Basketball Is Back!
The College Circuit
St. Elizabeth fans will remember Amanda Craig. These days, she is starting point guard at Stevenson.
We caught up with her in a game at Penn State Berks.
College freshman and Padua Academy grad, Kelly KJ Johnson, in her NCAA debut for Neumann.
On the left is Neumann's Jordan Elgart, who, back in the day, played high school hoops for the Glasgow Lady Dragons.
Twins Katie & Kieran Young also play for Neumann. Like KJ, they, too, are former Pandas.
Play-in Day at Sanford, Friday, November 27, 2009
Padua Academy 3 - 0
Sanford 3 - 0
Ursuline Academy 2 - 1
Hodgson Vo-Tech 2 - 1
Smyrna High School 1 - 2
Cape Henlopen High School 1 - 2
A.I. DuPont High School 0 - 3
Polytech 0 - 3
A.I. DuPont's Natalia Romero with the ball.
Action from the Smyrna / A.I. game.
With the ball, A.I.'s Aimée Bouie. In front of her, Padua's Tianna "T-Wag" Wagner.
Both players are seniors.
Rookie Padua varsity coaches Joanna Pennell and Dominique Murray.
Padua had a good day, winning all 3 of their games.
...And a big part of the Padua success is due to Kristen Marbury's return to the hardwood after a 1 year hiatus.
Panda free-throw shooter, Victoria Boyd.
UA's Kelsey Miller and Smyrna's Crystal Ross.
Lots of folks came out to see Smyrna's Betnijah Laney.
Laney enters her junior year already having recorded 1,000 points.
One more shot of Betnijah in action.
Conspicuous by his absence was current St. Mark's assistant coach John Kulesza.
Here's John when he had hair as a member of the Sanford 1986 State Championship Team.
CYM Varsity (7th/8th Grade) Turkey Shoot, Playoff Round, Sunday, November 29, 2009
Every year about this time, we try to clue everyone in on some great up-and-coming players in 7th and 8th grade.
Jasmyn Parker runs point for Holy Angels' second varsity squad. Clearly skilled enough to play first team for
most CYM varsity programs, Jasmyn impressed us with her agility and will to win.
On the same team as Parker is Juli Musumeci. Juli is an Awesome (yes, with a capital 'A') one-on-one defender.
Occasionally, her coaches would call for zone, which kind of lessened Juli's impact. When in man-to-man,
this player shines. Best defender in the tournament. Oh, we should mention that she hit a clutch 3-pointer in the closing
seconds of her team's last game of the day.
Left to right, forward Courtney MacDonald and swing player Shayne Sullivan.
These 8th graders are key players for the gold & navy.
The Finals pitted an upstart St. Anthony's Tigers against the favored Holy Angels first team.
The Angels are defending CYM Champions from last year.
The Angels were handicapped by key player injuries (Sabrina Hackendorn and Renada L'Italien).
Even star forward, Caroline Davis, wasn't physically at 100%, but she was in good
enough condition to play and lead her team.
Maddy Waegele is one of those "jack-of-all-trades" players that almost every truly great team has on their roster.
She doesn't get NEARLY enough press -- mostly due to all the other fantastic players on her team.
I can tell you, though, as a former coach myself, this is the type of player you can build teams around.
The game was quite competitive. St. Anthony's was very proficient in breaking Holy Angels press and attacking the basket
economically (using few passes). But, the Angels - even with injuries - were simply too deep.
Holy Angels took the title by an 8 point margin.
Any mis-spelled names? We're sorry! We will correct them! Just let us know.