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Notre Dame point guard searching for redemption
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- This isn't where Kyle McAlarney is supposed to be.
It's early on a Wednesday evening in February and McAlarney, Staten Island's all-time leading high school basketball scorer, is slinging two duffel bags over his shoulder outside Public School 55 on the borough's South Shore. He's dressed in plaid pajama pants and a Notre Dame basketball hooded sweatshirt that hints at his recent past.
Up until Dec. 29, McAlarney was the sophomore starting point guard on Notre Dame's men's basketball team, averaging 10 points and five assists a game. But in the early morning of that December day, McAlarney was pulled over by an Indiana state trooper and arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge after the officer found the remains of a "blunt" cigarette in his car.
Coach Mike Brey suspended McAlarney for the next seven games, hoping that by taking matters into his own hands, the school might not dismiss him. McAlarney also agreed to a pretrial diversion program. He promised to stay out of trouble for one year, do 20 hours of community service and submit to random drug tests in exchange for a clean record.
But in a controversial decision handed down on Jan. 23, the university suspended McAlarney from school for the spring semester anyway. He can return to school and his team this summer.
In his absence, the Fighting Irish finished the regular season 23-6 and earned a first-round bye in the Big East tournament. Now, while his former teammates are preparing for an NCAA Tournament run, McAlarney, a thick and solid 6-foot-1, is standing outside an elementary school 700 miles from Notre Dame. He ducks into P.S. 55's entrance, past the arts-and-crafts displays that decorate the hallway walls and into a gym that he's not used to.
The court is considerably shorter than anything he has played on recently, and the backboards are made of something that looks like a failed experiment mixing wood and Styrofoam. Gyms like this are where he has been spending at least some time, five or six days a week over the past month, helping out with the Shoot For Success basketball clinic.
On this day, four third-graders are waiting for the 19-year-old McAlarney when he gets there. Their mentor leads them through a series of drills: foul-line jump shots, screen and curl plays and a series of dribbling exercises to improve ballhandling skills.
At one point, McAlarney guides the foursome in a drill in which each boy dribbles with his right hand from one end of the baseline to the other in a semicircle route. The point of the exercise is to practice dribbling at full speed while guarding the ball with the off hand.
McAlarney doesn't seem satisfied with the results.
"Watch me," he says, after the four boys are done. "Watch where my off hand is."
McAlarney takes off from one corner and darts around the court -- head up, dribbling powerfully, left arm bent at a 90-degree angle guarding the ball. A parent along the sideline snaps a few photos. McAlarney finishes and his students are still staring. He takes this seriously.
"The kids just watch him and admire him," said Gerry Mosley, the founder of Shoot For Success, where McAlarney has helped out since early in his high school career. "He's a kid who doesn't really have all the talent in the world, but it's a lot of hard work."
Hard work is what allowed McAlarney to score 2,566 points for Moore Catholic High School -- fourth all-time in the state of New York. Hard work is what earned him the chance to play Big East basketball -- a feat not accomplished by any other Staten Islander in recent history.
But the memory of big-time Division I basketball seems far away, at least for now, lost in a teenager's lack of judgement. McAlarney has said his apologies and is ready to move on.
"I'm not some golden child who hasn't made mistakes," McAlarney said. "I always looked at it as a part of life, as that's what high school and college students do. They make stupid mistakes and learn from them, though."
Those who know him best say the arrest was an aberration -- nothing more.
"He made a mistake. No one takes that away," said Tony Sagona, McAlarney's mentor and former AAU coach. "But I don't think he should be remembered for the one mistake, when he's done 22,000 good things."
McAlarney is trying to wipe the bad memories away. For a few days after the university made its decision, he didn't know if he wanted to go back to South Bend, Ill. He and his parents were angered that the school had taken, in their view, such a hard stance, and dozens of schools were recruiting him all over again. Still, McAlarney eventually realized what he needed to do.
"I just thought going back out there will just show everyone who's heard about the story what kind of kid I really am," McAlarney said. "To go back out there, and stay loyal to my teammates and my coaches and the school that I was playing for, is the best character decision to make."
When he gets back to Notre Dame, he wants his actions on and off the court to speak for themselves. He's currently taking two classes at the College of Staten Island so he can still graduate on time. In the mornings, he runs his body through a strenuous workout: pull-ups, push-ups, sprinting, running. In the afternoons, when he isn't working with Shoot For Success, he's working on his game at a local CYO or at a gym on the Jersey Shore with Sagona.
"Right now, I feel better about my game than I ever have," McAlarney said. "I feel great. I'm in great shape right now. I feel like I could go right back out there and do the same thing I've been doing."
But the separation from his teammates, who are his closest friends, still hurts. Even though McAlarney speaks with them on a regular basis, he has been able to sit through only a few of their televised games and has attended just one game (during the Big East tournament) in person.
"It's tough because I know it's my team out there," McAlarney said. "That's the team I was running the whole summer. That's my team."
Some nights, when he wants to be alone, McAlarney heads to his high school gym, to which he has his own set of keys. By the time he gets there, around 8:30 or 9, everyone has already gone home for the night.
He steps out onto the court where he became a local icon and where his retired No. 23 jersey hangs. He flips on one of the two sets of lights, still allowing for a dusklike dimness that seems to match his mood. Then he hooks his iPod up to a speaker and scrolls to his Jay-Z play list. Lyrics and beats begin flowing through the gym. Now it's just him, the ball and the hoop -- counting down the days, hours and minutes until he can make his return.
"Everything that's happened has just been a little bump in the road, and it's only going to just propel me forward," McAlarney said. "That's how I've been looking at it. I think this whole thing has been a blessing in disguise."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- This isn't where Kyle McAlarney is supposed to be.
