Waynesword on Hoop:
Looking Back at Mid-Summer ‘08
Impressions of the Shen Summer League 2008
I know from my own distant memories and current hearsay that there are other summer leagues in the Capital District, at Hoffman Park in Albany and at Colonie High, among others, but the well-run league at Shenendehowa’s Clifton Park Campus through the month of July is the one that Miles’s team played in, and therefore the only one I can say I saw.
There were 8 teams in the Shen League this summer: 4 from the Big 10 (Schenectady, LaSalle, Amsterdam, and Catholic Central); 3 from the Suburban Council (Saratoga Springs, Guilderland, and Shen itself); plus one from the Foothills Conference (Scotia-Glenville). It proved to be an interesting mix of teams, all of them competing in AA ball in the winter except for Class A Scotia-Glenville.
In the prior two years, some observers have said that this League was arguably stronger in terms of the teams involved: Bishop Maginn of Albany-- newly-crowned NY State AA Champions!!-- had played at Shen during those past two summers; and Glens Falls, NYS Class A Champs 2 years ago, did as well. Last year’s Section 2 A Finalists, powerhouse Albany Academy, was also in the mix last year. Those three stellar teams, plus a decent contingent from Queensbury High (the only AA school in the Foothills), did not join up this year, making room for newcomers Amsterdam, and Guilderland. There were 8 teams total this year instead of 9.
Two years ago, Talor Battle would show up for Maginn, and Jimmer Fredette was there for Glens Falls, and all the teams seemed to be sending their real varsity squads, and the competition seemed very intense. Then last year Maginn featured most of their varsity-to-be, with the exception of Taran Buie, who ended up as NY State AA Tournament MVP up at the Glens Falls Civic Center by the end of his sophomore season. Still, Maginn was so deep that no one accused them of sending a less-than-stellar squad, (though I do remember their summer team Coach giving the team a butt-chewing session in the when a feisty Scotia team gave them a hard time in their game last summer). Catholic Central featured Devin Grimes and Jordan Gettings before their senior season, and the Crusaders played that Buie-less Maginn team absolutely dead even in the summer of ’07…in fact were ahead most of the game. With Buie, however, during the regular season, the outcomes were a little more one-sided. In other words, you can’t use the summer league games to gage winter season success; though it’s an interesting barometer of how much firepower each school has in store.
WHO’S THERE…& WHO’S NOT…
Whether it’s a matter of big-time AAU ball being played elsewhere in the country, or players being away somewhere at Summer Hoop Camps, or on a pre-planned family vacation, or a certain kid being injured, others perhaps busy playing video games at home, or working at a summer job, or playing with the Empire State team in late July, or engaged in pre-season training for fall football—there are a host of reasons why some players may be missing from a Summer League Team on a given week. Not every kid who plays hoop has enough love of the game to play in 100 degree heat in an unventilated gym in the middle of July, much less back-to-back games of a double-header in such conditions. But some do.
Certain teams were missing their prime return players: Jordan Stevens was not there for the Saratoga team—either traveling with the City Rocks 17’s to prestigious showcase tournaments, or rehabbing a slight stress fracture, depending on different reports. Ben Miseikis was a no-show for the Amsterdam team, their leading scorer last year. One of Guilderland’s best two returning players from last season’s semi-finalists in Class AA Sectional play—3-point specialist Kevin Kost—was not present in any of the games I saw the Dutchmen play. And Gerard Jacques, the best inside player CCHS would have back this coming season, missed 3 out of 4 weeks of the league due to football camp commitments, and then a turned ankle he suffered early in the month affected his play when he did show up. LaSalle seemed plenty deep when they had their full squad of the floor, but were still missing junior Mike Murray, star quarterback of their powerful football team, and member of the City Rocks A squad as well. Matt Miner of host school Shen was missing for the last two weeks of July—presumably due to Empire Games conflicts—but Shen was deep enough that it didn’t hurt them as much as the other above named teams missed their stars.
