Ramsey: Sierra hero secured title but he's ready to move on

Marquis Burleson is like any other basketball player.

He once dreamed of hitting that really big shot, the one that lifts his team to a state title.

Marquis Burleson is unlike almost any other basketball player.

His vision came true.

With seconds left in the 4A title game last season, Burleson had the ball in his hands. His Sierra Stallions trailed Pueblo South by one point.

He had no time to think, no options.

He had to shoot.

Sierra had trailed by 20 points in the first half. Sierra was a prohibitive underdog to South. Burleson had struggled all night, scoring only two points.

None of this mattered. He had the ball. He had his chance.

He launched a leaning 10-footer. The ball took a tantalizing journey around the rim.

And dropped as the buzzer sounded.

The Stallions were state champs, and teammates, coaches and cheerleaders engulfed Burleson with frantic joy. It was like his dreams, only better.

“It was kind of surreal,” Burleson said. “You see it happen to you, and you never believe it could happen to you but you want it to happen to you.”

Burleson is a redshirt guard this season at McCook Community College in Nebraska. He’s enjoyed his year as the guy who hit the really big shot, but he’s ready to put the shot of a lifetime in his past.

“I honestly don’t think about it that much,” Burleson said from his dorm room last week. “I’m moving on with my basketball career, and it’s not something that I think about a lot. I kind of want to move past it.”

Burleson can’t attend Sierra’s state semifinal battle Thursday against Lewis-Palmer. He’s busy with his studies and his new team.

He’ll be a few hundred miles away, rooting for his former teammates as he remembers the shot of his life.

Last season, Sierra was careless and timid in the opening 16 minutes against Pueblo South, and the Stallions expected coach Otis Johnson to be spitting with rage.

Only he wasn’t.

Kamryn Williams, who plays power forward for the current Stallions, laughed when he thought back to Johnson’s halftime surprise.

“Coach wasn’t upset at all,” Williams said. “He talked in a normal fashion, telling us to calm down and relax. You could tell by his voice that he knew we would come back.”

The Stallions quickly rewarded their coach’s faith, ripping to a 10-0 run to open the second half. After that, they slowly chopped Pueblo South’s lead.

With 6 seconds left, Sierra called timeout and Johnson designed a  play for junior forward Jahmall Fountain. The Stallions trailed by one.

The inbounds pass came to Williams. He looked for Fountain, who was surrounded. Burleson could sense trouble and began shouting.

“Ball, ball, ball!” he said.

Williams saw Burleson and tossed him the pass along with the game and the season.

Burleson refused to get lost in the immensity of the moment. Three South players converged on him, their hands in his face. He calmly released the shot, which danced on the rim for a long instant.

“It didn’t go straight in,” Williams said, “and that gave everybody the excitement of, ‘Is it going in? Is it going in?’”

Yes, it was.

Even after the dancing and shouting and hugging, Burleson didn’t fully grasp what he had done until he saw his mother, Robbie. He walked out of the locker room and found her weeping with pride and joy.

They hugged for a long time, and tears were in his eyes as he embraced his mother. This moment lingers in his mind above all others.

This season, Burleson watched a few Sierra games, and it was as if he had made the shot 5 minutes ago. Crowds gathered. He remained the hero.

A somewhat reluctant hero.

“A lot of people don’t get that chance,” he said. “I just humble myself and realize how great it is that I got that chance.”

If you run into Burleson, he would prefer you did not bring up the shot that delivered a state title to Sierra.

He’s tired of all the attention. He really is. He understands why so many remain so happy.

But he’s hoping for a new Sierra hero.