National Conference
Indians enjoy their trip south - Council Rock North took its show on the road during the holiday break, traveling to Naples, Fla., to compete in the prestigious Naples Holiday Shootout.
The Indians – who finished sixth out of 16 teams – were 2-2 in the highly competitive tournament. Not a bad showing by any standard but particularly impressive considering that highly regarded Germantown Academy found itself playing Cardinal O’Hara in the ninth place game (GA won). Both teams lost their first games of the tournament.
“It was a neat experience,” coach Lou Palkovics said of the trip. “I told the girls – you don’t schedule tournaments like Naples or the tip-off at Central Dauphin if you want to go undefeated.
“You schedule games like that to make your kids a little tougher and to bring them together.”
A fifth place finish was within the Indians’ grasp. They trailed Mercy Academy (Ky.) by just two points with three minutes remaining when they lost Sarah Kiely to fouls. The Indians ended up on the short end of a 70-60 score.
“We had a lot of trouble scoring after that,” Palkovics said.
No matter the outcome, there’s no denying the benefits of a week away facing tough competition.
There’s also no denying the remarkable emergence of senior Kelly Scull this season, and for all those who thought her 24-point effort in Rock North’s season-opening win over Central Dauphin was a fluke, guess again.
Scull averaged 18 points in four games and was one of just 10 players selected to the elite all-tournament team.
“She played amazing down there,” Palkovics said. “She really did look good.
“You can see she’s gotten physically stronger. Last year when she had a big game, it was because she hit four or five threes. Now when she has a big game, she’ll get four or five offensive rebounds. She didn’t do a lot of that last year.”
Scull is starting at the small forward spot for the Indians, and she has been a presence under the basket.
“She has given us that extra dimension,” Palkovics said. “Sarah (Kiely) is still doing the bulk of the work around the boards, but Kelly has done more than her share.”
Rock North opened tournament play with a 73-11 rout of Southwest Miami in a game that was over almost before it began as the Indians opened up a 30-2 at the end of one quarter. Scull led a balanced attack with 16 points while Devin and Lauren Gold each added 10 points.
In their next game, the Indians fell to Trinity Christian (Fla.) 62-56. Trinity Christian, which defeated GA in the opening round, is led by 6-1 junior Danielle McCray who reportedly will be making a verbal commitment to play basketball at Kentucky.
“Every team we played – you’re dealing with two or three blue chip players,” Palkovics said. “It was neat to see how we dealt with those kids.”
Scull led the Indians with 22 points while Kiely added 11.
In their third game of the tournament, the Indians notched a come-from-behind 65-52 win over Hollywood Christian (Fla.). The Indians trailed 21-10 at the end of one quarter and still found themselves on the short end of a 36-15 halftime score. They outscored Hollywood 37-29 in the second half.
“The kids faced every situation – in that game, we trailed by 13 points, but the kids just battled and chipped away,” Palkovics said. “It was good to have the kind of games this early we’re going to see the second half of the season as well as in districts and states.”
Kiely – who averaged 13.5 points despite foul problems in two of the games - led the Indians with 23 points while Scull added 16.
“Sarah was huge,” Palkovics said. “She has actually added a dimension to her game. She might have hit four or five three-pointers down there.
“It forces the bigger girls to come out and play her, and it opens things up around the basket for Kelly, Devin and Lauren.”
In the battle for fifth place against Mercy Academy, the Indians, who trailed 50-49 at the end of three quarters, watched the game slip away late in the fourth quarter, falling 70-60.
Scull led the Indians with 18 points while Devin and Lauren Gold each had 15. Kiely added 12 points.
Palkovics lauded the effort of Lauren Gold at point guard.
“Lauren is really playing well,” the Indians’ coach said. “She runs the team.
“I have the utmost faith in her to do whatever she wants on the court. She really emerged this week. She’s so steady. She could score 20 a game if she wanted to, but she knows that’s not her role. She just makes everybody better on the court. The way she plays defense – I wouldn’t want to dribble the ball against her.”
The Indians returned home on Sunday and will resume SOL play on Tuesday when they hit the road again – this time for a date with William Tennent.
“It’s tough playing four games in four days,” Palkovics said. “I know the kids are used to AAU schedules, but for me, watching film and going to shoot-arounds – it wasn’t much of a vacation.”
Continental Conference
A new era at CB West - Terry Rakowsky knows a little bit about building a program.
In the mid 90s, the Central Bucks West coach took over a Palisades program that had fallen on hard times.
“When I took over, they were coming off 0-24 and 1-23,” the Bucks’ coach said. “The first year we won three games, and the second year we won 14 and made the District (11) playoffs. We also won our division.”
