EAST SYRACUSE MINOA CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT — With its third annual “Costello Classic” basketball games hosted Dec. 14, East Syracuse Minoa DECA raised funds to go toward the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The Saturday evening event in the gymnasium of ESM Central High School featured a student-versus-staff game, which had a closer score at the buzzer this time than in past years, followed by an alumni game that pitted district graduates from 2020 and after against those from the classes of 2019 and prior. The fundraiser is named in memory of one of Minoa’s own, Larry Costello, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee who passed away from cancer in December 2001. In between the two games, the microphone was turned over to Minoa Mayor Bill Brazill to share a story about Costello, who was a friend of his. Brazill mentioned how Costello had temporarily stepped away from the NBA to coach the 1965-66 ESM boys basketball team for a single season just after East Syracuse and Minoa combined into one district. In that one year, Costello took his hometown Spartans all the way to the Onondaga County championship. Before long, though, famous basketball center Wilt Chamberlain would come calling to tell Costello he was the missing piece needed for the Philadelphia 76ers to win an NBA title, and that they did in 1967 with Costello as point guard, Brazill told the crowd. From there, with Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson on his roster, Costello coached the Milwaukee Bucks to victory in the 1971 Finals, the soonest into its existence an NBA expansion team has ever won a title. “You would never know he accomplished everything he accomplished,” Brazill said of Costello. “He was a real humble guy and just a great guy to be around.” Bob Anzalone, the adviser for ESM DECA, said that when he first heard about his backstory he knew he needed to publicize Costello’s name more locally and combine that with the goal of making impactful, life-saving contributions to the V Foundation. That foundation was founded in 1993 and named after North Carolina State basketball coach and sports commentator Jimmy Valvano, who died that year after a battle with metastatic adenocarcinoma, but not before his farewell ESPYs speech instruction of “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” Throughout the night of the ESM event this year, $5 tickets covering both games were sold at the door and there were also light blue commemorative T-shirts for sale and cookies made by deBerjeois Delights, a business started by ESM student Emma deBerjeois. All proceeds were donated to the V Foundation, which to date has allocated over $353 million in grants for cancer research nationwide. Amari Ignacio, an ESM senior, said the event inspires people who’ve graduated to come back and have a good time with classmates they haven’t seen in months or years, with the “cherry on top” being the donations to what  he calls an “amazing cause.” Jared Bricco, a junior at the high school, said it’s a fun event to put together and watching it come to fruition is enjoyable too, particularly since Costello was an ESM alum and it’s a way to pay tribute to him as well as Valvano. Anzalone, a teacher of sports management and business education at ESM, said his student organizers are part of the official V Team now, while the Costello Classic itself has grown into a community-wide event involving supportive attendees, a number of local businesses signed on as sponsors, and the alumni who catch word of it and participate. Anzalone said he’s shooting to surpass the $30,000 fundraising mark by the time he retires from teaching. On a personal level, Anzalone is a three-time survivor of multiple solitary plasmacytoma, and his mother passed away from breast cancer that had spread to the bone. People can still make a tax-deductible donation online through the registered DIY fundraiser’s page on v.org, which can be found by typing “2024 Costello Classic” into that website’s search bar or finding it under the “Events & Fundraisers” tab. The entirety of direct contributions go toward funding cancer research and programs thanks to an endowment that covers the V Foundation’s administrative and operating expenses. The ESM DECA club members learn how to plan, organize, market, implement and then evaluate events, and they raise thousands of dollars annually for non-profit organizations. The students get hands-on, real-world experience as a result, and they form positive partnerships with local businesses.