'I love the gym and I love the people': Rogers hosts final game before reconstruction
NEWPORT — It’s been over 30 years of Rogers boys basketball for coach Mike Newsome.
Josie Chaves, a 2014 Rogers graduate, returned to the Vikings within a decade as the school’s athletic director.
They both have banners commemorating their championships hanging in Rogers’ gymnasium. And the Vikings stars, and countless others, carved their paths early at the Viking Hoop Basketball Campunder longtime coach Jim Psaras.
Those memories are there forever, packed away in a gym that serves as a home for the Newport community. But the banners and floor marks that make a gym need a new place next year.
More: A group wants to save the Rogers High School gym. Why project leaders said it can't happen
This spring construction will begin as the gym will be completely torn down. But Francisco Aponte will forever recall Darian Piker hoisting a 3-point try in the far-right corner in the playoffs.
Piker nailed the triple against Coventry to knot the contest for an overtime finish, which left the Newport Daily News deeming it an ‘Instant Classic’ and wishing ESPN cameras were in attendance. The Vikings ousted the Oakers from the playoffs that day and on Thursday night, Rogers hosted its final regular-season game on the hollowed court.
“It could get packed in here,” Aponte said. “We love playing here and I love being a Viking.”
Newsome’s favorite moment, over a three-decade span, might be harder to boil down. But a crammed night against Mount Hope just a few years ago stands out.
“The atmosphere here was crazy,” Newsome said. “Anytime you just have that here, it makes it different.
“I hate to see it go. I live in this place. In the offseason, I’m in here all the time. I love the gym and I love the people.”
Rogers community larger than the gym
The locker rooms that split the bleachers and swing open to welcome the Vikings and not-so-welcoming to the visitors, will be demolished. And the court lines, coated black with red accents will need fresh paint.
Construction on the gym is set to begin in late March and the rebuild is marked near the current location.
But wherever Rogers goes, its people follow.
“It's a really special place,” Chaves said. “I think it's got a lot of good memories here, but I think the special part about Newport and kind of the Viking community is that a lot of people … go here, graduate here, play here and then come back here and give back to the community.”
Chaves, who is also an assistant coach on the girls team, and the Vikings won their only girls basketball title in 2014. The title remains as her favorite memory from a lifetime in Red and Black.
“It was a really special environment growing up for me,” Chaves said. “I see it even with the kids today, and we're very accepting of differences. I think everyone in the school kind of gets along. There's a special place for everyone.”
Said Newsome: “Initially when people think Newport, they think mansions. But they forget about what it is, it's the community. It's the Fifth Ward area, the North End area and the in-town area. It's all of that and I don’t think people realize.”
Still games to be played for the Vikings
Rogers (13-5) is likely to host an early round playoff game this winter, so another contest in Newport could be coming.
The Vikings dusted Chariho 63-45 to cap senior night. Each of the four seniors scored to finish the contest with Travis Burroughs, who also recalled the same game-saving triple in his sophomore year as the marquee Viking highlight, leading the group.
“We aren’t all just people that don't know each other,” Burroughs said. “Everyone's kind of a family. Newport’s just like a family.”
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X: @ByJacobRousseau
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rogers hosts final regular-season game in hallowed gym
