Howard club basketball prepares to reclaim their throne
On Friday April 11, the Howard University men’s and women’s intramural basketball teams, known as 1867, will travel to Raleigh, NC to compete in the NIRSA National Club Basketball Championships. The men come in as the defending champions, and this year will mark their third straight national tournament appearance. The women’s team, which has only been established for three years, will be making their first-ever national tournament appearance this weekend.
Last weekend both 1867 teams competed in the regional championships hosted at American University, and came out victorious. The men defeated George Mason University in the championship and captured the regional title for the third consecutive year, while the women took out George Washington University and captured their very first regional title of the program’s history.
Sophomore women’s point guard Shaun Stevenson says that the win was exciting and was the high point of her season thus far.
“It felt amazing. We all wanted to win so badly and it was evident that winning was the only option,” she said. “It finally felt like all the hard work we’ve put in since August paid off, and I believe it made us even more excited and anxious to go to nationals and win it all.”
Sophomore Lamar Randall, who plays forward for the men’s team, shared the same sentiment in regards to their victory.
“Our tournament before the one at American was in Georgia, and we weren’t able to make the finals there, so the fact that we were able to win this one and beat George Mason was big, and it raised our confidence going into nationals.”
Despite not being actual sanctioned NCAA teams, 1867’s training regiment is just as strenuous as many sports teams on campus. Their season started in August with three weeks of conditioning before 9pm on-court practices began in September every night in Burr Gymnasium.
“We’re definitely one of the hardest working organizations or teams on campus,” Randall said. “It’s hard, but it’s worth it because clearly we’ve had success for the past few years.”
Victor Montgomery, who serves as the assistant coach for Howard’s men’s basketball team, is the man behind this growing dynasty. Randall says that his experience and commitment as head coach of 1867 has been what has made the teams what they are today.
“He’s a great coach. He has so much experience, and every year he has a plan for us to win a national championship,” Randall said. “He’s definitely on the right direction to being a division one coach one day.”
Montgomery will try to lead both his teams to national championship titles this weekend. The women will take on Virginia State in the first round of nationals, while the men, who are going in ranked No. 1 in the country, will take on Virginia Tech.