, we put the ball back into his hands,” Ormond says.

The coach heard many a story of a disruptive York before he returned to Edison, which he had attended as a freshman before going to Washington.

“Yeah I heard them, but I never experienced them,” Ormond says. “People questioned his character and this and that, and I was concerned. But he changed not only as a basketball player but a person as well. I had many people tell me, ‘That’s not the same guy.’ It made him a better player, a better teammate, and it made us a better team.

“He was a big catalyst as far as buying in, taking charges, diving for loose balls, clapping for teammates and being cordial to opponents. And everybody else fell in line doing the same thing.”

The transformation also involved York attending night school two times a week, prohibited him from practicing on those days.

“He was so far behind he had to do that just to get in position to graduate,” Ormond says. “He also took seven periods of class, when most kids take six. I knew this going into the season, I told the team, and everybody was on board.”

York endured, but not without trials: “It was very difficult. At the beginning of the season I got down, felt sorry for myself and didn’t want to play. But people told me to keep my head up, that it would pay off, so I stuck through it, fought through it, and it did.”

York will take his game to Western Texas College, a junior college in Snyder, Texas.

“The kid’s going to go to a [D-I] college,” Ormond says. “He has a great feel for the game, he’s a basketball junkie. He knows how to play with and without the ball in his hands. He can shoot it, get to the basket whenever he wants and is a good on-the-ball defender.”

Most of all, the coach says: “When Moody got knocked down, he got right back up.”

The reporter can be reached at aboogaard@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6336.