Rams-Lighting Warm-Up
April 19 & 20, 2008
Delaware PAL Wildcats 14U (#2)
April 23, 2008
by Jim Charles
As I reported a week ago, this PAL team is a fun little bunch. And they are deceptively strong for a second team. A good handful of the players could easily break onto many other clubs' first team rosters.
Once again, I only briefly got to see this team over the weekend. Compounding that scenario was that I didn't get much of a chance to catch up with Coach Starr on just how his lineup fared. But, through the miracle of email, he's about to give us all the scoop on this lineup:
This years team is my deepest yet. We have a roster of twelve players and six of them are playing AAU Ball for the first time. Each player on the team is very talented and bring something different to the team. I would like to address four players this week and will address the others during future tournaments. Four players that are new to AAU on this team are Ashley Perez, Nicole Cwiertniewicz, Gabby Fioravanti and Kelsey Allen.
During tryouts, I could tell that Ashley was a little in awe of the players she was with; however, I saw her talents though all of this. Each practice and each game, her confidence is growing and she has a beautiful shot. She has earned the nickname "Gun Slinger" by one of the assistant coaches with her quick release and her potential is amazing.
Gabby is a player who was also a little shell shocked at the pace of the game in AAU but she is very confident in her abilities. If anyone on the team has a cult following, it is Gabby. Always the first one on the court during practice and after water breaks, she is soaking up the whole experience and never complains about anything.
Nicole is a very gifted athlete whose potential is out of this world. She has size for a guard, fast as lightning and very quick hands. When she made the team she was so happy and loves playing with so many talented players. She plays hard every single second she is in the game and will play until she is about to drop. You definately will hear more about Nicole in the future.
Kelsey is a 6'1 8th grader from Glenolden, PA and came to us to work on her game as she received very little coaching outside where coaches usually place tall players. The first thing everyone should know about Kelsey is she always has a smile on her face. Over the last few weeks, her game has shown a tremendous improvement, as we have been bringing her along slowly; however, she is ready to break out from the coaching staffs watchful eyes and be a huge impact for the rest of the year.
As for the tournament, we went 1 - 3 but as I told my team, we should have won every game but with inexperience, sometimes things don't go as planned.
The breakdown went as follows:
Game#1 vs Atlantic Cape Wildcats we lost 47 - 39 but cut their lead to one before some missed opportunities did us in.
Game#2 vs Northamton Stars we lost 50 - 40. A game I felt we should have won but we were flat the whole game.
Game#3 vs Virginia Cardinals we won 51 - 30. We were in control the whole game and gave some players extra playing time which will only make us better.
Game#4 vs South Jersey we lost 51 - 31. We played hard but too many mental mistakes and a very good South Jersey team did us in.
Finally, I just want to give the status of the four featured player during this tournament:
Ashley - 8 points
Nicole - 13 points in 2 games
Gabby - 11 points (came into the tournament with 4 on the season)
Kelsey - 6 points and many rebounds in limited playing time
We have 20 games left and I am looking forward to each and every player to continue to make their presence known.
Thank You,
Coach Starr
Tourney Pics
This is Becky Welcher. Now, I don't know her. Never saw her before. But she might just have the most awesome fashion sense of any player in the tourney. Gotta love the pink sneaker laces! And she's got a cool smile. It's about time that more of these young athletes show that they're having fun!
Last weekend's hero, Sammi Sell, who hit a game-winning 3 with 1.5 seconds left in a game at Westtown.
Nicole Cwiertniewicz is just one example of an A-bracket type of player on this roster. Here she is in a game with the Virginia Cardinal.
Ashley Perez fronts a Cardinal player who looks like she'd rather be somewhere else!
Other Delaware Teams:
*** 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