by Alex Schwartz

It looked like this was never going to happen, like the Trenton Catholic (NJ)Iron Mikes would never win that elusive Non-Public B state championship. In fact, it looked impossible.

Hailing from Mercer County, which is not known for its basketball besides the Prep A powers, TCA won the Non-Public South B sectional crown in 07-08 and08-09, only to fall in the state championship. St. Anthony's (NJ) crushed the Iron Mikes in 2008 en route to an NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title and #1national ranking. In 09, it was St. Patrick's (NJ) who defeated TCA and went onto win the TOC and finish top 10 in the nation.

This year was not supposed to be any different. The Iron Mikes would have another great season and coast to a third straight sectional title and then get blasted in the state championship yet again. St. Patrick's entered the season as a consensus top three team in America, easily #1 in New Jersey. St.Anthony's and Paterson Catholic (NJ) were borderline top 25 teams nationally,so even if one of them beat St. Pat's in the Non-Public North B sectiona lchampionship, the winner would still beat TCA.

Something crazy happened though, something very few people expected. The Trenton Catholic Iron Mikes finally won the state title. They did not stopthere though, as Fred Falchi's team went on to win the TOC, the ultimate accomplishment in New Jersey basketball.

How the undersized, unappreciated boys from Central Jersey got to the Mecca of Garden State hoops is a story that they will tell their grandchildren about.

It started back in the fall of 2006 when Coach Falchi welcomed three fantastic freshman to Trenton Catholic in diminutive combo guard Dondre Whitmore, rugged power forward Markese Tucker, and steady combo guard Frantz Massenat. Overtime, each would find his role as an Iron Mike.

Whitmore, a mere 5'8, was the main scorer, reaching the 1,000 point plateau as a junior despite his size. Playing both the 1 and the 2, Whitmore is hard-nosed and tough, traits he brings to the floor each and every game.

Tucker developed a face-up game, allowing him to play both the 3 and the 4, not only making him even more valuable for the Iron Mikes, but better preparing him for the next level. With undersized big man Daquan Basnight playing in the post when Tucker got there and then another undersized 4, Lafayette Smith, joining after Tucker's freshman year, he adapted and rounded out his game.

Massenat, now a 6'4 point guard who has signed with Drexel, has become the star of the team. Reaching the 1,000 point mark this season, Massenat developed into the leader of the TCA squad, the heart and soul of the last team standing in Garden State hoops.

Khalid Lewis El and Chris Lewis joined the team the year after Whitmore,Tucker, and Massenat, as they are a grade below. Lewis El's father coaches the powerful TCA girls' team, a perennial powerhouse. The 6'3 shooting guard became part of a dynamic three-headed monster in the backcourt. Lewis provided a spark off the bench, coming in and making shots from beyond the arc in the mold of Reggie Coleman, who graduated with Basnight and Smith and now plays DIII ball at Neumann.

Brandon Taylor was a big addition to the Iron Mikes in the fall of 2008,becoming the team's biggest player as soon as he got there. He is now about6'7, easily the team's tallest member. While just a sophomore, Taylor played a huge role for TCA this season, giving Tucker major help in the post on bothends.

This past fall the Iron Mikes added the final two pieces to the puzzle in a pair of sophomore transfers. Ronny Paden, a 6'4 shooting guard, came to TCA from Nottingham (NJ), another Mercer County school. Chaz Patterson, a 6'3 shooting guard, came over from Pemberton (NJ). Those two and Lewis became the team's three key bench players, though Paden did eventually earn a starting role due to injury.

This season, the senior year for Whitmore, Tucker, and Massenat, started innocently enough. The Iron Mikes blasted some lesser opponents early in the season while maintaining a top half dozen state ranking. Meanwhile, Paterson Catholic cemented itself as an elite team on a national level by winning the City of Palms, a big-time tournament in Florida. St. Patrick's was rolling right along as expected, while St. Anthony's suffered a couple losses to talented teams without two of its top players.

Then things began to take a turn. In early January, Trenton Catholic played its first tough game of the season and got completely rocked. The Iron Mikes lost by double-digits for the third time in two years to St. Patrick's and it seemed that when the team met again for the state title, which was a near certainty,it would be more of the same.

The Iron Mikes looked to rebound against fellow Mercer County power The Pennington School (NJ). The Red Raiders had won the Mercer County Tournament the previous year—TCA did not participate—and entered with just one loss.With Whitmore, Tucker, Massenat, Lewis El, and six members of TPS all playing for the same AAU program, Team NJABC, the game was between two teams that knew each other quite well.

The highly-anticipated affair was held at a more than Pennington gym, and the outcome was not what most expected. Trenton Catholic lost the game, making it back-to-back defeats. That win catapulted Pennington to a 23-2 season, including a second straight MCT and Prep B state championship.

For the Iron Mikes, the loss to their Mercer County foe could have been the beginning of the end. With two more big games coming up, the Iron Mikes seemed like they might fold. It almost happened as the team saw a large lead slip away against South Charleston (WV) in the Prime Time Shootout, before pulling it out at the end. Maybe it was that near loss in the major event, maybe it was something else, but things then changed.

