On Monday night, the Neshaminy girls’ basketball team played its second annual game against the Lower Bucks Trail Blazers.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ask Morgan Goldenbaum what she’ll remember most about Monday night’s second annual game against the Lower Bucks Trailblazers, and the Neshaminy sophomore’s response effectively sums up just why the night is so special.
“After the game, their parents came down and thanked us, but I just think I would rather thank them,” Goldenbaum said.
Playing the Trailblazers, a team comprised of special needs athletes, is a win-win for both sides.
“It’s really such an awesome experience,” junior Maddie Murray said. “The kids love it, and you can just see it on their faces. They get so excited to play, and it makes them feel good to play, and it makes us feel good to watch them.
“They have skills. They know what they’re doing. It’s such an awesome thing to do, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Friendships are forged on the basketball court during the game, and after the game, players from both sides pose for pictures together like old friends.
“I think the best part is getting to see how happy they are,” Goldenbaum said. “It makes me feel more fortunate and not take things for granted when I see what I have.
“I go to practice every day, and I sometimes dread it. I know that every time they go to a practice or game, they always want to play, and they’re always happy when they do it, so it makes me look at life in a better way. It’s really nice to see how happy they are.”
The Trailblazers range in age from 13 to 57, and the outcome of their games is far less important than the experience itself.
“Both teams benefit from this,” Trail Blazers coach Larry Donofry said. “Our team benefits from the structure they learn in the sport from watching these girls pass, watching the other team transition.
“Our team learns much better seeing it than from me diagramming it. Their attention span is much more focused at that point. It really does help them greatly in their learning and playing the game.”
There’s also the social aspect of a night like Monday that not only features a game but also a whole lot of interaction amongst the players from both squads.
“Probably none of these girls on the other team and none of my team would ever run into each other in the mall and be able to talk or just hang out,” Donofry said. “It’s just not the way our society works that you’re going to walk up to any stranger, let alone a handicapped stranger, and introduce yourself or hang out.
“These guys don’t really get that opportunity to be introduced to that. Neither side does, and this sort of breaks that down. In the beginning of the game when we play a new team, you can see a lot of apprehension from the opposing team. They don’t know how to handle the social end of it, and it can throw them for the first five minutes.
“After that, all those little walls and problems go away. It gets down to just playing the game. Our guys are just as happy when they score and make a good basket as our guys are when they do. All that kind of dissipates after the first quarter. Now it’s just playing and understanding and really just goofing around and hanging out. It works on many different levels.”
The team, under the leadership of Donofry, is in its eighth year. A lot has changed in that time.
“A lot of these guys that are now teenagers were seven, eight, nine years old when they first got started,” he said. “They have come a long way.
“Some of them couldn’t make a basket when we started. They just didn’t have the strength to reach it. Some of the autistic kids would flinch away from the ball.
“Year after year, they got a little better and a little better. They follow a lot more from the example of other players than they do me trying to tell them something.”
Donofry, whose son Nick plays for the Trail Blazers, coached both his older son and daughter from kindergarten through high school.
“My daughter was very into travel basketball, and Nick got drug to every gym from Harrisburg to Wildwood,” Donofry said. “He was always the passenger, and when my older daughter moved into her college years, there was no longer any type of travel or CYO.
“I said, ‘Well, now it’s Nick’s turn.’ The good part is there’s no age limit, so I can coach him until he’s 50 years old or I can’t run anymore.”
The Trail Blazers have developed relationships with numerous high school squads. They have an all-day tournament at Bristol High School, and they have played the Bensalem boys’ team, whose manager, Kevin Grow, is a member of the Trail Blazers.
Neshaminy coach Joe Lally contacted Donofry, and several years ago the Trail Blazers were involved in a halftime shootout at one of the Redskins’ games. Last year, it was expanded to include a game between the two squads.
“It’s been a great experience for all of our kids,” Lally said. “It’s great for perspective, and everyone enjoys helping out.
“It’s a rewarding process. You’d be surprised how talented his group is and how well they play the game. They do a great job. They’re very talented, and it’s really special.”
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