This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Kearns • The five young men of Sudanese descent sitting around a table, chatting about life and basketball, giggled when Kearns High coach Dan Cosby referred to them as his "lost boys."
Bushmen Ebet, Journey BuBa, Buay Kuajian, Kur Kuath and Eshaya Wada, who last month helped the Cougars to their first state championship game since 1972, may trace their family roots back to the African country, but they weren't among the 20,000 or so lost boys of Sudan who became refugees without parents in that war-torn country.
They were, however, lost in a different way.
Ebet, for example, had a run-in with the law and could just as easily have spent his senior year in prison instead of electrifying an entire community and state with his unmistakable basketball talent and charisma. Kuajian, too, seemed lost last year. He wasn't going to class, was tossed out of the locker room and kicked off the team by Cosby at one point, and began hanging out with all the wrong kids.
Cosby, a 1988 Kearns graduate, recognized all the signs. He, too, was a lost boy in high school, bouncing from school to school and coach to coach, trying to find his way.
The combination of a knowing, caring coach and a group of student-athletes willing to work and to learn found its way into the 2015 Class 4A state title game. A team led by Ebet, Kuajian and guard Tayler Marteliz thrilled spectators at Ogden's Dee Events Center with a first-round, double-overtime victory over Timpanogos. It kept up the magic by outlasting Logan in the quarterfinals and pulling away from Olympus in the semis.
And while the Cougars fell short of the dream finish, losing to Bountiful in the title game, they proved to supporters and strangers alike that even a bunch of "lost boys" could eventually find their way.
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Been there himself • Cosby first came to Kearns from South High as a junior, seeking a new beginning and adults who cared.
"I was getting into trouble with the friends I was hanging with," he recalled. "Most of those friends are or have been in the penitentiary."
Cosby, now a successful businessman and a paraprofessional as a coach, would spend time living with Tom Larson, who was then the school's football coach, and former Cougar basketball coach Kenyon Clark.
"When Danny came to Kearns, he was a kid who didn't know where he was going," Clark said. "He had been in three or four different schools, and had no success in any of them. He didn't attach to any person, coach or kids. … At Kearns, he found a home, and it made a difference."
After a stint in the Air Force and some time at the University of Utah, Cosby made a success of himself. But he remembered those formative days at Kearns and wondered if he might make a difference in kids' lives, like Clark and Larson had helped him. So he came back to his old school, first as an assistant, then as head basketball coach.
He heard the whispers about the school. People told him not to go to Kearns because it was dangerous. At times during those first few years, he said the halls felt scary.
A year later, Maile Loo, a veteran Granite School District principal, took the challenging job at what was then a troubled school.
"Kids are kids," she said. "They need to believe they can accomplish whatever it is they set their mind to. Once they believe, they need to know that we, as educators, are there to support them. Coming to Kearns was a big challenge because the students didn't believe. They fell back into a culture and got caught up on what was going on outside the parameters of the school, not the education inside the building. Coming here, the biggest change was the level of expectation that we have set with teachers and with our student body."
In some ways, the basketball team's story reflected both the school's challenges and its newfound optimism.
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On court, not in court • The basketball team had undeniable talent, but the issues they faced went beyond the usual "Can the boys play together?"
With the Cougars, it was about whether they could get their grades up enough to be eligible and whether they could stay out of jail.
For starters, Loo and Cosby went to bat in court for Ebet, a senior who is arguably among the top six high school talents in Utah. Third District Juvenile Court Judge James Michie could easily have sent Ebet to an adult court, where prison time was possible.
"I talked to the judge and the social workers to show them he really is a good kid," Cosby said. "He went into a program, started going to school and, teary-eyed, told me he didn't want any more dealings with the law. I believed him."
Loo said locking up Ebet was not the answer. She felt he needed to be taken back into school, where he could get help, be put in a caring culture and climate, and eventually graduate.
"He made a big mistake, and he has learned from that mistake," Loo said. "What has changed has been his overall respect for teachers, the administration and his fellow peers. When he first got here, it was like trying to tame a wild young man. This year, he has been so respectful."
Ebet gave much of the credit to his coach.
"That he believed in me, I believed in myself," said the player, who is now fielding college scholarship offers.
