Something special brewing at Marywood-Palm Valley

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When this school year began, the senior class at Marywood-Palm Valley, a preschool through 12th-grade non-demoninational private school in Rancho Mirage, consisted of 19 students. Three weeks later, there were only 16.

Three seniors were killed in a car accident shortly after school let out on a Monday afternoon, leaving their classmates shaken and stricken with grief.

Five months later, the school is now riding a tidal wave of excitement as the boys’ basketball team has reached the Southern Section Division V-A quarterfinal round, the furthest any sports team in school history has advanced in the postseason.

‘For the 75 high school students, Tuesday’s game is the most important athletic event they have ever been involved in,’’ 2007 graduate Aaron Golds wrote in an e-mail.

The Firebirds accomplished the feat in heart-stopping fashion, traveling seven hours to Bishop, where they rallied from 10 points down in the final four minutes to win, 71-69, on Kevin Smith’s basket with seven seconds remaining.

Smith is one of six seniors on Marywood-Palm Valley, which now comprises two-thirds of the boys in the class.

The next challenge for the Firebirds is second-seeded Ventura St. Bonaventure, which gets to feel the effects of a long bus ride when it travels to the Coachella Valley for a 7:30 p.m. tip off Tuesday night.

They might want to encourage their fans to come along because Marywood-Palm Valley will certainly have support.

-- Dan Arritt

- Image from http://www.mwpv.org/