Games were played side-by-side in the main gym at Shen, and then a third set was played over at Gowana, the nearby Middle School gym. At Gowana there were no competing, parallel-game whistles blowing (as in many AAU Tourneys), and there was less likelihood of a stray ball from a neighboring court interrupting play. Our CCHS team played its best ball of the summer league in the first game played at Gowana, with our team’s turnout of returning players being the best during that first week as well.
1st Week—July 2nd at Gowana
With Denzel Paschal, Kevin Wilkes, Keaton Woods, and Miles Perras leading the way in an offensive fest, Catholic Central enjoyed an up-tempo style to run out to an 80-62 win over Scotia-Glenville. Wilkes lit up Scotia’s 6’10 center Jim Janson for 15 in the first half and finished with 21, while Miles hit 5 of 5 from the floor in the second half and ended with 19. Denzel cruized to the hoop at will and threw down 2 nasty dunks to finish with 14, and Keaton hit some nice pull-up jumpers
and a left-handed curl on his way to 5 of 5 from the field in the game for his 10 points. This was a good win for CCHS considering that S-G would later end up with a better record and end up in the playoffs, partly because Wilkes and Paschal missed most of the remaining weeks and Miles missed the third week. Kevin Wilkes as a slender 6’4” forward proved to me that game that he could push against a large center on defense, and pull him outside on offense, hit shots, and drive by him to the rim as well. He and Keaton will be counted on to play big minutes this year on varsity after improving steadily since seeing tough JV competition in the Big 10.
LaSalle hadn’t played a game yet and was rested and ready and pasted a tired CCHS team in a game that followed the first with only about 3 minutes in between. Led by varsity returnees Mason Horne (13), Jordan Lavelle (17, showing an impressive shooting exhibition), inside force Will Reutemann (8), and quick guard Marquis Campbell (10), plus JV move-up Nick Edgington (8), the Cadets were fresher and stronger on both the boards and the break on that particular summer night, and won 59-43. Denzel Paschal fought hard in defeat with 16 against his Troy-based rivals, Wilkes had 11, and Miles a couple of early 3’s for 8, but the heat in the gym took its toll in the 2nd straight hour of play as the Crusaders faltered in the late stages. Fortunately, during the regular season, there are no double-headers as there were in this league. Missing Gerard Jacques and Andrew Clement from the lineup didn’t help either.
2nd WEEK-GUILDERLAND & SCHENECTADY…
BACK TO BACK
In previous summers, it seemed that if a team played a 6:30 start, then they would have an hour to recuperate before tackling their next opponent. But in a scheduling quirk, all of the CCHS games in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th weeks were literally back-to-back, like sweaty outdoor marathons on a tough urban playground. With very little time to re-hydrate or catch their breath, and not a lot of bench depth to count on, our guys would finish one close game and start right in on the next. Invariably they would play pretty well in the first and run out of gas in the second, always playing the better opponent in the second game.
If Guilderland had been in last summer’s league with last year’s squad, featuring D-1 Brett Marfurt (Colgate), tough-as-nails Drew Smith (going D-1 as a football player), and lanky shooter Doug Gejay, they would’ve been a nasty match-up even for Maginn, as they were for CBA in last spring’s Sectional Semis. But Jason Terry found himself as the lone holdover starter from that team in mid-July’s comp, with Kevin Kost also missing, at least when we played them. Terry is one of the strongest kids playing hoop in the area, now that DeAndre Kennedy has graduated.
“I’m a Bull in this industry, man…” -- Ludacris
He scored inside at will in the first half to help the Dutchmen to an early lead—a series of short bank shots and put-backs—CCHS did not have the bulk or strength to hold him off. They were ahead by 8 at one point, until Shiva Senthil went on a quick run with a pull-up 3, and three quick deuces in a row. Then Paschal and Perras picked up the pace to continue the comeback. A spinning drive by Miles led to a three-point play during the surge, and Paschal broke loose for a couple of end-to-end drives that climaxed in dunks. For someone who is either 6’ even, or 6’1” at most, Denzel throws down more dunks for his size than anyone in Section 2. He also had at least 3 or 4 steals, while Miles ended up with 13 rebounds that game, crashing from the guard position like J-Kidd in his youth.
