Rams/Lightning Pre-Regional Warm-Up
April 19 & 20, 2008
April 21, 2008
by Jim Charles
Another weekend, another tournament! This time, though, I was back at familiar territory. If it's April, and you're on West Chester University's campus, it must be a Rams-Lightning girls tournament. Besides our own Delaware teams, this event draws teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland (and we're talking as far as Baltimore), Washington, DC, and even Virginia! For some reason, though, few of the upper-crust elite clubs come here (the Fencors, Rebels, etc.), although it was nice to see at least one Renegades team and a couple of squads from the Philly Belles. And it's a shame some of the big-name teams pass up this weekend. The WCU Rams, in association with the Chesco Lightning AAU club, host this tournament and several others on-campus every spring. These are tournaments that are run properly. There's no skimping on length of game like we saw last weekend. You get the regulation 16-minute halves.
But enough preamble! Let's get down to the teams.
Several teams that were covered last week from the Sparks tournament participated in the Rams/Lightning Warm-Up, including the Delaware PAL 13U & 14U (#2), Delaware Lady Sharpshooters 11U, and the Wilmington Tigers 12U. There were also a couple of teams that weren't at last weekend's affair in Westtown, and it is those teams that we'll highlight this go 'round. Prime among them, the Delaware Lady Sharpshooters 15U and the Wilmington Tigers 13U.
As always, coaches of the other participating teams are more than welcome to email in game reports. If received in a timely manner, they can be inserted into the tournament coverage here, or in the website's Team Reports section. Coaches are also encouraged to help out with player names -- especially players in photos who aren't recognized by name in the corresponding captions. Coaches can also help correct mis-spelled player names.
WCU South Campus facility.
On the left is Brandywine High School's own, Michelle Baker, the 4th all-time leading girls scorer in the State (1978 points). Despite her shirt, she will be attending St. Joe's in the Fall. With her is her stepdad and Tournament Director, John Panichelli of the Chesco Lightning.
This tournament brought out another big name from area hoops, Lindsey Dyal. The geeky-looking old dude is yours truly. Lindsey played for me in summer league back in 2000 as freshman starting point guard for my Stormin' Norman's team. Lindz led us to the championship of the league! In the years to follow, she would score 1001 points for Glasgow High, play in the Blue-Gold Senior All-Star Game, and become a McDonalds All-American nominee. ...And she still talks to me!!
Now, let's go to the teams!
Featured Teams:
Teams also Participating:
Delaware Pal Wildcats 14U (#2)
*** 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. *** DelGirlsHoops@aol.comJim Charles