Tuesday night’s Council Rock North/Bensalem boys’ basketball game is an SOL Featured Game, sponsored by the CR North Booster Club. Check back for photos and a game story.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ryan Baker came up with an idea last summer, an idea to start a club that would afford students an opportunity to spend quality time with the Athletes Helping Athletes honorary captains that have become so much part of the landscape at Council Rock North.
Instead of simply presenting the honorary captains with a medal and t-shirt and sharing the pregame introductions with the players, the newly formed club would provide student-athletes from other sports to spend the game with them.
“What it used to be was there would be parents with the honorary captains during games,” Baker said.
Baker’s idea received immediate support.
“I thought it was a great idea because we always would just go out (to midcourt) with the kids at a basketball game and not really get to know anything about them or spend any time with them,” senior Kyle McCloskey said.
Baker explained his idea for the new club to coach Derek Wright.
“I think this is something that really hit home,” the Indians’ coach said. “Ryan is a terrific kid. He comes from a great family. Athletics are a big part of his life.
“He’s a great teammate, a great friend to a lot of people, and he’s a really good student. He really enjoys it, and he’s really good with them.”
Armed with Wright’s support, Baker was off and running.
“I asked Mr. Griesbaum what I should do to get the paperwork to get it started, and then I went to Mr. Gamble who is our club supervisor and makes sure all clubs are appropriate,” the Rock North senior said. “I had to find a supervisor for the club, and I decided since basketball was such a major part of Athletes Helping Athletes, I would ask Derek Wright.”
Thanks to Baker’s initiative, the club got off the ground this fall, and the football team’s honorary AHA captains reaped the immediate benefits. Instead of spending the game on the sidelines with booster club parents, they spent the games with student-athletes like Baker, McCloskey and Rip Engel – all members of the basketball team – as well as Nicole Moonan and Delaney Smith, who play for the soccer team.
“This allowed us to learn more about the kids and spend more time connecting with them one-on-one and get to know what their lives are like,” McCloskey said. “It really puts everything into perspective and you really appreciate what you have.
“They are all great kids, and they’re really fun to be with. They have such big hearts, and it’s great when you see them get real excited. It’s something I’m going to remember, and I’m really glad Ryan set it up because it was a real good opportunity.”
During football season, the honorary captains went onto the field for the coin flip with the team captains. The rest of the night belonged to the club members.
“The honorary captains are usually with parents during the day, so we wanted to let them have fun and be with us and throw the football around and just have fun,” Baker said.
And have fun they did. It was hard to tell who was having more fun – the honorary captains or the club members who served as their chaperones. Baker laughs as he recounts the good time he had with Jumpin’ Joe Thompson.
“When we gave him the football, he threw it 30 yards over my head, and I thought, ‘Un oh, we have problems. I don’t know if this field can hold him,’” Baker said. “At halftime he wanted to kick a field goal, and he was kicking the ball.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, we have to suit him up,’ but it was awesome to watch.”
Rick Leonetti, the founder and director of AHA, was thrilled to see Baker take the initiative to start the club.
“They told me there was a kid at Council Rock North that wanted to start a club that wanted to make it truly athletes helping athletes where offseason athletes would fill in,” Leonetti said. “It’s unbelievable.
“They get it. They like the whole idea. Ryan said to me, ‘We see the kids for a few minutes and then we play our game and that’s it. They’re usually gone by the time the game’s over. This way we get to know the kids a little bit and talk with them.’ I didn’t have to do a thing with the football team this year because they took care of it.”
This winter, Baker is a starter on the basketball team, a team whose long-time manager Peter Brill, an AHA athlete himself, shares a special bond with the players.
“He loves talking sports,” Baker said. “He is an incredible man.
“Seeing Peter, seeing any honorary captain – it doesn’t matter if they’re from Bensalem or Council Rock North – just seeing that smile on their face when they get to shoot the basketball or when they get to shake our hands, I think it’s a special moment for them and also for us.”
Since Baker is on the basketball squad, other club members are serving as chaperones. He calls Rachel McLaughlin-McManus, a captain of the girls’ volleyball team, his go-to girl for the club. McLaughlin-McManus as well as Moonan and Smith have assumed leadership roles during basketball season.