In the next few weeks the team blasted Chester (PA) at the Prime Time Shootout, and knocked off Atlantic Christian (NJ) as well as Hun School (NJ), despite being massively undersized. After a nice win over Big Apple power Thomas Jefferson (NY) at the Prime Time Shootout, the Iron Mikes almost pulled off a huge upset.

Facing two-loss Findlay Prep (NV) in the Iron Mikes' fourth Prime Time game, TCA nearly got the win. Led by an outstanding performance from Massenat, the Iron Mikes lost by single digits, showing people everywhere how good the team was. That loss to Findlay Prep, TCA's third of the season, would be its last.

Trenton Catholic had a couple of other nice wins late in the regular season, defeating Paul VI (NJ) and crushing rival Trenton Central (NJ). Soon enough, it was playoff time.

The Iron Mikes defeated Cardinal McCarrick (NJ) for the second straight year in the Non-Public South B state title, its third straight crown. While McCarrick tested TCA more than most would have thought, the win, regardless of the score, was the important part. Then it came time for the state championship game, the last chance for Whitmore, Tucker, and Massenat to get over the hump.

It looked like the team would face a different opponent this year than it had in either of the previous two. St. Patrick's, which had suffered three one-point defeats, was ruled ineligible for the state playoffs. The Celtics were banned from the postseason by the NJSIAA for illegal preseason workouts, eliminating the TOC favorite from the field. Thus, none of the three teams TCA had lost to would be in the state tournament, as Pennington played Prep B and Findlay was out-of-state.

Paterson Catholic continued to roll, entering the NJSIAA state playoffs as the only undefeated team in the Garden State, so it appeared as though the Cougars would be the Iron Mikes' opposition this year. PC would have to get by St. Anthony's though, which was undefeated since December and had reeled off some impressive wins of late with Oregon State-bound Devon Collier '10 back in the lineup. PC was expected to win though, using that game as a springboard to the team's second ever state championship and first ever TOC title, which not even the great Tim Thomas could bring to the school.

That is not how it happened though, as St. Anthony's avenged a semifinal loss to PC from the previous year, and denied the Cougars of their dream season. Led by St. Bonaventure-bound Eli Carter '10, the Friars won by double-digits and advanced to the Non-Public B state championship to face Trenton Catholic.

St. Anthony's was the heavy favorite to defeat TCA for the second time in three years in this game. Coached by legendary Bob Hurley, the team from Jersey City was playing its best basketball of the season and seemed to have found its groove. The Friars hold the national record for state championships and, according to NJ.com, entered undefeated in Non-Public B championships, having not lost a state championship game since 1979.

In what was easily the game of the year in New Jersey, one that a coach told me was the best high school affair he had seen in six years, Trenton Catholic did the impossible. The Iron Mikes defeated the Friars 57-56 in triple overtime, stunning St. Anthony's and shocking the basketball world, both in the state and the nation. The St. Anthony's win over Paterson Catholic, which had been top five in America, had impacted the national rankings enough, but this threw it into a mess.

Trenton Catholic was seeded #2 in the Tournament of Champions, behind Camden Catholic (NJ), which had surprised St. Peter's Prep (NJ) in the Non-Public A state championship. The TOC usually featured non-public winners from the North sections, with having at least one as a lock, but that was not the case. TCA and CC both did the impossible and made it two South section teams in the TOC.

University (NJ), seeded #3, defeated #6 Mendham (NJ) in the opening round of the TOC, setting up a matchup with TCA. Cherokee (NJ), the #4 seed, narrowly edged #5 seed Shabazz (NJ) to set up a rematch with Camden Catholic.

No Mercer County team had ever made the TOC championship game before, according to NJ.com. The Iron Mikes' luck was going to run out. University had been to the TOC before, losing in the first round the previous year, and was on a roll of its own. It was impossible for a team from Mercer County in Central Jersey to make the final game of the year, but that is what happened. TCA avoided the same type of letdown that both Paterson Catholic and St. Anthony's had suffered, defeating University by 17. Camden Catholic avenged its only loss of the season, knocking off Cherokee to make it #1 vs. #2, a South Jersey sectional matchup, for all the marbles.

The game was close most of the way, but that changed late in the contest when the Iron Mikes went on a huge run to pull away and win 53-39 at the Izod Center last night. It was done; the seniors that started it all at TCA were going out on top, with a state and TOC championship, part of an impressive 28-3 record. The Trenton Catholic Iron Mikes had done the impossible, going from the school in the middle of the state that could not win the big one, to the school on top of the state's basketball world that had won it all. For the TCA, it was the perfect ending to a fantastic season.

As the adidas ads say, "Impossible is Nothing", something that the 2009-2010 Trenton Catholic Iron Mikes have shown everyone. Their championship run was never impossible, just improbable.

Notes- NJ.com, MaxPreps, and NJHoops used as sources for information; photo on the left is of Taylor, Tucker, Massenat, and Whitmore from the TOC championship and photo on the right is of Massenat, Tucker, Lewis El, and Whitmore; both photos are from NJ.com