By Joseph Staszewski
More than the 1993 Christ the King girls’ basketball team was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame last week.
This special group of players, which claimed one of the Royals’ five mythical national titles, goes in as the first-ever female club to enter the Hall of Fame. The club did so alongside Former CK star Craig ‘Speedy’ Claxton, Rice and St. John’s University standout Felipe Lopez and Brooklyn Tech start Charlie Davis.
“It means a lot to the team,” legendary Christ the King coach Vincent Cannizzaro said. “It means a lot to the sport.”
The Middle Village school has accolades unmatched during its two decades of dominance. Christ the King won 10 straight New York State Federation titles at the highest classification and 15 overall. It has also claimed 27 of the last 30 Brooklyn/Queens diocesan crown. The program’s link to that past continues with Cannizarro’s former assistants, Bob Mackey, now the head coach, and Jill Cook, still running things in Middle Village.
The Royals were a trendsetting-program as they took off by traveling out of state regularly for games against national opponents and by starting an elite travel program in the Liberty Belles in 1987. They were also the first women’s team in the country to earn a sneaker deal, at first with Adidas and now Nike.
“I think it was hard for them to choose which team to honor,”said Tammi McGlynn-Piazza, the lone returning starter on the 1993 club, of the Hall of Fame. “Any team that you picked, you wouldn’t have gone wrong.”
There were reasons her team was special and the biggest one was the presence of future Tennessee and WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw as a sophomore. It was the breakout season for the first of the Mount Rushmore players in the program’s history, with Sue Bird and Tina Charles to follow. Holdsclaw, one of the most recognizable names in women’s hoops, started just one game as a freshman, before coming into her own that season.
“I think it helped that Chamique was on our team,” said McGlynn-Piazza, who later played at Fairfield and George Washington. “She was always compared to the Michael Jordan of basketball.”
Holdsclaw was just one of five hungry future Division-I players in the starting lineup on a team that did not return a lot of experience. Center Malika Willis (Georgetown), point guard Jo-Jo Guzman (Pittsburgh) and shooting guard Keisha McFagion (Arizona State) all played major roles in bringing the national title back to Middle Village. One loss kept the Royals from earning the honor the year prior.
“It didn’t surprise me how good they could play because we knew they had made a positive contribution the year before on a team that finished No. 2 in the country,” said Vinny Cannizzaro, who coached the Royals along from 1981-1999.
By inducting the Royals’ 1993 team the Hall of Fame enshrined much more than just that group’s players and coaches. They represent something much bigger, one of the nation’s most famous programs, regardless of gender.
“Any where you go you say you play for Chris the King, it’s an honor,” McGlynn-Piazza said. “People look up to you.”