Miles asserted himself in the second half with two more threes to go with one he hit in the first—one deep right off a pull-up and one on the left wing off a curl. Then when his defender went out tight on him he drove at will, to end up with 20, while Denzel finished strong with 22, and Shiva had 11. Jason Terry must have had about 24 for the Dutchmen, while Chris Mannarino, Nate Sentz (who hit a couple of answer threes himself), and Isiah Folds all had some good moments for Guilderland as well. I believe they were missing strong inside player Steven Anderson that evening, as well as Kevin Kost, as I mentioned, a key player from last year’s excellent unit. They will be a decent force in the Suburban when everyone is there, even without last year’s significant seniors.
Catholic High won by 8, but Guilderland looked much more solid than when we’d seen Shen blow them out early in the summer. Either that or Shen was that much better, and deeper. We’d find that out in the last game of the summer.
SCHENECTADY LOOKING TOUGH IN SUMMER…
Previous versions of this Schenectady team had looked talented but dysfunctional, but this summer’s team looked to have a lot of dynamite, and seemed to play unselfishly together. (We would also see them in the HVCC Team Camp Tournament two nights later, and they were devastating that night against a different CCHS rotation and coach.) On this Wednesday night, Reece Jackson wasn’t playing due to a foot infection, but by Friday there was no trace of a limp.
Still, they had speedy Derek Millinghaus, his hustling brother Devonte Millinghaus, burly Rashard Taylor, plus athletic 6’6” Mark Blair, and a promising kid named Kayshaun, whose last name I did not get. They were also 4 or 5 deep on the bench, and more fresh as a result. Shiva and Miles were not as hot for CCHS as in the previous game, and Denzel did not get as many looks, so the North Troy team was slow out of the gate, and behind early. Millinghaus must have ended up with about 20, while “Shardy” and Blair and Kayshaun killed us on the boards and finished on the breaks. They were up 8 at the break, but our guys fought back in the second half, led mainly by Kevin Wilkes, who hit 9 in the half on 4 of 5 shooting, to end with 13. Miles (11) hit seven in the second, but missed 3 late threes, any one of which could have made it very interesting. Three other guys also missed a series of half a dozen 3-bombs, yet Catholic Central came back to lose by only 63-60. Wilkes and Denzel (10) should have gotten more shots. Saubdeep Chahal hit 7 points and Jordan McBride—a diminuative frosh from Mechanicville—picked up 5 steals with scrappy defense, but only scored two that night. Ben Hannibal provided some banging against Schenectady’s bigs, in the absence of the Clement brothers (Andrew and Sam) and G. Jacques, who hopefully will be present during the regular season when facing this Big Ten foe again.
CCHS was 2-2 in the league at that point—winning that game would have been a huge boon, but doing so without two or three of our best big men made that difficult.
AGAINST SARATOGA MINUS JORDAN….
Week three had only one game scheduled for CCHS, and unfortunately for us in coincided with our yearly camping pilgrimage to the Islands of Lake George, up in the remote section between two mountain ranges, called the Mother Bunch, a critical mid-summer getaway. Those reservations have to be booked six months or more in advance, and mid-week is more peaceful up there than the weekends. Since the summer schedule isn’t revealed till the week before play starts, there was no way to know how momentous that game might’ve been for a kid who grew up in Saratoga but chose to go to private school in Troy instead. Playing against a group of hoopers whom he competed with and against since about 3rd grade would’ve been interesting, but we were too far from civilization, both physically and mentally in mid-July,
to make the trip back for one game.
All I know is that, even without Jordan Stevens, the Saratoga boys won by about 17 in Miles’s absence, with G. Jacques playing on a bum ankle, and Andrew Clement still a no-show due to work commitments, ambitiously juggling 3 summer jobs a day.
