AAU Beat
Tigers 10U Keep Their Skills Sharp
In Malvern Fall League
October 15, 2009
10U Tigers, left to right in green shirts, Emilie Hager, Kiera Wendell, Alyssa Irons, Julia Bastian-Fury, and Alena Skowronski.
A generation ago, there wasn't much happening in Delaware with regard to Girls AAU. According to some of the people who were there at the time, the late great Joe Pennell and John Armstrong were instrumental in starting up the Delaware PAL Wildcats. Being that John and Joe were police officers, it only made sense that they would secure PAL as the sponsor. The Wildcats were, for all intents and purposes, the first real girls AAU club in the area.
Flash to 2009. Nowadays, just north of the canal alone, we have the aforementioned Wildcats, the Angels, the Sharpshooters, the Sharks, and maybe the Patriots and Raiders -- though I haven't seen much of the last two clubs in my travels. In 2006, the Wilmington Tigers joined the fray. Starting off with 4 teams in their inaugural season, they fielded 7, by my count, in the spring of 2009. This would make the Tigers either the largest or second largest club in New Castle County.
At the helm of the youngest Tiger team -- the 10U girls -- is Coach Jeff Skowronski. Jeff doesn't look at an AAU season as ending as June gives way to July. When the opportunity came up to join the Malvern Fall League out of Chester County, PA, he didn't hesitate to enter his team into it. Each team in the league plays a game per week from mid-September into early November. Something along the lines of 8 or 9 games for the season. In the first two games of the season, his girls averaged 40 point wins over their opponents! League officials then moved the team, after these two games, into its 7th/8th grade division. Now, keep in mind, this Tiger team is 10U. These are, for the most part, 5th and 6th grade girls!
According to Coach Skowronski:
We entered a 6th grade team into the Malvern Basketball League. Following the past AAU season, a few parents asked if there were any opportunities for their daughters to play in the fall. The Malvern League proved to be a convenient option. We were excited to have 7 of 11 players from our 10U Wilmington Tigers team commit, with 1-2 players who couldn’t fully commit but were able to fill in occasionally. Since we also coach IHM’s JV1 team, we offered the additional spots to 6th graders that were on the JV2 last season. It was very nice to have such a high percentage of players return to play for us. It demonstrates a level of trust in us as coaches, as well as a commitment from players and their families to continue to improve their skills and knowledge of the game. It also made things a lot easier since we don’t have any practices. Our team is represented by IHM (Alena, Emily S., Kiera, Jessica) , Ursuline (Nina and Julia), Tatnall (Emilie H.) and Springer ( Holly), Brandywine Springs (Kailyn), as well as SJB (Gabby) and St.Es (Alyssa).
We were placed in the 6th grade division but were quickly moved up to the 7th grade division after our first 2 games ended in 30 plus point victories. Since moving up we are 1-2, overall 3-2. Both losses were close games the entire game and ended as 4 and 1 point deficits. I feel that the players, as well as coaches, learn a lot more from close losses than from one-sided victories. Most of our parents are in agreement which makes things easier. We also notice that the players are running the appropriate sets against the different defenses as well as demonstrate increased “freelancing” especially if a play breaks down. The 7th grade division consists of a few AAU teams (Tigers, Comets and Wizards), as well as some core groups of PA teams such as Villa Maria.
Our rationale for entering the league was to give our players a chance to continue to play against top-notch competition, to prepare them for their upcoming seasons, and to keep a core group playing together. As we have discussed, most of the elite PA AAU programs play together throughout the year . As we near the end of the fall season and look towards the CYM season, it’s evident in the team’s performance that they are continuing to grow as players and as a team. It’s also clear that each of our players is more than ready for their school’s respective tryouts. We look forward to continue coaching a few of the them, as well as coaching against a few others. We will continue to keep you posted on this teams performance in the Malvern League.
Holly Panchak is a promising point guard for the Tigers.
On defense, Emilie Hager & Alyssa Irons. Emilie is one of the big scoring threats on the Tigers while Alyssa provides speed and an above average ability to handle and advance the ball.
She is called "Snake." Just why that is, I never found out. But, Alena Skowronski is awesome with the ball, highly agile and acrobatic, and a legitimate threat from 3-point land.
The Tiger girls are not afraid to get in a scrum -- even if they have to do battle with much bigger girls.
This website has reported on Emilie Hager before, most notably when she played for IHM last winter. Good when we first found her, all she does is keep getting better and better! Today, she exudes confidence (as this picture shows) and can play anywhere on the floor.
Kailyn Kampert is blessed with exemplary genetics. Her mother is Sue (Manelski) Kampert. Sue is a DGB.com Great Player of the Past and a former two-time State Player of the Year. A lot to live up to, but Kailyn, to Tom's and my eyes, seems to be meeting all expectations. Kailyn plays frontcourt for Coach Skowronski and is usually in the thick of things underneath, but it is also not unheard of to see her put up a perimeter shot from time to time as well.
When I last saw Kiera Wendell back in April, she seemed a little out-of-synch in the team's offensive sets. All that seems corrected now. Kiera's a tough competitor and provides a very welcome compliment to Kailyn Kampert down low.
...And speaking of the two forwards...
Any name mis-spellings, please email us. We'll fix it right away!