“The perspective they get from this is what they really learn,” Leonetti said. “They get to spend quality time with these kids on the sidelines, and Ryan handled it all. He took care of the t-shirts, the medals. For basketball, I copy him on e-mails, and he assigns other kids to sit with the kids. It really is truly amazing.
“Because of these kids’ passion and because we see what they get out of it has driven the rest of us to continue to do this and to do even more.”
A member of the baseball team, Baker has been brainstorming with coach Matt Schram to think of ways to incorporate the AHA athletes in some way this spring as well.
“I was thinking if we could find someone who would keep the scoreboard – just to see if they would like to do that,” he said. “That would be cool.”
Baker’s dream is that teams besides football and basketball will one day have honorary AHA captains as well.
“For the first year of the club, I think we should start off slow and build up to that two or three years down the road,” he said.
Baker is looking to turn his leadership of the club over to Smith next year, and he cannot hide his enthusiasm for the entire AHA program, noting that a high school in State College recently started a new AHA chapter.
“It’s spreading,” he said. “People actually want to do this, which is good. It’s a fun thing to do.”
Baker, who plans to major in business and finance next year, admits he wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on this opportunity for anything in the world.
“I just enjoy this,” he said. “This is something special I have a chance to do. It’s not like I’m doing it for credits or anything.
“I’m enjoying this every second of every day that I have a chance to do it.”
Just the facts:
This year’s record: Council Rock North 3-1 SOL (8-1 overall); Bensalem 4-0 SOL (6-2 overall)
Last year’s record: Council Rock North 21-7 (11-3 SOL National Conference champions); Bensalem 14-10 (10-4 SOL)
Last meeting: Feb. 7, 2012 – Bensalem 43, Council Rock North 42 (Bensalem: Dovanta Newkirk – 13 points, Julian Hayden – 10 points, Leo Vincent – 7 points, Deion Jones – 7 points ; Council Rock North: Aaron Morgan – 12 points, Rip Engel – 9 points, Arron Goodman – 8 points, Kyle McCloskey – 7 points)
Last game: Council Rock North 58, Pennsbury 49 (Rip Engel – 27 points, Kyle McCloskey 10 points, Brandon Knotts – 10 points)
Bensalem 55, Council Rock South 40 (Leo Vincent – 22 points, Stephen Johnson 14, Kyle Kirgan – 8 points, Donnie Reed – 6 points)
Council Rock North
Projected starters:
#10 – Rip Engel (5-10, Jr., Guard)
#14 – Ryan Baker (6-2, Sr., Forward)
#21 – Chris Rowland (6-1, Jr., Guard)
#22 – Brandon Knotts (5-10, Sr., Guard)
#32 – Kyle McCloskey (6-6, Sr., Forward)
The rest of the Indians:
#2 – Josh McWilliams (5-10, Jr., Guard)
#3 – Josh Josephs (Sr., Guard)
#12 – Matt Margolis (6-0, Soph., Guard)
#20 – Nate Kardos (6-1, Sr., Guard)
#23 – Steve Nowmos (6-3, Soph., Forward)
#34 – Quinn Johnson (6-4, Jr., Forward)
#40 – Will Desautelle (6-1, Fr., Guard)
#50 – Tyler Madison (6-6, Jr., Forward)
Bensalem
Projected starters:
#10 – Leo Vincent (6-0, Sr., Guard)
#12 – Donnie Reed (6-1, Sr., Forward)
#20 – Steve Johnson (6-2, Sr., Forward)
#21 – Deion Jones (5-9, Sr., Guard)
#22 – Kyle Kirgan (6-0, Sr., Guard)
The rest of the Owls:
#3 – Austin Nyekan (6-1, Sr., Guard)
#5 – Andre Mitchell (6-1, Sr., Forward)
#11 – Allante Allen (6-0, Sr., Guard)
#23 – Brian Kilcoyne (6-3, Jr., Forward)
#24 – Gene Clemons (6-2, Jr., Forward)
#30 – AJ Brody (5-8, Jr., Guard)
#31 – Avery Nyekan (5-11, Soph., Guard)
#32 – Rich Duncan-Murphy (6-4, Sr., Center)
#44 – Josh Hymon-Nichols (6-3, Jr., Forward)
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