Catalina hoops team making rare trip to Chicago, and the Trojans need your help

Jose Lugo’s has always dreamed of flying on a plane.

Thanks to his basketball coach and some caring donors, Catalina High School’s senior captain will get that chance.

The Trojans basketball team will fly to Chicago on Dec. 26 so they can participate in a holiday tournament at Charles A. Prosser Career Academy. It’s a rare out-of-state trip for a group of players who haven’t traveled far from Tucson. Just one of Catalina’s 12 players has flown on a plane before. Only a few have traveled out of the state.

“It’s everything because, for me, I’ve never been in an airplane,” Lugo said. “So it’s going to be my first time traveling really far with my (basketball) family. I love these guys and to go with them to Chicago and compete in one of the best competitions in the world … when we come back, we’re going to be a better team.”

The trip is the brainchild of third-year coach Obie Tann, who was born and raised in Chicago. He lived with numerous family members until age 13, when his mother came back into his life. He knows, more than most local coaches, the challenges facing athletes at schools like Catalina.

Tann also knows how important basketball — and a trip like this — can be.

“For me, basketball was my way out,” he said. “I grew up with limited parental guidance … so basketball for me was ‘I’m going to be successful, it’s going to help me get an education and it’s going to help me get wherever I go.’”

Tann began looking into tournaments shortly after school began in August. The Trojans had an opportunity to play in a New Mexico tournament, which led Tann to think: If we can play in New Mexico, why not someplace farther away?

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Tann convinced Catalina officials to sign off on a Detroit tournament, but the Trojans’ invitation fell through. Michigan schools, it turns out, aren’t allowed to bring in opponents from more than 600 miles away.

That led to Chicago. Tann then went through his hometown contacts and found the tournament at Prosser, which was looking for one more school to fill the bracket. The Trojans are 8-1 following Tuesday’s night’s 75-72 win over Desert View; they’ll host Coolidge on Thursday night.

Catalina will leave on a midnight flight from Phoenix on Dec. 26 and, arriving in Chicago just before 6 a.m. The team will play its first game 13 hours later, square off in their second game the following night and play two games apiece on Dec. 28 and 29. The group will make its way back to the airport before dawn on Dec. 30 to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight back to Arizona.

“I’m really excited,” senior Philippe Kijana said. “We get to see different competition and spend more time with our guys. It’s actually my birthday during that week, so I get to spend it with them.”

The cost for Catalina’s trip is a little more than $13,000 — a figure that doesn’t include the winter essentials Tann knows his players will need for a December trip to the Midwest. Tann and assistant Chris Stallkamp have raised much of the money themselves, but are in need of more. Email chizonahoops@gmail.com for additional information.

This season will be Tann’s last at Catalina. Tann, his wife and baby will move to Phoenix after the school year. He says being able to provide a trip like this in his final season will be special.

The departing coach said he hopes his players learn one big thing from their trip.

“There’s no limit,” he said. “There’s nothing in the world that you can’t do; there’s nowhere you can’t go.”