Rakowsky comes to West after five years with perennial national powerhouse Germantown Academy where he most recently was the associate head coach with Sherri Retif. While Rakowsky focused on defense, Retif’s forte was developing her team’s offensive skills.
“She brought a whole offensive mindset that she had me buy into,” Rakowsky said. “It’s rounded me out better as a coach.
“Sherri’s greatest strength is her ability to handle the kids. She’s a master of keeping everybody happy, keeping everybody positive and making it a real good experience for everybody, but honestly what prepared me for West was Palisades.”
A former football and baseball player at Penn State, Rakowsky – a dentist in the Doylestown area – coached both football and baseball until he took over the helm of a struggling Palisades girls’ basketball program.
“West is loaded compared to how Palisades was,” he said. “We have good kids coming in here. It’s a good situation. It really is.”
The Bucks – who have not won a game since the 2007-08 season - have come close to winning on several occasions this year but couldn’t close out the games. They led by four, according to Rakowsky, with two minutes left in their game against Pennridge. They lost 50-41.
“I called a timeout to tell them we don’t need to take anything but a layup,” the Bucks’ coach said. “The first pass – a three goes up.
“Then I looked at the floor and realized I had three sophomores and two juniors. It’s just a lack of experience.”
Four days later, West fell to Souderton 45-34.
“We were down four with maybe a minute and a half left, and I can’t get my kids to take a shot,” Rakowsky said. “They’re passing up open threes and open shots.
“They’re young, they’re real, real young.”
Take away the Abington and Neshaminy games, and the Bucks have been in all of their games.
“We’re getting better,” Rakowsky said. “We’re limiting the unforced turnovers, which killed us early.
“They’re finally learning what we want them to do.”
In an early season loss to Pottsgrove, the Bucks sent their opponent to the foul line for 46 shots.
“We were still in it in the second half, and we gave up 28 points on the foul line,” Rakowsky said. “We were still within four points coming down the stretch.”
The Bucks got their first and only win of 2009 on the last day of the year when they downed Kennedy-Kenrick 56-42 on Thursday at the Boardwalk Classic in Wildwood.
“That was huge,” Rakowsky said. “It was their first win in two years.”
The Bucks first-year coach isn’t certain when the Bucks last won a game.
“When I took over, I didn’t research it because I didn’t want to know,” Rakowsky said. “We decided to play it one game at a time, and we’ll see what happens.
“Our kids have been practicing awesome, just their intensity level, but sometimes we don’t transfer that to the court and the game. Sometimes you say you play like you practice – I wish we did.”
Meghan Vazquez is the lone senior who sees significant playing time. Junior Fiona Gilmore as well as sophomores Amanda Parker, Jen Fabian and Sam Colloi also are key players for the Bucks. Most of them had never played varsity until this year.
“We still have a long way to go, but at least we’re seeing progress,” Rakowsky said. “They’re starting to understand what we really want out of them.”
Rakowsky looks at the talent-rich Doylestown Athletic Association and hopes to lure more of that talent to West.
“Over the last four years, we’ve had four or five West kids go to GA,” Rakowsky said. “Several kids went to Peddie, some went to Mount, and a couple went to Wood.
“If we just keep a couple of them – the talent is there. Our youth program (at DAA) is second to none. If a couple of them come to West, we’ll be fine.”
American Conference
Building a new culture at PW - Becky Duffy is looking to change the fortunes of a struggling Plymouth Whitemarsh program.
“We need to change the culture as well as the drills and the plays,” the first-year coach said. “I’ve taken the approach where I’m looking for a combination between working with what has been put in place and trying to put in some new things without totally losing the identity of what these girls have been through and what they have done.
“It’s been sort of a tough love kind of thing where I’m trying to stay as positive as I can with putting in some more discipline and higher expectations than they’re used to. They’re not sure how to react and respond, but by the same token, they’re not used to it, so it’s all new and all fresh. It’s a little more competitive.
“We’re trying to build confidence right now and build some desire to really enjoy basketball instead of being something that becomes a chore which is where the culture of the program is at. It’s challenging.”
The first-year coach was part of a winning tradition during her playing days. Meade’s Central squad won the Philadelphia city championship, and she went on to play at Muhlenberg College for four years.
After graduation, she took a teaching job at PW and assisted then varsity coach Lori Strasser. While pursuing her master’s degree at St. Joe’s, Duffy coached the ninth grade team, biding her time until the opportunity to coach at the varsity level arose this summer.
When she took over the helm, Duffy immediately enrolled her team in a summer program and also a fall league.
