For the Mustangs, That’s Amaurys

Amaurys Fermin is averaging 9.9 points and 4.5 assists per game during the first 10 games of the season. Photo Courtesy of Jamie Pereira

I met Amaurys Fermin two years ago. It was Joe Callero’s first season at Cal Poly and Fermin was with a group of redshirt players. Most of them were freshmen. It was clear Amaurys was not.

Talking to the others, I had to look up. Literally. A few of them were 6’ 10” or above. With Amaurys, I got eye contact. Intensity. Confidence. Two years later, it remains a memorable first impression of a kid who was confident and who the other players already looked to as a spokesperson. A leader.

I asked other players where they were from. I talked to them about basketball, but they were clearly not as comfortable as Fermin.

When Amaurys was hurt last season, I once again had the chance to talk to him early in the season. Still oblivious to the man’s talent, I asked him a somewhat ignorant question – “Would you have started?”

Fermin, who had been hurt only days before, looked at me, rubbed the back of his neck, and shrugged/nodded. He wouldn’t acknowledge his on-court prowess verbally to a random person he was talking to, but I got the point. Amaurys would have been a starter. He wanted to be out on the court. The anxiety of being injured was clear.  And yet this was a young man who was anything but unsure of himself. It was clear that a second straight year without game action was killing him.

The impact of Fermin’s injury was felt throughout the program. Freshmen Maliik Love and Jamal Johnson had to share point guard duty as Kyle Odister, who handled some point guard duties as a freshman, was also injured for the entire 2010-11 season.

Until this Fall, Amaurys hadn’t suited-up in a regular season game for the Mustangs. This is clearly, though, already Fermin’s team and will go as far Amaurys and fellow seniors David Hanson and Will Taylor, among others, can take them.

“Amaurys is not just a senior point guard, I think Amaurys’ a mature senior point guard,” said Mustangs head coach Joe Callero. “He’s been around the world. He’s a New York guy… he’s seen a lot, and he’s been around a lot of basketball. I think what he brings us is not just his stats, I think he brings us a confidence and a comfort.”

Fermin is almost always soft-spoken, but clear in the message that team comes first.

“For me, it’s just setting my guys up, being that leader out there who’s going to be out there, making their game easier,” said Fermin after a recent win over NAIA Menlo College. Fermin dished-out seven assists in the game.

Fermin added, “We come with the mentality in practice and everything to go hard. We don’t look at the name on the jersey, we just try to do things coach wants us to do.”

Which gives a fan a glimpse into the coach-player relationship. Callero’s first words after a game are about the assist-to-turnover ratio for his team and his point guard. It is the first statistic he talks about after games. And Fermin seems to be Callero’s floor leader — an extension of the coach on the floor.

Against Menlo, all five Mustang starters scored in double-figures and everyone who was available to play did.

“I didn’t even know we had five players in double figures… I love distributing the ball and being the guy that makes plays and makes the game easier for us. Whatever it takes to win, that’s what I’m going to do for this team,” said Fermin.

Fermin is quick to rattle off other players’ names as keys to success, including fellow senior-captain Hanson, whose shooting has begun to come around since a slow start to the season. Hanson leads the team, averaging almost 11 points per game.

Photo by Owen Main

Callero is pleased with the depth Cal Poly has shown through their first ten games.

“What’s surprised me is that we are getting as much contribution from everybody on any given night,” said Callero. “Our concentration level and our maturity level to be ready for any night when your number might get called. Titch doesn’t play for two or three games and his number gets called and he produced. Dylan being able to adjust… just different guys stepping up is big for our program.”

As excited as he is about the early-season depth his team has shown, Callero always comes back to Fermin, calling him the “head of the snake.”

“When he walks into a gym, when he walks into a city – sees a place – he’s feeling like ‘I’m a basketball player. I can play with anybody anywhere’ and help my team, said Callero. “I think that confidence permeates through the rest of the team.”

Cal Poly is now tied for their best Division I start in the history of the program, and they continue to build confidence. And, as Tribune writer Joshua Scroggin has tweeted this season, “#that’sAmaurys.”