It's early on a Wednesday evening in February and McAlarney, Staten Island's all-time leading high school basketball scorer, is slinging two duffel bags over his shoulder outside Public School 55 on the borough's South Shore. He's dressed in plaid pajama pants and a Notre Dame basketball hooded sweatshirt that hints at his recent past.
Up until Dec. 29, McAlarney was the sophomore starting point guard on Notre Dame's men's basketball team, averaging 10 points and five assists a game. But in the early morning of that December day, McAlarney was pulled over by an Indiana state trooper and arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge after the officer found the remains of a "blunt" cigarette in his car.
Coach Mike Brey suspended McAlarney for the next seven games, hoping that by taking matters into his own hands, the school might not dismiss him. McAlarney also agreed to a pretrial diversion program. He promised to stay out of trouble for one year, do 20 hours of community service and submit to random drug tests in exchange for a clean record.
But in a controversial decision handed down on Jan. 23, the university suspended McAlarney from school for the spring semester anyway. He can return to school and his team this summer.
In his absence, the Fighting Irish finished the regular season 23-6 and earned a first-round bye in the Big East tournament. Now, while his former teammates are preparing for an NCAA Tournament run, McAlarney, a thick and solid 6-foot-1, is standing outside an elementary school 700 miles from Notre Dame. He ducks into P.S. 55's entrance, past the arts-and-crafts displays that decorate the hallway walls and into a gym that he's not used to.
The court is considerably shorter than anything he has played on recently, and the backboards are made of something that looks like a failed experiment mixing wood and Styrofoam. Gyms like this are where he has been spending at least some time, five or six days a week over the past month, helping out with the Shoot For Success basketball clinic.
On this day, four third-graders are waiting for the 19-year-old McAlarney when he gets there. Their mentor leads them through a series of drills: foul-line jump shots, screen and curl plays and a series of dribbling exercises to improve ballhandling skills.
At one point, McAlarney guides the foursome in a drill in which each boy dribbles with his right hand from one end of the baseline to the other in a semicircle route. The point of the exercise is to practice dribbling at full speed while guarding the ball with the off hand.
McAlarney doesn't seem satisfied with the results.
"Watch me," he says, after the four boys are done. "Watch where my off hand is."
McAlarney takes off from one corner and darts around the court -- head up, dribbling powerfully, left arm bent at a 90-degree angle guarding the ball. A parent along the sideline snaps a few photos. McAlarney finishes and his students are still staring. He takes this seriously.
"The kids just watch him and admire him," said Gerry Mosley, the founder of Shoot For Success, where McAlarney has helped out since early in his high school career. "He's a kid who doesn't really have all the talent in the world, but it's a lot of hard work."
Hard work is what allowed McAlarney to score 2,566 points for Moore Catholic High School -- fourth all-time in the state of New York. Hard work is what earned him the chance to play Big East basketball -- a feat not accomplished by any other Staten Islander in recent history.
But the memory of big-time Division I basketball seems far away, at least for now, lost in a teenager's lack of judgement. McAlarney has said his apologies and is ready to move on.
"I'm not some golden child who hasn't made mistakes," McAlarney said. "I always looked at it as a part of life, as that's what high school and college students do. They make stupid mistakes and learn from them, though."
Those who know him best say the arrest was an aberration -- nothing more.
"He made a mistake. No one takes that away," said Tony Sagona, McAlarney's mentor and former AAU coach. "But I don't think he should be remembered for the one mistake, when he's done 22,000 good things."
McAlarney is trying to wipe the bad memories away. For a few days after the university made its decision, he didn't know if he wanted to go back to South Bend, Ill. He and his parents were angered that the school had taken, in their view, such a hard stance, and dozens of schools were recruiting him all over again. Still, McAlarney eventually realized what he needed to do.
"I just thought going back out there will just show everyone who's heard about the story what kind of kid I really am," McAlarney said. "To go back out there, and stay loyal to my teammates and my coaches and the school that I was playing for, is the best character decision to make."
When he gets back to Notre Dame, he wants his actions on and off the court to speak for themselves. He's currently taking two classes at the College of Staten Island so he can still graduate on time. In the mornings, he runs his body through a strenuous workout: pull-ups, push-ups, sprinting, running. In the afternoons, when he isn't working with Shoot For Success, he's working on his game at a local CYO or at a gym on the Jersey Shore with Sagona.
"Right now, I feel better about my game than I ever have," McAlarney said. "I feel great. I'm in great shape right now. I feel like I could go right back out there and do the same thing I've been doing."
But the separation from his teammates, who are his closest friends, still hurts. Even though McAlarney speaks with them on a regular basis, he has been able to sit through only a few of their televised games and has attended just one game (during the Big East tournament) in person.
"It's tough because I know it's my team out there," McAlarney said. "That's the team I was running the whole summer. That's my team."
Some nights, when he wants to be alone, McAlarney heads to his high school gym, to which he has his own set of keys. By the time he gets there, around 8:30 or 9, everyone has already gone home for the night.
He steps out onto the court where he became a local icon and where his retired No. 23 jersey hangs. He flips on one of the two sets of lights, still allowing for a dusklike dimness that seems to match his mood. Then he hooks his iPod up to a speaker and scrolls to his Jay-Z play list. Lyrics and beats begin flowing through the gym. Now it's just him, the ball and the hoop -- counting down the days, hours and minutes until he can make his return.
"Everything that's happened has just been a little bump in the road, and it's only going to just propel me forward," McAlarney said. "That's how I've been looking at it. I think this whole thing has been a blessing in disguise."