“We did summer workouts,” she said. “The challenge was I didn’t know who was serious about coming back. There were a lot of rumors that so many kids weren’t coming back.
“The philosophy my assistant and I came up with this summer was – let’s have them enjoy basketball again. Let’s have them come out play, develop confidence, have some fun. Whoever comes gets to play, and let’s not worry about winning games.
“The down side was we weren’t able to hold high expectations or do some of the fundamental work we’re lacking and need to work on. This off-season is going to be an opportunity for us to build that as part of the culture.
“If you want to play basketball here, you’re going to have to commit more than just the three months of the season.”
The Colonials – who had a good turnout for tryouts this winter - suffered a major setback when returning veteran Alyssa Butcher broke her ankle the second week of practice.
“It was unfortunate because without her we don’t have the personnel to execute our game plan the way we would have with her,” Duffy said. “Mentally, she was very focused, she was very optimistic and very positive.
“When that didn’t work out, we were looking for other strengths.”
PW’s roster includes five seniors, and only two of them played varsity last year, and those two saw very limited minutes on a team that graduated seven seniors this spring.
“Even though I have what looks to be an older team – very few of them have any varsity experience,” Duffy said. “They’re timid, they’re not sure when to shoot.
“Kelly Hackenbrack has stepped up and is trying to take on that lead role. Caitlin Mundy is our point guard. She hustles her butt off all the time. She’s not too much of a scorer, but she’s already making better decisions and trying to learn how to pass the ball and create opportunities for other players. She’s a captain, and she’s definitely a leader on the floor.”
Duffy is also expecting big things in the future from freshman Simone Jacques.
“She’s just an all-around great kid,” the Colonials’ coach said. “She very fundamental, but she’s timid to shoot as a freshman playing on varsity. I have very high expectations for her. We keep saying – one of these days she’s going to have a game where the confidence will come, and she’ll blow it wide open. I feel that way about a lot of the kids on the team.
“With some time and some confidence, hopefully, we’ll be able to do that.”
Butcher has just returned to practice and should be back in the lineup for the second half of the season.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Duffy said. “It’s like a puzzle trying to figure out how to put it all together.
“It’s frustrating that we haven’t won any games yet because I know they’re working hard. We’ve come close, but we haven’t been able to knock our shots down, but it will come. It will come.”
Happy Holidays - With the holidays behind us, SOS.com decided to look at some of the best Christmas ‘gifts’ SOL coaches and players received.
- Council Rock South coach Monica Young got just about everything that was on her Christmas list this year. The second-year coach saw her team win its division in the Boardwalk Classic, she got a new car and, for good measure, became engaged, but one of the best gifts Young received this year is a talented freshman point guard by the name of Alexis Hoffstaeder. It’s not a coincidence the Golden Hawks are off to a 6-1 start.
- First-year coach Terry Rakowsky and his players celebrated the holidays by getting the gift that was at the top of their list when Central Bucks West picked up its first win in two years, defeating Kennedy-Kenrick 56-32 at the Boardwalk Classic in Wildwood on Thursday.
- New state-of-the-art gymnasiums were ‘gifts’ that have not gone unappreciated at both Souderton and Upper Dublin.
- There was a time not all that long ago when one win was reason to celebrate for a struggling Srpingfield program. Although the Spartans lost their only two games in SOL play, coach Sarah Constable has done a wonderful job of turning the struggling program around, and the Spartans enter January with a dazzling 6-2 mark. That’s a gift that has been hard-earned.
- Council Rock North’s players and coaches received round trip tickets to sunny Naples, Fla., over the holiday break. Yes, they did play four games in four days, but it was still a gift that no one wanted to return.
There are many more ‘gifts’ that could make the list, but those will have to wait for another day. Those of us at SOS.com are most grateful for the unwavering support and cooperation of the SOL coaches and players. Thanks – it is a gift that does not go unnoticed!
SOS.com’s Fab Five
- Cheltenham (8-0) (The Lady Panthers have surprised even their coach with an undefeated December.)
- Council Rock North (5-3) (Don’t be fooled by the Indians’ record. Their recent losses to ranked teams at the Naples Tournament will only help the Indians in the long run.)
- Abington (7-0) (The Ghosts will face their toughest test when they take on Council Rock South on Friday night.)
- Council Rock South (6-1) (The Golden Hawks haven’t just been winning, they’ve been winning big. Their stock rose dramatically with a strong showing in the Boardwalk Classic.)
- Central Bucks East (4-1) (The Patriots take on Council Rock South in a key non-league contest on Saturday.)
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