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Basketball stars align for family
By RODNEY PAGE, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Those familiar with the local basketball scene know about the Crumbleys. Earnest Crumbley Sr. was a standout basketball and football player at Boca Ciega High School and after stints at Arizona Western and Utah State, he returned to St. Petersburg to teach and to coach. He is currently the men's coach at St. Petersburg College. Crumbley's sons, Earnest Jr. and Kory, both starred in local youth leagues and went on to play at Lakewood High School. The Crumbleys are certainly a basketball family. But after the events between March 2 and 9, the Crumbleys could now be called the city's first family of basketball. Or at least the family of basketball firsts. It all started on March 2 when Earnest Jr., a sophomore at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, qualified for the NCAA tournament when the Owls defeated Georgia State 76-75 in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament final. It was the first time Florida Atlantic had qualified for the NCAA tournament. The Owls played Alabama Thursday in Greenville, S.C., and lost 86-78 (Crumbley scored a team high 18 points). A week after Florida Atlantic qualified, Kory Crumbley, a senior at Lakewood, won a state championship when the Spartans defeated Belle Glade Glades Central 59-52. It was the school's first state title. Later that night, St. Petersburg College defeated Indian River Community College 80-76 in overtime to win the Florida Community College Athletics Association state championship. It was -- that's right -- the school's first state title. Three Crumbleys. Three championships. Three firsts. "I guess the basketball gods were looking down on us," Kory Crumbley said. "It's a great feeling for our family." Earnest Jr. can always say he was the first to win a championship. Florida Atlantic played on March 2 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Earnest Sr. and his wife, Shirley, drove to Orlando to see the game. After the game ended, and while the celebration continued, all three Crumbleys drove back to St. Petersburg to watch Lakewood play Lakeland Kathleen in the regional final. "I watched the whole (Florida Atlantic) game," Kory said. "We played later so I got to see them win. It was very exciting. It made me want to win also." Things got even crazier on March 9, when Lakewood played in the state final in Lakeland at 3 p.m. and St. Petersburg College played in the state final in Marianna at 5 p.m. Central Time. Earnest Jr. was back at his Boca Raton apartment, so it was Shirley's job to give updates via her cell phone. "I was getting play-by-play from my mom during the Lakewood game," Earnest Jr. said. "She was giving me updates. And then I was trying to find out how my dad was doing. I didn't find that out until about 12:30." Earnest Sr. found out about the Lakewood championship about an hour before the Titans took the court. "When we left the hotel it was about 4 (Central Time) and I called my wife and she said 'They're state champions,"' Earnest Sr. said. "I said 'What was the score?' and she told me it was 59-52. So I said 'Well, it's time for us to go out and do our thing.' " Which they did. The trifecta was complete. Shirley got word from her husband, and then called both boys with the news. "I found out that night at our victory party," Kory Crumbley said. "I was jumping all around. People thought I was crazy. It still hasn't hit me. I'm still in awe of the whole thing." Earnest Sr. said it took a while for him to digest what happened. "What I first thought about was how happy I was for the college and the kids because it was the first one," he said. "It wasn't really until we sat down and ate dinner (later Saturday) that my assistant coach said 'You know what, Earnest is going to the big dance, Kory won a state championship, and we won a state championship.' "We talked about how that all fell into place. It was the karma, it was in the cards, the moon and the stars were lined up just right." While Earnest Jr. can brag about being the first, and while Kory can brag about winning the family's only high school state championship, it's dad who could have the biggest bragging rights. St. Petersburg College is playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament starting Tuesday against Wabash Valley (Ill.) in Hutchinson, Kan. No matter who's keeping score, a national championship beats everything else. "Can you imagine?" Earnest Sr. said.
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