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Tuesday, May 23, 2000 By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
A picture of New Castle High School boys' basketball Coach John Sarandrea showed up in the sports pages of Sunday's New York Daily News. The photo was 12 years old and was of one of the most joyous moments in Sarandrea's coaching career.
But looking at the picture only made him sadder.
The photo was of Sarandrea hugging Malik Sealy after the 1988 New York state high school championship game. Sarandrea was the coach of powerful Tolentine High School and Sealy was his star player. Tolentine won the state title and finished as USA Today's No. 1 team in the country.
Sealy, 30, who played for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, was killed early Saturday morning in Minnesota when his sport utility vehicle was hit head-on by a pickup truck traveling the wrong way on a highway.
The Daily News photo brought back memories for Sarandrea but also brought on tearful emotions.
"Truth be known, I was blessed, and not just for knowing Malik," said Sarandrea, New Castle's coach since 1992. "Because of my affiliation with him, my career was given great credibility. We won a national championship, and I was able to parlay that into an assistant coaching job at a Big East Conference school [Pitt]."
Sarandrea was an assistant at Pitt under Paul Evans before coming to New Castle. A few times during his New Castle years, Sarandrea has brought up Sealy. In 1997, Sarandrea remarked how New Castle sophomore David Young had a passion for the game of basketball that he hadn't seen since Sealy.
"Malik was somebody who loved basketball. I can't even express how much he loved it," Sarandrea said. "But there was a lot more to him. He was No. 1 in his senior class. He was valedictorian. He was president of the student body. He scored 1,200 on his SAT. He was a McDonald's All-American. He was just an unbelievable kid."
With Sealy leading the way, Tolentine had an "unbelievable" team in the 1987-88 season. All five starters eventually went to Division I colleges. Adrian Autry (Syracuse) and Brian Reese (North Carolina) were sophomores. The other two starters were Corey Allen (South Florida) and Jerome Holmes (Xavier). Sealy was the team's center.
Tolentine was 31-1, the only loss coming to St. Anthony's of Jersey City, N.J., which featured star point guard Bobby Hurley.
"Malik was like another coach on the floor," Sarandrea said.
Sealy grew up in Bronx, and his father, Sidney, was a bodyguard for Malcolm X. He named his son, Malik, after one of Malcolm X's Muslim names.
After high school, Malik Sealy played four years at St. John's and finished as the school's second all-time leading scorer.
Sarandrea still talked with Sealy over the years. The last time was about two years ago when Sealy's son was born.
"It's a shame this had to happen to him, because he was coming off his best season in the NBA," Sarandrea said. "I was watching the Knicks-Heat game yesterday. I watched Larry Johnson push an official, push a teammate away and get caught a number of times saying vulgarities. I just kept saying to myself, 'Malik was everything the NBA could hope for -- a class act and an intelligent person.' "
Sarandrea plans to attend Sealy's funeral Friday on the campus of St. John's University.
The State Patrol of Minnesota yesterday arrested Souksangouane Phengsene, 43, the driver of the pickup truck that killed Sealy. Phengsene remained under guard at Hennepin County Medical Center, where he's being treated for serious injuries. He will be booked into the Hennepin County Jail to await formal charges once he's released from the hospital.
It was not clear if alcohol was a factor in Sealy's crash, but blood-alcohol tests are under way. Phengsene was convicted of drunken driving in 1997 in Iowa.
"We were hoping to bring Malik to a camp here this summer," Sarandrea said.
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