Archdiocese of Philadelphia
CYO Girls All-Star Game
by Jim Charles
Thirty-two of the Philly area's best 7th & 8th graders were showcased
at Neumann College Saturday, January 24th.
Yes, I know. We're DELAWARE Girls Basketball. But there was nothing else going on of interest Saturday night, so Tom and I decided to check out the Philly area CYO All-Star Game. What a great event! The game was played with four 15-minute running clock quarters. New shifts of 5 girls were subbed in every 5 minutes of clock time. The game lasted about an hour ten minutes.
As is typical in these types of games, the level of play was quite rusty at the very beginning. There were no set plays sent in by the coaches. It was all just "make it up as you go" strategy. And as such, it took awhile for the players to get rid of their nervousness, relax a little, and learn their new teammates. Once the players settled down, fantastic basketball soon emerged. There were more made threes than I had seen in a long time. And, starting about halfway through the game, the players actually started running rudimentary plays (like give-and-go's) on their own. By the final buzzer, over 120 total points had been scored! The winning team had over 80 themselves! And yet, this contest was not like an NBA All-Star Game where the defense stays home. Just about all of the players were focused at both ends.
One thing reminded me of our own Wilmington CYM and our First State high school teams: Lack of height. Of the 32 players, it would be fair to say that there were about 2 near-six-footers on each squad. Perhaps another 2 per team in the 5' 9" / 5' 10" range. All the rest, average guard size.
One of the players who really brought her A-game was Coley Ricci from Holy Saviour/St. John Fisher in Linwood. She had around a dozen points (no official book was kept) including, by our count, 3 three-pointers. She is a point guard extraordinaire. Eyes up, uses both hands, terrific passer, and is perfectly willing to dial her own number when scoring opportunities arise. Most Delaware high schools would love to acquire a talent like her. Even better, for us, was that she was one of two representatives from Region 30, which happens to border on Delaware. Still better, her parish school, Holy Saviour/St. John Fisher is just about the closest Pennsylvania CYO location to the Delaware state line.
A word of explanation on the interchangeable abbreviations, CYO & CYM. All Catholic administered sports at the grade school level used to be called CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) everywhere. In the Wilmington Diocese (which includes the entire State of Delaware), the name was changed in the late 90s to CYM (Catholic Youth Ministry). Pennsylvania, however, retains the original CYO moniker.
Wilmington CYM used to hold 7th/8th grade all-star games through 1999 when they were summarily discontinued. Explanations I received at the time generally centered around too much politics. (Gee, can you imagine that?) The story going around was to the effect that complaints were received that coaches would automatically name their own daughters to the all-star teams no matter how well or poorly she played. And I have to say, as a CYM coach myself during that time period, I can vouch that the complaint wasn't without merit. However, the powers that be took a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water approach and decided to eliminate the complaints by eliminating the games. It's a shame we can't honor our best grade school players for one day like they do just a short drive away.
Enough lecturing! Here's the pics:
For an NCAA court, Neumann's lighting was really atrocious. Getting Sports Illustrated quality action shots was out of the question. This was about the best I could do.
Holy Saviour's Coley Ricci was among the best of the best.
Region 30 reps: Sarah Curran (Nativity BVM) and Coley Ricci.
For a complete list of the all-stars and their parish affiliations, click here.
Special thanks to Carol Beausoleil, Athletic Ministry Assistant, Archdiocese of Philadelphia, for her gracious assistance with player IDs.
