This Wildcat team has a 5-year history of winning and toppling some very big-named Philly area teams.  For its age bracket, this Delaware PAL roster reads like a who's who collection of First State talent.  Experienced, skilled players run all the way down this 13-player lineup.

 

They came into the weekend with a hard to beat 8 - 0 record.  This apparently didn't matter much to their first opponent on Saturday, the Northeast (Philly) Rockers.  The Rockers took the game, 36 - 29.  For the Wildcats, eight players scored, including Lindsey Nichols with 9 points and Shakeera Wooten with 6.

 

This first defeat of the season must've been a wake-up call for the PAL crew.  Their next opponents, one of two Sparks teams entered in this age bracket, were positively lit up by Coach Rausch's squad, 65 - 23.  Coming up big for the Delawareans were MV Barr (a Pennsylvanian) with 15 and a quartet of players with 8 points each:  Alyssa Cuomo, Paige Davis, Tiera Scott, and Kiersten Fauntleroy.

 

On Sunday, for their third game of the tourney, the Wildcats prevailed yet again by a comfortable margin over the Berks-Mont Vipers, 45 - 27.  Shakeera Wooten paced the attack with 13 points, while MV Barr wasn't far behind with 10 of her own.

 

For their getaway game, the Unruly Felines would face yet another Sparks team.  And, for the third game in a row, the score would not be close.  The Wildcats doused the Sparks, 57 - 37.  Three players turned in double-digit performances.  Shakeera Wooten had 13, MV Barr one back with 12, and Alex Witt one more back with 11.

 

You wanna talk depth?  Consider this:  In Game 1, eight players scored.  In Game 2, 11 (out of 13) contributed.  In Game 3, seven tallied points.  And in the final contest, 9 came away with at least a free-throw.  This amount of depth is rare for a school team.  It's not much more common even on AAU squads.

 

You don't have to be Nostradamus to predict another big year for the 14U Wildcats.

 

Tourney Pics

 

Paige Davis (St. E's), a point guard with blazing speed, takes it strong to the hoop against the Vipers.

 

Another gifted 1-guard, Sam Bonvetti (St. Mark's), passes the ball just in the nick of time beyond her defender.  Sam's got great reactions, a master of passing, and has a pretty decent 3-point shot.

 

MV Barr (Archbishop Carroll HS) provides good size out of the front-court for the 14U.  She led the team with a 40-point weekend.  Typically, many elite players from Delaware jump State lines in order to play with PA clubs.  MV is a fine example that Delaware teams can attract good ballplayers from other States too!

 

Alex Witt (Ursuline Academy) prepares to shoot a free-throw.  Alex had 19 points on the weekend.

 

Shakeera Wooten (Springer MS) was all over the scorebook during the tournament, contributing 35 points to the Wildcat cause.  Another great guard on this talent-laden team.

 

Kelly Williams (St. Matthew's) looks to pass.

 

If you're afraid of contact, you can't play on this team.  Here we see Lindsey Nichols (IHM; former iPOW winner) crashing into a Rockers player under the basket.

 

Kiersten Fauntleroy (St. Mark's) uses her height and reach to full advantage in getting up this nice jumper.

 

Erica Brown (Independence School) is yet another quality guard.  In limited minutes, she chipped in 8 points, which included two 3-pointers.

 

Coach Amy Davis-Rausch gives 'em the plan.

 

 

A Letter from the Coach

Dear Jim:

Thank you attending our tournament this weekend at Westtown High School in West Chester, PA.  I visited your website to get an idea of the kind of articles you feature.  I realize this is an opinion based web-site, and I think my team is very special so this article should fit right in.

My belief is, “you play like you practice,” hence, my practices are very structured and disciplined.  We hold one day for strictly clinical lessons, shooting techniques, passing, dribbling, rebounding etc. The second day we go over strategies, rectify mistakes in past games, add new offensives and defenses if need be.   

I have 13 girls on my team this year which is comprised of four 8^th graders and nine high school freshman.  We have girls that represent the Catholic Conference in Delaware, Philly Catholic Conference in Pennsylvania, and girls from the CYM program in Delaware to mention a few. 

The best thing about our team is that we have a deep bench.  I could give an award to a different player on any given day.  The element of surprise is awesome and that is what we have, you never know where the attack is coming from!  Every now and then we will have a player score a few more points than the others, but for the most part, balanced scoring is what works for this team.

Some people fall into bad habits of asking, “How many points did you score?”  I don’t focus on that.  If a player pulls down 10 or more rebounds per game, that is saying something.  If a player can see the court, penetrate and make great passes that is saying something.  I teach my players to work together, cheer each other on, and most of all, WIN THE GAME.  It doesn’t matter who scores the most, but that we win because of your teamwork.

Make no mistake about it; the philosophy of this team is to WIN.  I have yet to meet a competitive player who loses the game and says, “But I had fun.”  It is more than that.  We are better than that.  The girls on this team have been preparing themselves for the High School level since they started their early careers.  I, the players and their parents are committed to this program. 

We currently are 11-1, losing a game by six to a 15U (A) team.  Most importantly, this weekend we beat our nemesis by 20!  We have never beaten them in four years!  That was our best accomplishment.  Our second best, is that we beat a 15U (A) who had two girls on the team that drove themselves to the tourney! If that is not a motivator, I don’t know what is.

We have boosted our schedule this year to play tough teams to get us ready for Nationals.  We leave for Staten Island, NY this Friday, we will be playing in Connecticut at Yale University in May, and in June we will be attending a college show-case tournament in Hershey, PA.

Amy Davis-Rausch

 

Other Delaware Teams:

 

Delaware PAL Wildcats 14U (Amy Rausch), 3 - 1 (11 - 1 overall)

 

Delaware PAL Wildcats 14U (Tom Starr), 1 - 3

 

Delaware PAL Wildcats 13U (Allan Cox)

 

Delaware PAL Wildcats 10U (Steve Colella), 2 - 2

 

Wilmington Tigers 12U (Hugo Romero)

 

Wilmington Tigers 11U (Matt Payne), 2 - 2 (8 - 4 overall)

 

Delaware Lady Sharpshooters 11U

***  The purpose of this page, like the rest of this site, is to promote girls basketball in the State of Delaware.  This is hard to do if individual players cannot be singled out.  However, I will honor all requests by players or parents to remove their/their daughters' names and/or images from this review.  I will also gladly correct any misspelled names, or add names where now I list only a player uniform number.  Just email me. ***