By Anthony Bosco
Ronald Reagan was still in his first term as the chief executive of the United States, the New York Yankees were 14 years from their next World Series, Michael Jordan had yet to win an NBA title and David Lee Roth was still in Van Halen. That's how long ago it was when the Christ the King girls varsity basketball team last lost a Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan game.
But streaks come to an end. It's a fact of life. So it should really be no surprise that the string of consecutive league wins by the Royals was snapped this past week. It was bound to happen, wasn't it?
If there is a standard for league dominance in the Catholic High School Athletic Association, Christ the King certainly set the bar. A total of 232 games had passed since the last time Christ the King lost a game in its division on Feb. 19, 1984 to St. Francis Prep.
That's almost 16 years, much longer than I've held this job, which is to say an eternity, at least by high school sports – and journalism – standards.
It is the program that produced perhaps the greatest female basketball player in collegiate history, Chamique Holdsclaw, as well as current University of Connecticut standout Sue Bird, neither of whom knew what it was like to lose a league game in high school.
But it wasn't just the fact that Christ the King lost, it was how the team finally succumbed to a league opponent. Bishop Loughlin soundly trounced the 10-time defending New York State Class A Federation champions, 72-54, last Wednesday afternoon on their home court.
The loss had the CK players in tears after the game. Loughlin simply outplayed them from the start and won the game behind solid play, despite a valiant comeback attempt by the Royals that fell well short in the end.
Christ the King can take solace in the fact that its first league loss since before the emergence of Bill Gates was less than a straight-up loss, mainly because All-American junior guard Clare Droesch was sitting out the game with an ankle injury.
Still, the day was approaching and a lot of people seemed to know it.
Last year the team's architect and coach, Vincent Cannizzaro, left the high school game behind for the college ranks, taking an assistant's position with Stony Brook, which made its Division I debut this season.
But Cannizzaro handed over the reins to longtime assistant Bob Mackey. Continuity was intact and everything seemed to be pointing to yet another chapter in the team's longstanding history of perfection.
For whatever reason, though, Christ the King seemed vulnerable this season. The team brought back several of its key players from last year's state championship team, most notably Droesch and Tricia Turbidy, but something just did not seem right.
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