Many remember Reggie Carter as the star basketball player for St. John’s or for his professional career with the New York Knicks. Mineola remembers Carter for everything he brought to the high school as an assistant principal until his death in 1999. Reggie Carter Memorial Basketball Night was dedicated to his memory for the fifteenth year on Jan. 16 at Mineola High School.
The annual event featured games played by the girls and boys varsity basketball teams against Seaford High School. Game admissions and raffles benefited the Reggie Carter Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is presented to a graduating Mineola senior in June.
“I think it [the event] does two things,” said Paul Pereira, a social studies teacher at Mineola High School who worked alongside Carter. “One, it brings the community together in large numbers to support our athletic teams and secondly it keeps the memory of Reggie alive and his character, his work ethic and that although many kids don’t remember and many parents don’t know Mr. Carter, they know what he stood for and I think it’s important to have that sort of historical perspective in the community and at the same time it’s for a good cause.”
Awards were also presented to members of the boys and girls varsity squads by their respective head coaches for players who best exemplified Carter’s best qualities.
These qualities included his charismatic personality, his influence on others and his ability to motivate, according to Denise Zunno, head coach of the girl’s varsity basketball team.
“Every senior on our team has a piece of what he stands for so it was a difficult decision,” said Zunno. “I ended up searching the two extremes: one being a great basketball player and the other one who inspires others.”
The Carter awards were presented to seniors Elizabeth Brown and Samantha Venus of the girls team and to senior Ynoh DeGuzman of the boys team.
“Ynoh’s the type of player coaches love to have on their team,” said Ezra Elliott, head coach of the boys’ varsity basketball team. “He’s a quiet leader who always does things the right way and never takes short cuts. While he isn’t necessarily the most vocal teammate, he leads by the examples he sets to encourage and uplift the team. That, in my mind is a true leader.”
Although both the boy’s and girl’s teams lost their respective games against Seaford, the real mission of the night was accomplished. While Carter was a great basketball player, he was most known in Mineola for his intelligence, charismatic nature and empathy towards his students and that is was the night was focused on remembering.
“When we first started it most of the students knew who Mr. Carter was,” said Pereira. “Most of the parents knew and so it was very personal, and now it may not be as personal but it’s still as important in terms of community, pride and what the man stood for.”
