Sizing up the coming season

Bob Mackey doesn’t like to be reminded that his Lady Royals finished in second place in the Brooklyn/Queens division last year.
“You’re mistaken,” he politely says. “It doesn’t make a difference. We still won the state; the goal every year is to win the state. We lost the Archdiocese game for the first time in 23 years. You know what? Twenty-three years is a long time.”
He’s right. Christ The King won its biggest battles last year, just as it had for two decades while Mackey and Vincent Cannizzaro, his predecessor, helmed one of the best girls’ programs in the country. The Royals’ playoff victories last year culminated in a ‘Class A’ state title, and the CK athletics web site proudly proclaims its team as “New York State Federation Champions.”
But there’s still the matter of Archbishop Molloy. Christ The King went 1-2 against the Lady Stanners last season, with the second loss coming by four points in the Brooklyn/Queens championship game.
Molloy might be a bit weaker this year. When head coach Dom Cecala was replaced with Tom Catalanotto in the off-season, it did not take long for Cecala prot/g/ Kelly Robinson, now a junior guard, to leave for Francis Lewis. Over the course of three non-league games, the Stanners are 1-2 against generally tough competition, but there is little doubt that they have yet to fully prove themselves.
Losing stars and team leaders Kerri White and Molly Dreyer but retaining a deep bench and a balanced, if small, starting five, they will have a pair of rematches against CK on January 17 and February 5.
There is also the matter of the third-place Mary Louis Lady Hilltoppers, another candidate to be a thorn in Christ the King’s side. Forward Amanda Burakoski, coming off a bit of a junior-year slump, has looked good in the Hilltoppers’ early-season scrimmages. Speedy Karin Robinson, a sophomore point guard, and well-rounded Ciara McBrien, a senior forward, are each a year wiser and have each added elements to their game.
“She’s been absolutely wonderful,” head coach Joe Lewinger says of Burakoski. “You find yourself concentrating on other parts of the game, because if she happens to make a mistake, it’s probably because she was covering up for somebody else. She’s going to be fantastic over at St. John’s [next year]. The best is yet to come.”
So far, the Hilltoppers have gone 2-1 in three non-league contests. A loss to Long Island’s Kellenberg - in which Burakoski had to cover for a pair of missing teammates - is a concern, but Lewinger is not losing sleep over it.
“People call it an upset, and I don’t want to take anything away from Kellenberg,” Lewinger says. “But the only ‘upset’ part of it is how upset I was when we realized that these girls from Kellenberg really come out as if this was the state championship. I think it caught some of our kids off-guard. … Do you want to lose? Absolutely not. But at this point in the season, it was a wake-up call, and I think there are things we’re continually addressing.”
Moreover, he believes his squad - with its increased emphasis this year on speedy, perimeter-oriented basketball - is capable of shaking up the division’s top two teams.
“One of the things I think is interesting is that people say it’s really going to be Molloy and CK this year,” he says. “Our biggest strength is their biggest weakness, and vice versa. … I’m not sure if these games are going to be anti-climactic. … If we stay true to our game plan, and if we stay true to who we are, I think we’ll be fine.”
In the meantime, CK is staying confident. The only team in Queens that has actually started league play, the Royals already beat Brooklyn’s Bishop Ford and Bishop Kearney on their way to a 4-0 combined record. Continuing their long tradition of extensive travel to face national powerhouses, they leave for Phoenix, Arizona, this week for a “Tournament of Champions” from December 18 to December 22, where they will face arguably the best (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) and second-best (Long Beach Polytechnic, California) high school squads in the country.
This past Saturday, December 13, they beat Rhode Island state champion LaSalle Academy on the Rams’ home turf.
“I think it’s good for [CK’s players] to be in a hostile gym where maybe the officials aren’t as kind,” Mackey says. “And you have to play with a little bit of adversity - get off the bus, [then] play.”
Mackey sees an improved Christ The King squad taking the court in 2008-09. He has praise for his extensive bench, its size and its speed. He sees strength in stalwart senior forward Tahira Johnson, in Elmont (Long Island) transfer Ariel Edwards, and in sophomore guard Bria Smith, who averaged 24 points per game last year and is currently out with a sprained ankle. But he cites senior point guard Geleisa George as the real leader of the team.
Johnson, Smith, and Edwards, a junior forward, “have impressed me a lot,” he says. “But the team this year is based around Geleisa George.”
Come January 12, when Christ The King returns to league play, she and the Lady Royals will do their very best to fend off Molloy and Mary Louis like they used to.