When one inspiring high school basketball story hits close to home

Following his fourth state championship in 2013, Damian was nominated for the National High School Federation's National Coach of the Year award. He also

Melissa Segura | Feb 21, 2014

When one inspiring high school basketball story hits close to home /

Coach Damian Segura overcame cancer and led St. Pius to the New Mexico state title last season. — Coach Damian Segura overcame cancer and led St. Pius to the New Mexico state title last season / Courtesy of Dee Lujan

Following his fourth state championship in 2013, Damian was nominated for the National High School Federation's National Coach of the Year award. He also notched his fourth Albuquerque Metro Coach of the Year Award for Class 3 and 4A. Despite graduating four of five starters, the 2013-2014 St. Pius Sartans are currently ranked No. 3 in New Mexico Class 4A, with a 17-6 record. Recently, Damian celebrated three years of remission.

Published Feb 21, 2014

MELISSA SEGURA

Staff Writer, Sports Illustrated Staff writer Melissa Segura made an immediate impression at Sports Illustrated. As an undergraduate intern in 2001, her reporting helped reveal that Danny Almonte, star of the Little League World Series, was 14, two years older than the maximum age allowed in Little League. Segura has since covered a range of sports for SI, from baseball to mixed martial arts, with a keen eye on how the games we play affect the lives we lead. In a Sept. 10, 2012, cover story titled, The Other Half of the Story, Segura chronicled the plight of NFL wives and girlfriends caring for brain-injured players. In 2009 she broke the story that MLB had discovered that Washington Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez, who had been signed to a team-record $1.4 million bonus in 2006, was really Carlos Alvarez and he was four years older than he had claimed to be. Segura graduated with honors from Santa Clara University in 2001 with a B.A. in Spanish studies and communications (with an emphasis in journalism). In 2011, she studied immigration issues as a New York Times fellow at UC-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Before joining SI full-time in 2002, she worked for The Santa Fe New Mexican and covered high school sports for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.). Segura says Gary Smith is the SI staffer she would most want to trade places with for a day. "While most noted for his writing style, having worked alongside Gary, I've come to realize he is an even more brilliant reporter than he is a writer."