Returning from a one-year stint in Indianapolis, Alex King was reportedly lighting it up again for Saratoga, and should make a good complementary scorer to the already-famous J. Stevens during the winter season to come. James Tucker has improved as an inside presence and at 6’6” or so helps provide heft that this Suburban team has sometimes lacked. Shooters Anthony Luciano and Matt Petruccione , plus tennis star Zach Arpey, added some offense to ‘Toga’s summer team, while returning seniors Brian Doherty and Liam Stegman, plus juniors Ryan Carli and Ben Van Earden provided defensive hustle and rebounding. Mac Tully and Mark Kiley can contribute spot-up shooting and depth. Putting 5th-year star Jordan Stevens at the forefront of this bunch bodes well for Mitch Snyder’s team in the tough Suburban Council this coming season, assuming Jordan’s nagging injuries are temporary. Some observers have pointed out that their team doesn’t seem to have a traditional point guard, though Matt Petruccione played that position for City Rocks 15U A team this past spring, and lanky lefty Luciano is capable of laser passing at the guard spot as well, and both should be good scorers this year.
Saratoga’s front line would only be deeper if football fullback Tony DeLoatch and red-headed leaper Ryan Grecco were admitted back into the fold. They are the kind of rebounding phenoms and inside position players which the CCHS program—for instance-- does not have enough of, and Coach Goverski’s team could use one or two players this year (or next) to flesh out a thin frontline, if Saratoga’s program does not need them. The same would go for talented and sometimes unpredictable 6’5” center Brennan Haley, another former AAU and Travel teammate of Miles’s who has reportedly transferred to Saratoga Catholic, and should hopefully be given a chance to do well this year. Max A’Hearn, another solid former AAU & CDYBL player, is apparently focusing on his football career as a powerful lineman. And hustling wing player Shawn Sweeney, a starter for Hoop Nation’s 15U squad a year and a half ago, is also vying for a spot in this season’s rotation for Saratoga High, after some time in Long Island where his brother attended school. Saratoga will have some talented depth this year.
Though Miles opted to play for a Big 10 team in the Capital District, he still remains friendly with many of the above-named guys. Many of them including Miles, plus CBA juniors Zach Zaloga and Miles’s former St. Gregory’s teammate Max Macielak, formed the backbone of some very good CDYBL teams for Saratoga, back before high school paths diverged. We certainly wish those former Saratoga-area teammates and players all the best in their remaining two years of high school, whatever they pursue. But I digress…
FINAL WEEK OF JULY’S SUMMER LEAGUE…
The first game of July 23rd’s round was against the street ballers of Amsterdam, a team Miles’s City Rocks 16U team had played and beaten twice in AAU games earlier in the spring season. They were a combination of talents, lacking a bit in size, but looking formidable in warm-ups compared to the 4-guard lineup CCHS would have to use—the opposite type of team than the large lineup the Rocks 16U B team featured. In this incarnation, a JV reserve, Ben Hannibal, was our only beefy inside guy, playing against a 6’3” hustler named Phil Miskinis who had given Channel 13 All-Star Devin Grimes a hard time in last year’s Varsity tilts in the Big 10. Ben had his best game of the summer with a handful of rebounds, three assists, and a couple of steals off denials inside. Other than that, we had juniors-to-be Miles, Shiva Senthil, and Keaton Woods all playing guard, plus frosh-to-be Jordan McBride, diminutive indeed, but deadly from outside that night. The sixth man was a soph transfer from Saratoga (and also Middle Grove), slender forward Matt Podesva—who’d played freshman ball and Hoop Nation 14U AAU ball up till recently. There wasn’t a senior in the bunch, nor the 6’4” size of Kevin Wilkes, nor anyone who’d had significant minutes on varsity last year at all. Yet Catholic Central played well and shared the ball brilliantly, and had a 36-28 lead at the half, against a Rams team which obviously thought they would have an easier time against this unrecognizable bunch of Crusaders. Keaton Woods hit five quick shots early, drives and pull-up jumpers, & McBride hit three straight 3’s late in the half, plus Miles added another, then a Maravich bounce pass to Shiva off a fastbreak sprint to punctuate things just before the half. Matt Podesva kicked in two buckets off putbacks and the ragtag bunch was piling up some points.
