Blue Devil Girls’ BB Opens on Friday
This could be the start of something big; something really big. The Huntington High School girls’ basketball team has set lofty goals for itself, although the road to the top promises to be anything but easy in a league filled with talented players.
The Blue Devils open their season at home this Friday against non-league foe Amityville in Louis D. Giani Gymnasium. Tip-off is 6:15 p.m. Huntington returns ten players from last year’s squad, including All-League honorees Raynisha Witherspoon and Heather Forster. It will be a young team as the 15-player roster features 12 freshmen and sophomores
“I am very excited about this season,” third-year head coach Mike Kaplan said. “The commitment to basketball in the off-season was huge for our program. The team has displayed tremendous growth since last year. I feel we are better prepared going into the 2012/13 season. Because of all the time the girls played together in the off-season, they have developed great team cohesion and chemistry on-and-off the court.”
The only senior on the Blue Devil team is Witherspoon, who is looking to take her game to a new level. “Raynisha worked extremely hard this summer,” Kaplan said. “She played on a top AAU team which traveled all over the US allowing her to play against some of the best competition. Her experience and leadership is going to be huge for us. She has already started to show great signs of leadership and I am excited to see what she does for us this season.”
Witherspoon also earned a spot on the BCANY (Basketball Coaches Association on New York) Festival team, which consisted of the top 12 players in Suffolk. She’s expected to be one of Huntington’s leading scorers and rebounders from her guard position.
Forster, a varsity team veteran despite being just a sophomore, is poised to become one of Suffolk’s elite players. She was on the Suffolk team for this fall’s Alzheimer’s All-Star Classic. She also made the BCANY team but a prior commitment prevented her from playing.
Huntington also returns junior Joellen Ceide, sophomores Ellyn Byrnes, Tara Byrnes, Caitlyn Knowles, Mackenzie Maloney, Katie Nugent and Lindsay Sullivan and freshman Katie Reilly, who was pulled up to varsity from the JV for the final three games last winter
This year’s Blue Devil varsity also features five newcomers in junior Emma Hughes, sophomore Mary Grace Trousdell and freshmen Emma DeGennaro, Brooke Baade and Taylor Moreno.
“Although we are young team, we are going to be able to cause havoc defensively against our opponents,” Kaplan said. “We have a deep bench which will allow us to impose constant pressure throughout the game.
On the sidelines, Huntington alum Marissa Bergmann has returned to the fold as the team’s assistant coach. “Coach Bergmann worked extremely hard with the team this off-season,” Kaplan said. Roy Jimenez has joined the staff as the junior varsity coach. Kaplan called him “a great addition” to the program.
Considering how young the team is, when Huntington takes the floor Friday night, there will be plenty of questions surrounding the Blue Devils. Over the course of the next month, some of the answers will start to emerge.