At Long Beach Wilson, BIG is beautiful

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He calls them his ‘Bigs’ -- saying stuff like: ‘Our Bigs are wearing people down. Our Bigs are banging bodies left and right.’ That’s Ted-speak from Ted Hollister, the Wilson boys’ basketball coach.

Now meet his Bigs -- Joel Bitonio and Holsey Johnson, weighing in at a combined 520 pounds -- who are two BIG reasons why the Bruins (12-5) have won nine of 10 games. Bitonio, at 6 feet 4 and 250 pounds, plays tight end on the football team while Johnson also stands 6-4 but weighs in at 270. For the past month, Bitonio and Johnson have consistently teamed up for nearly 20 rebounds and 20 points a game.

Not all was content in Bruin Land early this season, when the team slumped to a 3-4 start, and Hollister blamed his Bigs. He noticed Bitonio and Johnson were tiptoeing around like flyweights.

‘They weren’t using their bodies,’ Hollister said. ‘I told them, ‘We can’t win if you guys are nonexistent. You guys need to create a collision on every single play.’ ‘

Bitonio and Johnson got the message and have created more collisions, which have opened lanes galore for the guard quartet of Nick Sanchez, Steven Richard, Ryan Huntsman and Michael Wilder.

‘And now our Bigs are putting on a show,’ Hollister said.

A BIG show.

-- Anthony Stitt

-- Image from www.movieprop.com