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As the New York Knicks marched through lower Manhattan Thursday morning with hundreds of thousands of fans cheering their first NBA title in 53 years, another set of underdogs followed behind: the Seward Park Campus varsity basketball team.
Seward ended its own yearslong championship drought in March, and the team’s four seniors scored a last-minute invite to join the parade as part of a broader delegation of eight Public Schools Athletic League championship teams.
After a near-sleepless night of anticipation, the students woke up at dawn. Within hours, they were atop a double decker bus traveling up Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes from Battery Park to City Hall. They hoisted their own championship trophy and tossed Knicks T-shirts into the roaring crowd, which drew more than 2 million people, police officials said.
It felt like the city was there to celebrate them, too.
Brooklyn Hollins, a member of the team who goes by “BK,” said onlookers asked them to sign autographs and pose for photos, catching him off guard. “I don’t have the signature ready, so I just wrote BK number 20,” he said. “Everybody was just showing love.”
Fans also recognized the school. “It was so many people saying that they went to Seward, they played against Seward,” Hollins said.
And just as the Knicks’ championship win brought New York City residents together, Seward’s championship helped bring its Lower East Side campus closer, said coach Katey Wentworth.
Once a large comprehensive high school, Seward Park is now home to five separate schools that share a building, part of a small schools movement under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The four Seward Park seniors who participated in the parade each attend different schools but play together on the campuswide basketball team.
“This was a really unifying experience for our campus,” said Wentworth, who teaches at New Design High School and has coached the team for a decade.
Wentworth also felt like she had something to prove.
“There’s a lot of conversation about a woman coaching men,” she said. “I felt very validated.”
Along the parade route, the team didn’t meet any current Knicks players. But they spotted Patrick Ewing, a Knicks legend who played on the team for 15 seasons and retired in 2000.
Seward teammate Lucas Bernstein rushed to FaceTime his dad, a longtime Ewing fan. He didn’t pick up. A selfie would have to suffice.
In the runup to the parade, some New York City public school families pleaded with city officials to reschedule so it wouldn’t fall during school hours and during Regents exams set for Thursday morning — state tests students must pass to graduate high school. (The seniors on the Seward Park team already completed their exams.)
Several schools near the parade route experienced significant logistical headaches. Educators said many families were not allowed to pass through police barricades. At least one campus planned to request a make-up day for students who couldn’t get to class.
Attendance across the city’s public schools dropped on Thursday to about 84.8% down from about 89.3% Wednesday — likely owing to the parade and the start of a long weekend. (Schools are closed Friday for Juneteenth.)
For their part, students from the Seward team felt hopeful that their championship and parade appearance could help bolster their campus’ image as a destination for basketball talent.
“It’s not just the big-name schools that produce good players,” said team member Roy Duran. “Here at Seward Park, we actually hoop.”
They said the experience on Thursday will stick with them for a long time.
“I’m gonna remember this in 60 years, 70 years, 80 years — I’m gonna remember this for the rest of my life,” Bernstein said. “We were in the Knicks parade.”
Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.
Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
Alex Zimmerman 2026-06-18 22:06:06
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