RECREATION BASKETBALL: BATTLES OF THE UNBEATEN AND THE BEATEN

By JOEY DELGARDO

JOEY DELGARDO FOR WIZARD WEEKLY

CYO basketball is a league for students to have fun playing basketball with each other. It has the same rules and gameplay as normal basketball. The league hosts their games at the recreation center in town for eleventh and twelfth grade boys on Wednesdays at 8 and 9 o'clock pm.  The latest games have coined the terms, “The Battle of the Unbeaten” which is encompasses the Knicks and Lakers and “The Battle of the Beaten" which is comprised of the Nets and the Heat. 

Some of the key players around the league on all the different teams are John Tecklenburg on the Knicks, Eugene Meehan on the Lakers, Matt Barbookles on the Heat and Johnny Poveromo on the Nets. Senior Johnny Tecklenburg said, “It feels good to be undefeated going off to a strong start this season and the future for our team is looking really bright for us.” As one can see, John is very confident going into this week’s game, but Eugene Meehan thinks otherwise. “Its definitely one of our hardest games yet, but I think that everyone will step it up this week. I’ll also do my best to help lead us to another win and remain undefeated.”

This game of the “Battle of the Unbeaten” will take place at 9pm. The other half of the league, in the “Battle of the Beaten”, will be rewarded with its first win. Matt said, “I feel our team has improved each game so far and we are ready to take the win this week. I feel we have the top defense in the league and will use that to our advantage this game. Rookie Coach Michael Barbookles is getting used to communicating with us. He is ready to pull our team together and make a championship run. All that matters is the playoffs.”                                                                                                                                                                

With strong defense and smart coaching, can the Heat come out with the win or will it be the Nets?  Johnny Poveromo said, “Well, being 0-2 and going against the other 0-2 team, I feel good going in because my teams two losses were both close games. So, we should come out on top to get our first win of the season and start our championship run.” As the games took place on Wednesday night, the Knicks came up on top led by Antonio Quinones with 15 points and Joey Delgardo with 13 points to remain unbeaten. A strong performance by Meehan, who had 17 points, was seen, but the team still fell short to make the Lakers 2-1. Varsity basketball player Jack Zimmer led his team with 16 points and was helped by Johnny Poveromo who put up a respectable 6 points to make the Nets win their very first game of the season. Dylan Sanchez led the heat with 14 points but his team came up short in the end.  

Next week, the Knicks play the Heat and the Lakers play the Nets. If you're not doing anything on Wednesday nights, Washingtonville’s CYO basketball is the place to go watch some fun basketball being played.