Pennsbury’s Frank and Ava Sciolla organized and led a basketball clinic – “Playing for Joey” –at Pennsbury Racquet Club to raise funds for Pennsbury basketball alum Joey Monaghan who is battling State 4 Sarcoma. (Photos provided by Pennsbury girls’ basketball & Meredith Webber)
Layla Matthias had a hard time going to sleep on Monday night.
“I was so excited – I actually couldn’t sleep,” the rising Pennsbury High School junior said. “I fell asleep at two in the morning.”
Matthias wasn’t anticipating a vacation or a trip to the shore. Instead, she was looking forward to Tuesday’s ‘Playing for Joey’ basketball clinic at Pennsbury Racquet Club, a fundraising event that evoked mixed emotions.
“It was excitement, but it was also sadness that we have to do something like this for him,” Matthias said.
‘Him’ is Pennsbury basketball alum Joey Monaghan, a 2017 grad who recently was diagnosed with Stage 4 Sarcoma. The clinic, which included two sessions, attracted 225 eager campers. It was organized in a remarkably short period of time by Pennsbury girls’ basketball coach Frank Sciolla and his daughter, 2022 PA Sportswriters Class 6A Player of the Year Ava Sciolla, who returned from the University of Maryland to help lead the clinic.
It was Monaghan’s close friend and Pennsbury alum Meredith Webber, who reached out to her former coach when she heard the devastating news.
“It’s definitely hard to hear that news from your friend,” said Webber, a 2017 Pennsbury grad. “Joey works out with me on a regular basis. He’s someone I talk to every day – he’s one of the nicest people I have ever met, and that’s why he’s still in my life today.
“When he told me, I knew that Frank would rally behind him more than me asking for donations ever could. This was amazing, and I’m really glad I could be part of it. Joey just loves seeing people being their best selves and playing the sport that he loves. I think this (clinic) embodies what Joey’s about, so it was perfect.”
Joey was unable to attend Tuesday’s clinic since he was undergoing his second round of chemotherapy at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, but his father, Joe Monaghan, was in attendance. He acknowledged he was overcome with emotions when he saw the turnout.
“I had to walk out again - two times. I was just so overwhelmed,” he said. “Seeing all the kids playing like this – Joey has been playing ball since he was a little kid. It kind of reminded me of when he was starting out like that.”
Joey has always had a love affair with basketball.
“At one time, he was on five different teams,” his father said. “I’m driving him from one place to another. We’re at Egan, and the next thing you know we’re up in Norristown doing 110 miles an hour on the turnpike to get there on time. You wouldn’t believe how much this means. (Joey) wishes he could be here.”
Joey was living his best life when he was hit with the stunning diagnosis.
“He hit a wall,” his father said. “Everything was going for him, he was working for the Sixers in his dream job, he was going for a promotion, and all of a sudden – bang, something stops you, puts the brakes on.”
While Joey is battling his toughest opponent, his friends and community are rallying around him. Tuesday’s event – which raised over $40,000 – was a glowing advertisement of that love and support.
Sciollas rally community
Frank Sciolla did an unusual thing several weeks ago – he opted to step away from social media.
“My assistants do the Instagram and Twitter, but the key is Facebook – I logged off of Facebook,” he said. “I was off for about a week, and one of my assistants said, ‘People are reaching out to you, I’m not sure why.’
“When I got back on Facebook, the very first post was – Joey’s been diagnosed with cancer. I had just seen him working out here this summer, coaching the team, playing basketball. I had talked to him.
“I put the phone down, it rings, and it’s Meredith Webber. She’s leaving the University of Penn, and she said, ‘Are you aware?’ I said, ‘I just read it, I can’t believe you’re calling me.’ She said, “It’s Stage 4 Sarcoma.’ I almost threw up. I’m like – why did I go off social media? Oh, my God – time.
“I know their family. I’ve watched Joey play for a long time. I worked Joey out, and he was always very supportive of me, my family, my daughter. I knew Joey’s younger sister Brynn. She’s a year older than Ava, and the first year Ava ever played travel basketball – they were on the same team. What can we do? We’ve got to do something. How can we maximize it in the shortest period of time?”
The veteran coach knew his best chance of spreading the word was taking advantage of Ava’s social media presence and her strong ties to the community.
“The difficult part is - will she be home? How can we get her home?” he said. “Obviously, Maryland is fine with that, but you’re taking classes, you have to work out. She’s been down there since the day after graduation.
“I said, ‘When can you come home?’ She said, ‘I can do it in this window.’ Okay, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The first order of business was securing a location for the clinic, and Pennsbury Racquet Club – thanks to the generosity of owner Billy Everett - fit the bill.
“Billy donated the space, and he has done this time and time again for our community,” Frank said. “Within the past year, he has stepped up at the last minute and really helped us a few times. He knows Joey and the family, so we were very grateful.”
Ava arrived home over the weekend, and Tuesday morning was helping lead the clinic.