There were days when Cosby spent time on the streets, rounding up some of his "lost boys," making certain they were fed and were attending class. Just like Clark and Larson did to him, he opened up his home to some of the players. He even had friend Eric Martin work with an orthopedic surgeon to get Ebet a knee surgery his family would not have been able to afford.
Ebet and his brother Journey BuBa saw their mother move away and asked their father, Martin, to move back to Utah to help them.
"He heard me, and he heard the coach," said Martin BuBa, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sudan as a refugee, bringing Bushmen with him. Journey would be born in the U.S. "We told [Bushmen] that, 'If you want an education, you have it. If you want to play basketball, for whatever reason, you can play.' The coach did everything to build this boy up."
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Hitting books beyond the playbook • That "If you want an education" line is one that has not particularly resonated at Kearns in the past.
A Utah Department of Education program mandated by the Legislature grades schools throughout the state, and in 2013, Kearns got an F.
While Loo instituted many schoolwide measures to get that failing grade turned around, she said Cosby played a big part in getting the message across to his players.
"He showed them the importance of connecting academics to athletics," Loo said. "One without the other will not get these kids to college. The academic and the athletic go hand in hand."
Players and parents have noticed.
Kur Kuath's mother, Aliet Deng, said the basketball had to be connected with the academics.
"If you don't have the good grades in school, you cannot do the basketball," she said. "My son is doing the sports and doing the school. Both of them. He needs them."
Martin, Cosby's friend and a booster to the program, said people have no idea how much time the coach spends with the players, doing things beyond the standard X's and O's.
He said one such thing included driving Ebet and Kuajian to Oregon to let them look at a potential college.
That, in itself, represents a notable feat.
In the aftermath of the state championship game at Weber State, Loo said the team's cumulative grade point average was up to 3.1, and Cosby said he expected three of his players would go on to play college ball — an accomplishment born not just of athletic prowess, but academic achievement.
Loo said that, in that sense, the basketball team serves as a microcosm of the student body as a whole.
"They know that putting aside challenges, struggles and differences, they can come to us and let us help them climb over those obstacles," said Loo, adding that the school did not "look at the fact that they are different. We treat each kid as a kid. We meet them at a level of growth and promote growth one step at a time."
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A team transformed • If the peripheral issues the Kearns team faced were difficult, it's not like the basketball itself came easy initially. Yes, the Cougars ultimately made it to the Class 4A state title game, where they lost to Bountiful, but the road there was — as usual — anything but easy.
The Cougars were picked to finish sixth in Region 6. Then they lost starting center Mautrice Carter to a torn ACL early in the season. And the team certainly struggled, losing five straight, including the first two league games against Bountiful and East.
Just getting into the state tournament looked like a long shot.
Making it to the title game seemed altogether impossible.
Still, even though the Cougars lost against East, it was in the fourth quarter of the game that something started to work, and the team began to transform into a contender.
"We figured out that we are at our best when we run the court and just push it," Kuajian said. "When we figured out that we have got to run, everything clicked."
The team started having fun and gaining momentum. Suddenly, the Cougars started winning, emerging victorious in 14 of their final 15 games, beating every team down the stretch, except Bountiful.
"Kearns got noticed," said Ebet, adding that the whole team felt like a family. "Instead of people looking down on Kearns, they started looking at Kearns in a different way."
Loo said the run to the title game helped students throughout the school.
"We can do this," she said. "We can accomplish anything we believe in. We can make a difference. I knew the culture of the kids. They had a belief. They wanted it so bad."
John Marteliz, Tayler's father, put things in perspective moments after the Cougars finally lost at the state tournament.
"To me, it's like anything is possible," he said. "It doesn't matter where you come from or what your background is. Obviously, we had a variety of kids from all different backgrounds. We came together as a family and proved how close we are as a team on this court."
In the end, Kearns' "lost boys" found their way.
Twitter: @Tribtomwharton —
Improbable journey
After being picked to finish sixth in Region 6 in the regular season, the Kearns boys' basketball team wound up second in its league, then made an improbable run through the Class 4A state tournament, reaching the championship game for the first time since 1972:
First round • Kearns 67, Timpanogos 59 (2OT)
Quarterfinals • Kearns 51, Logan 48
Semifinals • Kearns 63, Olympus 52
Championship • Bountiful 66, Kearns 54