In the second half Miles took over in a way I haven’t seen much since he hit 35 one time in AAU ball over a year ago. He scored 9 points on four consecutive drives, including 3 for 3 from the line, then had a succession of 3 steals, and a dish to Shiva for his second three-ball of the half, and suddenly we were up 15. Keaton had five more to finish with 15, a couple of dimes and steals to boot. Miles notched 20, Shiva 14, and McBride 11—who says a 4-guard offense can’t work ? (…Shades of Villanova a couple of years ago.) The final was 67-52, and if all the fouls had been called toward the end Miles might’ve taken fifteen free throws instead of five in the final minutes. Summer league, like AAU, can get pretty chippy as they say, and our guys were playing with no auxiliary muscle.
This would hurt us in the second game of the evening, as it turned out.
VERSUS THE HOST TEAM IN THE GRAND FINALE…
The same lineup which faced Amsterdam’s scuffling, scrappy bunch then had to face Clifton Park’s squad, nine deep and featuring a burly 6’6” center. Our guys had no one over 6’ even—no seniors, four guards, and two inexperienced forwards. It was an obvious mismatch. The coach was telling our guys they had to win this game to get into next week’s 4-team playoff round. That seemed unlikely, given the fact that three or four of the best players from CCHS were nowhere in sight. Shen was missing Matt Miner, Danny Lee, Ryan Wilkins, and a couple of other potential varsity players, but their depth was such that they still had 8 or 9 legit players on the floor, warming up. Our guys were sweaty and sucking down liquids, with only a couple of minutes, once again, in between games.
Keaton Woods jumped center against a guy half a foot taller and probably 60 pounds heavier, won the tip, and scored the first hoop of the game. Ben Hannibal had a surprising block and three early rebounds. Jordan McBride hit 2 early threes on his way to 10 first half points, his best stretch of the summer. Miles challenged Doug Milvaney and Ryan Murphy on aggressive drives and scored on iso plays both times, one a left-handed floater in the lane that was a thing of beauty. Shiva Senthil had a couple of steals and buried an open three late in the half to give CCHS a ten point lead—quite amazing. I think Shen was a little shocked for a brief time, then made a couple of buckets at the end of the half to make it a 27-21 game at the half—but it was still a shock to some observers that essentially a pick-up team was winning at that point over a talen ed juggernaut with much more size, experience, and bench strength.
But it didn’t last, though the upset attempt was fun while it lasted. Shen hit a quick three to start the second half and went on a steady run while our valiant band seemed to be running out of gas. Shen scored inside and out and on the break and won the second half by 39-20. Murphy, Milvaney, Jake LePan and Matt Lee should all enjoy excellent senior seasons for this squad in the 08-09 season to come, and their junior class is excellent as well. They show depth at all positions—two lightning quick point guards, for instance--Jose Reyes and Justin Barnett—who played that evening will likely be coming off the bench this season. Matt Miner will no doubt start, while Danny Lee and Ryan Wilkins would be good enough to also start at most any other program in the area. If AAU stalwart Lucas Marino goes out for the team, I don’t see how he can be kept off the floor, though he wasn’t playing in this summer league campaign. There was also an athletic kid named Manny Hernandez who hit the first three and blocked one of Miles’s shots in the second half—Will he even make the Shen team, or should a private school be recruiting him? They have extra muscle in Josh Koopman who was on JV last year, and also have some highly talented sophs in the system who, based on the numbers, will likely kick butt on the JV level on the Suburban for the coming year.
In any case, Shenendehowa won that final game 60-47, which was still closer than I thought it would be, based on the warm-ups and line-ups. We didn’t feel so bad after hearing that LaSalle’s split squad had gotten trounced by a full Scotia team, something like 50-12, that same night. Our undermanned team finished 3-4 in the league, with varsity returnees G. Jacques, Denzel Paschal, & Joe Dooley barely participating, and Andrew Clement not playing at all. Kevin Wilkes missed all but the first week, and he will certainly be a key part of the varsity this coming year. For a team with a host of guards and not many big men, CCHS competed pretty well, but will have a lot of prep work to do this fall to be ready for a grueling Big 10 season to come.
REPORTED FINALE….
