As the seconds ticked down to zero in the Walton Campus’s thrilling 57-53 home court victory in the first round of the boys basketball city tournament, fans, coiled from the intensity of the game, rushed the court, hugging players and coaches and each other. A group of students formed into a circle centered with spontaneous dancers near midcourt.

They chanted: “Wal-Ton! Wal-Ton! Wal-Ton!”

None of these students attend Walton High School, which, like most large schools in New York City, was phased out in 2008 and gradually replaced over recent years by five smaller schools.

These days, Walton is only the name of the building and campus these schools inhabit. Aside from the building’s walls, sport is the only thing that brings students together as a community.

“When the DOE broke up all the schools, the one thing they didn’t think about was school spirit,” said Eric Swillinger, Walton’s coach and athletic director. “The last bastion of school spirit is campus athletics.”

Inside Walton’s cramped gym, that spirit manifested itself and carried the Wildcats to its first home playoff victory in Swillinger’s 12 years working at the Kingsbridge Heights campus.

The Wildcats took an early lead that evaporated in the second quarter as their opponent, the Jaguars, a team made up of two Brooklyn schools (Global Studies and International Studies), stormed back and took the lead midway through the third quarter.

During a timeout, an animated Swillinger implored his players to protect their home court. John Davis, the father of John Davis (the fourth), a junior at High School for Teaching and Professions (TNP), wasn’t worried. “They’re going to take it,” the elder Davis said.

Sure enough, the longer, more talented Wildcats, who finished the season 11-7, began forcing turnovers and getting easy buckets, igniting the crowd in the process. Davis hit a three-pointer to break a 42-42 tie. The Wildcats stretched the lead to seven, but the Jaguars refused to give up and whittled that lead down to one with 30 seconds left. Walton would hold on by playing tough defense and making clutch free throws.

Then, they danced as one campus, one community. “Wal-Ton!”

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said point guard Bryan Barahona, who attends TNP. “It can’t get any better than this.”

He might be right. For Bryan and his teammates, most of whom will not go on to higher levels of competitive basketball, it may never get any better than an opening round victory in front of a raucous home crowd — a victory that kept their season and hopes alive. (The Wildcats play fifth-seeded High School for Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan on March 1.)

Most of Swillinger’s players attend either TNP or Discovery High School, but it doesn’t matter, they all get along.
“We’re all brothers,” said Jovanni Rodriguez, a junior at Discovery. The team chemistry and the crowd, “helped us out a lot,” said Discovery freshman Bernard Edwards.

Clement Roach, an art and graphic design teacher at TNP, often takes photos at Walton sporting events. “They all go to different schools, but through sports, they’re able to synchronize and gel and come together as a team,” he said during a break in the action. “That’s the beauty of sports.”

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