Damione Thomas wants to continue his basketball career by playing professionally.
The 6-foot-10-inch senior center certainly has the talent and ability to play at a high level. But he was still looking for a chance.
So, coach Jesus Aragon (who took over for the fired Ryan Cordova at the start of the season) pulled some strings with old colleagues and friends, and got Thomas an opportunity.
“I think he can fit in one of those leagues,” Aragon said. “Hopefully they give him the opportunity to perform.”
During a Friday senior night ceremony, complete with a scrimmage with faculty and staff, Aragon surprised Thomas with an invitation to a Eurobasket summer camp in Dallas for a chance to find a professional team.
“I want to keep playing basketball,” Thomas said
Fellow senior Jared Perez was joined at the game by his family, who drove 10 hours from Chihuahua, Mexico to be there for the ceremony.
In a program where consistency on the roster can be hard to come by, the presence of Perez, Thomas and Omar Dominguez, a Pecos graduate, have guided the team through turbulent times included the canceled 2020-21 season and this year, when they had to contend with their coach being fired right at the start of the season under murky circumstances.
The best memories the seniors mentioned from playing was meeting and making friends from all over the world. The three also mentioned seeing the program grow and improve from when they started with the team.
“They excellent kids, and I’m pretty happy to be part of this,” Aragon said.
Also participating in the senior night game were assistant coach Ish Loya (Aragon served as a referee from the scorer’s table) and former college Vice President Vince Lithgow.
Northern’s season had its highlights as they finished 8-19 overall. A win over Adams State in Alamosa, Colo. was their first there in program history. NBA legend Gary Payton came to town as the head coach of Lincoln University, and the Eagles delivered a win there.
The Eagles were one game out of making the top-8 in the conference and reaching the conference tournament for the second straight year, and were just points away. In their second-to-last game, facing Crowley’s Ridge in Arkansas, the Eagles came back from down 18 and trailed by just one when Joe Saterfield, Jr. was fouled on a 3-point shot. But Saterfiled missed all three shots, and the Eagles lost.
“We went through a lot this year,” Aragon said. “We stepped up hard, and we competed really hard with all the adversities that we had through the year. I’m really happy for what we did.”
Even though the competitiveness of the scrimmage game wound down in the second half, all players had fun through the game, and the Black team — which contained Loya and Lithgow — won over the White team — which included all three seniors — 85-75.
“It was nice to play a fun game,” Dominguez said. “This is really the last time we get to play a home game, per se. So, it was nice to end it off playing against each other, having fun.”