HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL: Long before sectional finals, Troy’s Hood stayed headstrong though health scares

GLENS FALLS, N.Y.

Jamil Hoods first year as head coach of the Troy High School varsity boys basketball team wasnt supposed to get off the ground.

Thats essentially what the doctors ordered.In a harsh reality, Hood was informed on Nov.

3 that hed been diagnosed with meningitis, one month before the Flying Horses were set to play their first game of the 2024-25 season.The inflammation around his brain and spinal cord due to the debilitating infection left him fighting for his life in a hospital bed.

In contrast, he wanted to be in the gym, trying to orchestrate a return to greatness for a program that went 4-16 a year ago, after winning the 2022-23 Class A title.I was just worried about this program.

I worried about us, Hood said, holding back tears on Thursday night in the back hallway of Cool Insuring Arena.

I fought and rallied back, crutches and all, pain and all, and I said, These guys deserve for me to be in here, not at home, trying to recover.

But I recovered with them during practice, the best way I can.It wasnt a short road through rehabilitation, as Hood recalled re-teaching himself how to do everyday basics, like showering or simply walking around.Every doctor when I got home said that I shouldnt be, Hood said.

Trust me, I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy, the pain I was going through for two and a half months.Every day was a hard practice, he added.

And it was a grind.Hood made it back for the season-opener, on Dec.

3, in an eventual 18-point loss vs.

Class AAAs Shenendehowa, of the Suburban Council.

Its unlikely his recovery was aided by Troy playing five of its next six games to the tune of a single-digit margin.Still, Troy finished the regular season 15-5 and grabbed the No.

3 seed in the Section 2 Class AA bracket.

Three from the group averaged more than 10 points per game, paced by sophomore Stetson Merritt, who scored 30.5.The Troy High School boys basketball team defeated La Salle Institute, 62-60, in the Section 2 Class AA Championship-Semifinals, at Cool Insuring Arena, in Glens Falls, N.Y., on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

(DREW WEMPLE MEDIANEWS GROUP).On Thursday night, in Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls, Troy overcame a 19-point second-half deficit, defeating two-seed and reigning sectional runner-up La Salle Institute in the Class AA semifinals.

Merritt knocked down a game-winning leaner in the lane with less than two seconds remaining in regulation, capping off a 13-0 closeout run and sealing an instant classic, 62-60.I knew there were some people packing up, going home, saying, Theyre done, Hood said postgame.

(Cadets) are good team.

A very good coach, very good system, but we wanted it more.

Those guys came in and said, Were not gonna lose this.Im telling you, that huddle was on fire, he continued.

They just wanted it more than the next team.Hood seemed of ample health after La Salle failed to get off another shot before time expired, as he ran to half court inside C.I.A., with his left hand held high in the air.Pretty healthy at the end.

Tears of joy, he said.

And when you lose, you want to go home.

But Im sticking around to watch some more basketball.On Sunday, at 2:30 p.m., Troy goes for a second title in the last three years, but first under Hood, against the defending champions and this years top-seed, Niskayuna, in the Section 2 Class AA finals, at Hudson Valley Community Colleges McDonough Sports Complex.The Troy High School boys basketball team defeated BHBL, 74-52, on Saturday, March 1, 2025, in the Section 2 Class AA Championship-Quarterfinals at Hudson Valley Community College, in Troy, N.Y.

(DREW WEMPLE MEDIANEWS GROUP)Yet the Silver Warriors werent who Hood was hanging around to watch on Thursday, as they had won their semifinal matchup vs.

No.

5 Bethlehem the night before, 50-44.

Instead, Green Tech played in the night-cap on Thursday in Glens Falls, the program Hood coached from 2010-2018, and helped guide to an NYSPHSAA Championship in 2014.Hes the Flying Horses third head coach in the past three years but has turned around a roster in near disarray by this time last year, missing out on a visit to Glens Falls entirely after its title run.We definitely flushed it out, junior guard Kayne Behan said on Thursday, after scoring 12 points in the win, including a game-tying three with 55 seconds to play.

Its a new team, new season.The Troy High School boys basketball team defeated La Salle Institute, 62-60, in the Section 2 Class AA Championship-Semifinals, at Cool Insuring Arena, in Glens Falls, N.Y., on Thursday, March 6, 2025.

(DREW WEMPLE MEDIANEWS GROUP)This is remarkable, added Hood, after hearing an eruption of cheers from outside his locker room, postgame.

This is amazing.

Its amazing..

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