Charles City couple owns basketball royalty

Gary and Marla Rima are co-owners of Midwest Basketball League champions Cedar Valley CourtKings

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

Legendary ABC Wide World of Sports broadcaster Jim McCay voiced the proverbial introduction, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”.

Gary Rima did the play-by-play.

“From what we’ve been told, there hasn’t been an NCAA tournament basketball game won on a half-court shot since the 1980s,” Rima said in reference to Paul Jesperson’s buzzer-beater to advance the University of Northern Iowa Panthers past six-seed Texas in the first round.

“That was a thrilling victory,” said Rima, who does radio play-by-play for the Panthers’ men’s basketball and football teams.

“It was nice to hear our broadcast being played on ESPN for the next couple of days,” said Rima, whose “Oh, Baby!” call captured March at its most Madness.

Then came the agony. Up by 12 points and 44 seconds away from reaching the Sweet 16, and Panthers suddenly couldn’t inbound the ball before suffering a stunning OT loss to Texas A&M.

“You go from one extreme to another,” Rima said. “But you know, it still was a great season. At one point they were 10-11.”

Rima and his wife Marla Kay have just experienced the thrill of owning a professional basketball franchise. And for the record, the Charles City couple’s first season leading the Cedar Valley CourtKings didn’t end in defeat.

“It was the first year of the Midwest Basketball League, and they needed a team to fill one last spot,” Rima said. “I’ve had experience as general manager of the Waterloo Bucks baseball team, and ever since I got out (in 2004) I’ve always had a dream of owning a pro sports team.

“When the opportunity presented itself, I talked with my wife about forming a team in the league.”

Though this was the MBL’s inaugural season, the 11-team league consisted of already established franchises that were formerly parts of other leagues.

“But we had to start from scratch,” Rima said.

Among his first recruits were former UNI stars Marvin Singleton and Anthony James, and Iowa Conference MVP and D3 all-American Andre Norris, formerly from the University of Dubuque.

“To fill out most of the rest of the team, we held tryouts during January and February,” Rima said.

Head coach for the CourtKings is Stan Hughes.

“I do a radio talk show,” said Rima, host of “On Press Row”, “and I had Stan on the show after he started the first ever prep school basketball team in Iowa (Quakerdale Promise Academy in New Providence) and they won several national championships.

“He later went on to coach in Kentucky, but we always kept in touch. When I offered him the coaching job, I knew he wanted to come back out here but he first had to find another job in the area, which he did.”

The start of the season was tough for the CourtKings. They lost their first two games, and then their starting point guard and team leader, Rashad Carrington, died in an automobile accident on May 8.

Dedicating their rookie campaign in Carrington’s memory, the CourtKings went on to win 13 of their last 15 games of the season, including MBL playoff wins over the Indiana Dream (156-108) and the top-seed Dayton AirStrikers (117-99) to advance to the MBL championships, Aug. 21 against the Minnesota Rangers at the Minneapolis Sports Complex.

The Rangers had beaten the CourtKings twice before during the regular season, and were leading 17-16 after the first quarter. But the CourtKings seized control of the game, taking a 46-35 lead at the half, swelling their advantage to 15 after three (79-64) before taking the first-ever MBL title in a 108-98 final.

James was named MBL Finals MVP after scoring 30 points in the win over the Rangers and averaging 27 ppg during the finals.

Aundre Hicks scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Lamar Wall added 16 points, Alec Coleman scored 14, Gage Hefferman had 12 off the bench, and Singleton scored 10 in the championship win for the CourtKings.

The Midwest Basketball League is an entry-level league for aspiring basketball professionals.

“It’s to provide development opportunity for former collegiate players, as well as officials and front office personnel,” Rima said. “For a lot of these guys, we’re trying to get professional contracts overseas, or maybe in the NBA Developmental League.

“From watching these guys play, I’ve come to realize that you’ve got to be incredibly talented to play in the NBA or even the NBA Developmental League. The NBA has to be the toughest league to get into. Unlike football and baseball, there are so few spots in the NBA … and they take players from all over the world.”

The CourtKings also have a King’s Ladies cheer/dance team headed by Marla, who is the cheerleading coordinator at Charles City.

“And several of her former Comet cheerleaders are on that team,” Rima said.