December 5-7

Saturday afternoon at McCaskey as we boarded the bus for the season opener and the start of my 28th year with the program. I was involved during my junior and senior years and for three more seasons after that but I was absent from 1977 to 1988, when I returned in '88 it was literally like coming back home again. On this day the destination was Holy Family University in northeast Philadelphia, we went north on 222 (a familiar road to be sure) to the PA Turnpike, then east for about 65 miles to the next-to-last exit before New Jersey(!!!) and then about two miles south into the Philadelphia city limits. There were three games scheduled beginning at 2:30, we were the middle game at 4:15. Our opponent was Archbishop Wood from suburban Warminster, they are a member of the Philadelphia Catholic League. Wood is a perennially strong program, typical of the non-league opposition we normally face early in the season. JPM trailed by two at the quarter and five at the half but in the third Wood outscored us 27-16 and made that margin stand up for a 75-59 win. Coach Powell used ten players and nine of them scored: Kobe Gantz led with 14, Randolph Speller had 11, Ricky Cruz 8, Izaiah Baratta 7, Juanya Gonzalez 6, William Joseph 5 and Greg Nunez 3 (all except Kobe and Ran were members of the '14-15 JV squad). Newcomers Darin Terrell (3) and Omar Baskerville (2) rounded out the scoring, from what I'm told Omar will play both JV and varsity. The club has off until Friday the 11th when LL league plays at home against Elizabethtown. Not much happening on Sunday or Monday which gave me a chance to get over the stiffness and soreness from the Saturday bus ride (school buses were not built with people my age or size in mind). Take care, thanks for reading.