St. Camillus / St Virgilius Basketball Championships

By Bill Swensen

Another great season of St. Camillus / St Virgilius Basketball came to a close with six teams facing off to see who the champions would be for 2024.

The first game was in the Girls League. The Blue team, coached by Allison Chavanne, faced off against the Green team, coached by Tom McDonagh, (Tom had to miss a few games this year due to health reasons, so I want to give a special thanks to all the people who stepped up and filled in during his absence: his wife Ellen, Peter Brady, and Ed Dennis). The Blue team took control of this game from the onset. They never relinquished the lead in this one. This was truly a team effort with a balanced attack coming from Ashley Chavanne, Maggie Palisi, Savannah Vaccaro, and Jenna O’Brien. It’s very tough to stop a team who is getting solid contributions from four different players. Kudos to the Green team though because they never gave up. They made several runs to close the gap, but every time they got close, the Blue team would come up with a big shot to hold the lead. The Blue team came away with a well-deserved 9-point victory.

The next game was the Junior Boys league (4th & 5th grade). This game was a duel between the Green team, coached by Rich Larkin, and the Red Team, coached by George Hance and Matt Boyland. This game was, without question, the most exciting game of the night. There must have been 15 or more lead changes in this one. Green was up by a point after the first quarter, Red was up by a point at halftime, and then Red held the lead by 2 heading to the last quarter. This game was non-stop action, and the crowd was loud and completely engrossed in this game from start to finish. The Red team was spearheaded by a fantastic performance from Mason Hance, who led all scorers with 20 points. On the other hand, the Green team was getting contributions from multiple players. Shane Tubridy, Craig McDonald, Richie Larkin, and Sean McCann all provided the same kind of balanced attack that we saw in the previous girl’s game. With Green down by one with seconds to go, Shane Tubridy hit an incredibly clutch 3-pointer that had the crowd in a frenzy. That shot ended up sealing an exciting 3-point victory for the Green team.

The last game of the night was in the Senior Boys league (6th – 8th grade). This game featured the Tan team, coached by William Gavinovich, against the Yellow team, coached by Reggie Milliard. This one started out as a real defensive battle. Both teams were hustling all over the court and making their opponent work for every point. At halftime, the game was tied at 12. An extremely low scoring half for the Senior Boys league. The Yellow team kept this game close with two terrific performances from Vincent Giuseffi and Michael Clark, who dropped in 19 and 15 points respectively. It was the third quarter that did the Yellow team in when the Tan team exploded for 20 points. The Tan team’s breakout performance was led by Brendan Hayden (16 points) and Marco Melli (14 points). They also got key contributions from William Kelly and William Gavinovich. They were able to hold this lead for the rest of the game and came away with a well-earned victory.

Thank you to all the coaches who volunteered their time to teach our kids how to play the game the right way. Thank you, Ron Hooks, who organized all the referees for the league and was always willing to help out in any way he could whenever we needed. We also can never forget the very special thank you that needs to go to Calvin Stanley who is the Program Director and is at every single game spending hours of his time to make sure the league runs smoothly.

Lastly, we need to thank Monsignor Ahlemeyer for his continuous support and leadership. Without him, there is no program.

Well, that’s it for this year. Remember, this league welcomes everyone, so please come join us next year. I guarantee your kids will have a lot of fun.