Reliable sources related to me the following week that Shen went on to win the Playoffs of their own summer league, even though they only had 7 guys show up for the games of July 31st. First they beat the very good LaSalle Cadets by about 20, while Schenectady dispensed with a tougher Scotia/Glenville team than we had seen in the first week of July—59-47 was the score I heard, though that was unofficial.
In the Finals, Shen beat the Schenectady team by a wide margin—70-47-- reputedly taking away their fast break game, and shutting them down defensively. Doug Milvaney and Ryan Murphy led the way, I’m told, supplemented by Matt and Dan Lee, Jake LePan, Josh Koopman, and Justin Barnett—the latter one of the few Suburban Council guards quick enough to give Schenectady’s blazingly fast point guard a hard time. The Patriots were led by their talented trio of Reece Jackson, aforementioned guard Derek Millinghaus, and Mark Blair—and I was surprised to hear that they would lose by such a wide margin to a Shen team that was not as fully loaded as they will be this winter. Kudos to the Shen kids, who were essentially coaching themselves in the game they played against us, and would seem to be the favorite in the Suburban Council during this upcoming Section 2 season… though Colonie, Burnt Hills, and Saratoga look to be highly competitive as well. In this league, both last summer and the one just concluded, Shen showed that they could play Big 10-style basketball with their current roster, and may well be a force in the area when next year’s AA Sectional play rolls around.
POSTSCRIPT TO SUMMER BALL—
Without going into great detail, let me also add that Schenectady won a July Tournament locally in July as well—the 3rd Annual Team Camp at Hudson Valley Community College. While I didn’t see too many of the games, the roster of teams competing was an impressive cross-section of Section 2 talent:
Schenectady, Watervliet, Columbia, Burnt Hills, Fonda, Catholic Central, Broadalbin-Perth, Mohonasen, Cohoes, South Glens Falls, Shenendehowa, and Hudson Falls among the 12 teams involved on the varsity level. Under stellar HVCC Coach Andre Cook’s direction, that team camp format should only get stronger and better each year, and we look forward to participating in that Tournament next year with a more-prepared squad, and more advance notice. From the limited action I saw, Schenectady was dynamite, Columbia shot the lights out against CCHS, and I heard that Burnt Hills and Fonda both thrashed our undermanned team when Miles and Keaton couldn’t make the Saturday afternoon games.
But in the Final game of Saturday night, Miles and Denzel combined for 29 of the team’s 36 points in the second half to lead a nice comeback from 14-16 points down over a tough Watervliet squad, to salvage something after an 0-4 start for the team (again, missing their three biggest players). Then on Sunday our 5-guard squad beat a burly Cohoes team in the early game and went on to face Hudson Falls, featuring lanky 6’6” senior Keven Donahue (not to be confused with fellow Foothills Council star-in-the-making Kevin Donahue, a junior this year). Donahue the elder was hitting from everywhere at first, inside and out, and our six-foot-and-under team had no answers. Sixteen points in the first half, including a punctuating 3 toward the end, plus 3-pointers by three of the other four starters, and Hudson Falls was ahead by 12-15 at times in the early going. But Shiva hit three 3’s of his own on his way to a stellar finish, Miles and Keaton hit one each, and two late drives into the tall trees by Miles brought CCHS back within four at the break, 36-32.
The second half was the Shiva show, for the most part, with four more timely threes on his way to 23 points, on set-ups by Keaton and Miles. A 5’10” leaper named Jesse Milligan who was contemplating a transfer from Lansingburgh slashed to the hoop and dropped in 6 second half deuces off nice dishes from the lead guards as well. Miles and Keaton played ball control with a spread offense at the end, and those two guards plus a springy Jesse actually outrebounded the taller HF kids throughout the second half, to lead a 66-59 comeback win. Donahue hit 24 points but was denied the ball down the stretch much more than early in the game. Another burly 6’3” kid (I believe named Ty Michaud) notched 10 points, but the game was decided by savvy
guard play and Shiva’s deep shooting. Jesse hit 16, Miles 14 and Keaton 10, while Saubdeep Chahal also hit a second half three to complete the scoring for CCHS. Given the size of our team and how well the Hudson Falls team had started out, their coach was livid and was chewing them out en masse as we left that day. For our guys it was a consolation win after a horrible start on Friday night at HVCC.