“I found out about Joey because I went on Facebook, and I’m never on my Facebook,” she said. “I was just scrolling, and I saw a post that said something about praying for Joey. I’m like what is this, so I called my dad immediately, and it was clear he had just seen it or heard about it as well. He seemed super shaken up. He said, ‘This is a young kid, and he has Stage 4 Sarcoma.’ You don’t think this stuff could happen to people that are close in age. In general, it feels like it can’t happen. My thought was ‘How is this real?’”
Ava and her father sprang into action, planning a clinic that exceeded all expectations.
“I feel like so often in life we see terrible things, and we think, ‘Oh, that’s terrible. I wish there was something someone could do,’ and we never do anything,” Ava said. “My dad and I realized we have an opportunity to actually do something here and not just say, ‘This is horrible, we’re praying for him.’ We can help him, we can do everything we possibly can to make this battle for him easier, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
“Playing for Joey”
“Playing for Joey” became a rallying cry on social media, and the response was overwhelming.
“Once we put it up on social media, people started signing up, we got momentum,” Frank Sciolla said. “I reached out to Wes Emme, who I coached and who’s now the boys’ coach. I reached out to 
(CR North boys’ coach) Jesse Krasna and (CB West girls’ coach) Zach Sibel, who I coached. We needed one more kick, and the kick came from the Sixers. Joey worked for the Sixers. Ben Cobleigh, the vice president of ticket sales who’s also a Maryland grad, reached out and said, ‘What can we do?’
“They sent the drum line, they sent the dance team, they sent Franklin, they sent uniforms for all the kids – shirts. That was big, and that gave us another spike last week. It comes together. We have the boys’ program here, the girls’ program, the alumni – Mary Miller, Kate Mix, Bella Arcuri, Meredith Webber and so many of the boys – Lavoy Allen to Mark Flagg, my former coaches. We also had the help of Falcons Elite, a boys’ basketball league in our school district. They handled the finances and the accounting, and that is really important in situations like this. Hopefully, financially we can make an enormous dent, but a lot is also keeping Joey strong because he went in for round two of chemo today.”
Webber FaceTimed Joey from the clinic and took plenty of pictures.
“I’m really glad that I could be a part of it,” she said. “I think just having the younger kids and people going into high school – this was Joey once. I was really overwhelmed with the amount of people that showed up. I know that Joey’s really happy people got together even if he couldn’t be here.”
Monaghan served as an assistant coach of the Philly Heat North AAU squad. Both Matthias and Liv Gilchrist – members of Pennsbury’s squad – played for Monaghan, and they were hit especially hard by the news of his diagnosis.
“When I first heard this, I didn’t believe it,” Matthias said. “It was sent through the parent group chat first, and I read it off my mom’s phone.
“I almost started tearing up because you don’t expect someone so healthy and so young – he’s such a bubbly person. He was so supportive, and just hearing that news – it was hard to believe.”
“I was in shock because he looked so healthy at practice,” Gilchrist said. “He would come to our practices and work us out, and he would work out with us.
“He’s so positive. When you text him, he answers right away. He’s like, ‘I miss you guys. I’ll be there soon to watch your games.’ He’s so positive through it all. You’d never even know he’s going through this.”
The clinic was a way to support their beloved coach.
“Joey’s someone you want to help, and you feel helpless,” Matthias said. “Feeling helpless is the worst feeling in the world, especially for someone like Joey. It’s something…”
And then for a moment she was overcome by emotion, but her face lit up when asked about the clinic.
“The Sixers drum line was sick,” Matthias said. “You wouldn’t think the 76ers would come down to some place in Fairless Hills.”
“The Sixers did this for us at the last minute and supplied uniforms for all the kids,” Gilchrist said. “We’re here working out, and he’s in the hospital getting chemo. It’s hard.”
“You’re having fun and then you snap back to reality,” Matthias said. “He’s in the hospital right now.”
Although Monaghan was in the hospital, he is not fighting his battle alone.
“For me, the number one reason for doing this was – I knew that he was probably positive for two weeks and he was, but when he got word that it was stage four, as we all would, thought, ‘I’m 23 years old, I’ve always done the right thing, I go to church, I do all the right things,’” Frank Sciolla said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to something like this.
“I told Ava, ‘To be real clear, this is the highlight of your basketball career. The games, the wins and the awards – forget it. It all goes out the window. For as many times as you can potentially do something like this throughout your career and use basketball as a vehicle to come back and do this – it will supersede anything you do in high school, college professional or whatever.’”
There were plenty of emotions on all sides as the clinic was coming to a close.
“It’s so moving, and it just proves that the basketball community steps up for people, and our entire community stepped up in such a beautiful way,” she said. “Seeing how attentively the kids were listening when we were talking to them. Seeing how much fun everyone was having. All of the alum that came in. We had the Bucks County District Attorney – Matt Weintraub - here and the Sixers. It was just an incredible day and it made me feel really emotional and really grateful for the life that I have and for my health. I kept thinking about how blessed I am and also how blessed my dad and I are to have a platform that we’re able to do this.”
Donations are still being accepted through Venmo@Falcons-Elite-1.
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