Coach Dwayne "Tiny" Morton: Why Lincoln Won It All

There were two pervasive beliefs that emerged in New York City high school basketball this past season. The first was that Queens County had finally surpassed Kings County as the top dog in NYC basketball. The second was that the CHSAA had eclipsed the PSAL as the superior New York City high school league. The Abraham Lincoln Railsplitters, coached by outspoken, sometimes controversial but always entertaining Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, shattered both myths in one season.

The Coney Island, NY based high school not only won the PSAL City Championship by smashing archrival Thomas Jefferson Campus but also took the New York State Federation T.O.C. Championship with an empathic win over the Long Island Lutheran Crusaders.

All this was accomplished without any high major recruits in his roster. Love him or hate him, Morton has cemented both the Railsplitters and himself as one of the most prolific accumulators of City and State championship hardware with nine and four trophies respectively.

Coach Morton has some interesting opinions when it comes to both Brooklyn versus Queens and Public School versus Catholic School as well as the art of winning and shared them all exclusively with NYCHoops.net. “I think Brooklyn kids are in the gym together a little longer. Queens has a lot of talent, so does Brooklyn but I think Brooklyn teams play together a little more,” said Morton as to why Brooklyn players have an edge.

When it comes to the Class AA divisions of the two leagues, Morton has strong opinions as well. "Most of the past Catholic league [teams] were usually loaded and they usually did win a lot of championships but I’m noticing a huge trend.” According the Coach Morton, CHSAA players don’t play with each other as much as PSAL players outside of high school. “A lot of these [CHSAA] kids treat AAU as a priority. In the Public league, most of those kids don’t have that AAU luxury.”

“Chemistry and dedication,” are what Morton attributes to the Railsplitters overall success this season. A sentiment that feeds into his Public school narrative of togetherness. With that being said, the crafty coach added that he believes reconnaissance was also pivotal to Lincoln’s win over LuHi for the State championship. “My strategy for every season is to get a good look at teams that are probably going to be there at the end,” Morton revealed. The good look at L.I. Lutheran would be volunteered surprisingly by none other than Crusaders head coach John Buck.

“We saw them at an event that we did at Lincoln,” said Morton. “They asked us for a scrimmage which I was surprised that they wanted to do that. We got a chance to see them with no real ref involved.” While Morton doesn’t believe that the preview of the Crusaders gave his team an edge, he does believe that it gave his team motivation and let him know not to take the Long Island powerhouse lightly.

Coach Morton is the first to admit that two players on his team were the straws that stirred the championship drink for Lincoln. “Donald Flores '17 is the quiet leader and [Kclejuan] “Klay” [Ferguson] '17 is the vocal leader. Both of them helped me out tremendously on the court.”

In a strange twist, in addition to the City and State championships, one of Lincoln former players Rakym Felder from last season was two wins away from being in the NCAA Tournament Championship with the South Carolina Gamecocks. As a college freshman, Felder's Brooklyn tenacity was frequently mentioned as one of the reasons Coach Frank Martin wanted the point guard on his team. “We rode that as a team,” said Morton. “Rakym just brought some joy and pride to the team. A lot of [our] kids were motivated [by him].”

Morton also mentioned other Lincoln alumni along with Felder that were in this year’s Big Dance such as Desi Rodriguez (Seton Hall), Kamari Murphy (Miami) along with Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn Nets) who’s a freshman at an even bigger dance, the NBA.

When asked to sum it all up, Coach Morton replied modestly, “I think we had a good year.”