If anyone has information on what went on with the Hoffman Park League in Albany (played outdoors) this past summer, or the indoor league at Colonie High, I’d be interested to relay that report next time I post some hoop news.
KOUBEK CAMP at BRANT LAKE…
Miles has attended many hoop camps in the past but had not participated in the one run annually by renowned Section 2 hoop star of 20 years ago, Greg Koubek of Shenendehowa High. Koubek went from two years of stellar play in the State Championships and Federation-level play in the late ‘80’s to four years’ worth of significant contribution at Duke University under the famous Coach Mike Krzyzewski, just recently leader of America’s Gold Medal Winning Redeem Team in the Summer Olympics at Beijing. From all accounts, Greg still has a sweet jumpshot, and doesn’t look too bad on the court for a guy now in his late 30’s.
Koubek and his staff run a great camp up in the Adirondacks, and this year’s version went from August 19th to the 23rd. Many of the players I have mentioned having seen in the Shen & HVCC leagues were in attendance—though in different team combinations.
Miles was on a team with Chris Hooks (Shaker), Jose Reyes (Shen), and Ryan Grecco (Saratoga), among others. We saw them play an exciting overtime game against a squad led by Derek Millinghaus (Schenectady), Matt Lee (Shen), Nate Sentz (Guilderland), and Christian Signore (CBA), plus a lot of other talent. Matt Lee hit the winning shots in O/T to propel that team to a Finals match-up against a Mitch Snyder-coached team led by Reece Jackson (Schenectady), Jake LePan (Shen), Shiva Senthil (CCHS), Brandon Dufort (CBA) and Matt Pierson (Shen). Though Millinghaus looked to be unstoppable early, the latter team won the title game, played mid-day on Saturday as the camp was wrapping up. Due to Koubek’s fame and influence in the Shen program, the camp was loaded with other Clifton Park kids as well: Matt Miner, Danny Lee, Josh Koopman, Doug Milvaney—and Coach Dzikas was looking on closely too. Other notables were a long-ball shooter named Brian from California, a red-headed leaper named Evan from Potsdam, a burly center and a scrappy guard (named Alex) from Johnstown, Keaton Woods from CCHS, Josh Dennis from CBA, Zach Smith from Saratoga, Kayshaun from Schenectady and a quick kid named Mookie from Troy High, a kid named Anthony from Heatly, and Ryan Orlando from Queensbury. Ben Hannibal and Matt Podesva from CCHS both attended as well, enhancing their chances of doing well this winter. There was also a kid with the unlikely hoop name of John Madden, and some talented kids named Zach, Ryan, Jeff, John and Billy who all went by in a blur that day, and I’m sorry I never got their full names.
All in all, Miles had a blast, and felt like he got to know a lot of these other serious ballplayers much better in the 4 ½ days of camp. The staff was a Who’s Who of recent area graduates: Devin and Mike Grimes (CCHS), Shimeek Johnson and Terron Victoria (Bishop Maginn), Zach O’Brien (Bishop Gibbons), Brian Ledbetter and Durett Miles (Schenectady High) among them—the latter who wowed the assembled multitudes during the Camp Dunk Contest—won by Durett when he cleared the head of a 6’10” gentleman named Clay (who had played with Koubek at Duke), on his way to an emphatic slam that ended the competition immediately, in an ESPN Streetball-type uproar.
The commemorative DVD featured that And-One Mix-tape Quality Slam, and plenty of other highlights for the week, emphasizing some nice ballhandling, smooth shooting, distinctive blocks, and killer cross-overs (Miles had a nice one, behind the back) by a host of players you’ll be seeing on Section 2 courts this season, both young and older, both girls and boys. Miles came away from the camp feeling fairly pumped up by the experience, and a couple of kids were heard saying they wished the regular season for hoop started the next week.
On that note, as of the beginning of another school year there are less than two months to go before workouts start for winter ball, so enjoy the football season while it lasts, and I’ll be posting more news late in the fall as the season gets underway for the High School Hoop season. Take care…
--Copyright Wayne Perras 2008