L.J. Allise, left, sings while Edson Suda, right, accompanies him on his ukelele in this scene from a video by Dean Sanderson, McKay boys basketball coach.
The players of McKay High School’s boys basketball team settled in for the long bus ride home from Bend.
The mood could have been dark that night – Thursday, Jan. 24.
The team lost to Mountain View High School, 64-39, extending its season winless streak to 0-17.
But what happened on that bus is winning the Royal Scots fans across the country.
One senior plucked out the John Denver tune “Take Me Home, Country Roads” on his ukulele while across the aisle another senior started belting out the lyrics to the 1971 hit song.
Coach Dean Sanderson made them back up and start over so he could capture the performance on his phone.
VIDEO: See Dean Sanderson’s video HERE.
That two-minute video appeared on a McKay Twitter account last week and it has taken off, viewed more than 50,000 times by midday Sunday.
“I had people reaching out to me or commenting from all over the country,” Sanderson said Sunday.
The stars of the video are the singer, senior L.J. Allise, and the ukulele player, senior Edson Suda. Both are from the island of Chuuk, part of Micronesia.
Allise this year is filming games for the team. He played basketball his sophomore and junior years but this year is focusing on drama and choir, Sanderson. Allise had a role in McKay’s recent multicultural stage production of “The Wiz.”
Suda is a sometime starter for the team. He takes his ukulele everywhere.
“They’re always laid back, fun, care about other people,” the coach said. “They’re always late.”
Sanderson, in his 10th year as McKay’s coach, said he “knew this was going to be a really significant challenge to win a game.”
Sanderson said he and the players faced that reality and set goals.
“You have choices,” he said. “You can quit or you don’t try as hard and it doesn’t hurt as much. We rejected both of those.”
He said the team decided one goal was to play teams closer in the second half of the season than it did in the first. Notch one for success. On Saturday night, the Scots lost to West Salem by 23 points. They lost to that team by 30 early in January.
Sanderson said he put the two-minute video on his personal Facebook page first and then shared it on Twitter (@mckaybasketball). The song session has been retweeted several hundred times.
“I’ve watched several times and each time I find myself seeing the beauty of this young man. What a spirit!” one woman wrote as she shared it.
“The joy and friendship is evident on this team (despite 0-17),” another commenter wrote.
“That’s what it’s all about, relationships memories and building a foundation,” said another.
Sanderson said he had no idea the clip would spread the way it has.
“I’ve got really good kids,” he said.”They want to play basketball and they want to get better.”
For the record, the Scots host Bend High School at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Lava Bears won by 26 earlier in the season.
Les Zaitz: [email protected]
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