Saturday, November 14, 2026
Senior Tony Castillo throws a nifty behind-the-back pass in the Rays win over Donahue Catholic for the conference championship.
MIA’s emotional leader, Joe Reisinger, celebrates a big play.
Senior Joe Reisinger leaves the court for the final time in his career after hitting back-to-back three-pointers. Reisinger led the team in scoring with 18.
Marco Island Academy’s basketball team repeated as conference champions for the third year in a row.
Senior Xavier Parra looks for an opening underneath.
Rays head coach, Jim Watt, is surrounded by his team as they celebrate their win over Donahue Catholic. The win marks MIA’s third straight conference championship.
Brooks Vorderstrasse drives to the basket for two points.
Shamus Coyle drives the lane.
Senior Quintin Fitton drives the baseline. Fitton scored 10 points in his final game as a Ray.
John Boxma lines up one of his three successful three-pointers that helped MIA come back from a 17-3 deficit.
With 1:25 left in the first quarter Thursday night, February 3rd, it didn’t look like Marco Island Academy was going to be celebrating a conference three-peat. With the scoreboard reading 17-3 in favor of Donahue Catholic, it appeared that the Rays were in danger of being blown out in their home gym.
From that point on, the Rays scored 56 points, and Donahue scored only 17 more, as the Rays went on to a bench-clearing 59-34 win. After the game, Rays coach Jim Watt was justifiably proud of his scrappy team.
“We were down 17-3—and we were still down at halftime,” Watt said after the game. “We had to get re-organized at halftime and come back with a little different game plan. We went to a half court press and that was a difference maker.”
Watt gave a short talk to the team at halftime, then trailing 26-23. The players then did a little talking themselves.
“I think they started feeling the end of their season,” Watt said. “The seniors were like, ‘Hey guys, this is it.’ They talked amongst themselves and they came out and got after it and they did it tonight.”
One thing the Rays did was find an answer to Donahue’s 6’3” Sebastian Niewald, who scored 10 points in the first quarter. The senior scored only one point the rest of the way. In fact, the entire Donahue roster scored only eight points in the second half.
The Rays (13-11) were led by senior Joe Reisinger with 18 points. Reisinger has been the team leader in assists, steals and blocks this season. Senior Brooks Vorderstrasse, who moved to Marco Island from Colorado, scored 13 against Donahue. He has a season average of 20 points a game. He also led the Rays in rebounding. Senior Quintin Fitton added 10 points and junior John Boxma nine. Boxma’s points all came from beyond the three-point line in the second quarter when the Rays were starting to mount their comeback.
Watt is happy with his season as head coach of the Rays. Previously he served as assistant coach to Travis Barry, who remains as head coach of the girls’ team and assistant on the boys’ team.
"I feel like it was a great season,” Watt said. "The schools that we lost to were much bigger than us. I feel really good about our season. I really feel good about our older players bringing up our younger players. I just love it. It's great."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here