By Jay Cook
With plenty of the hoops talk for 2016 centered around the boys and a national powerhouse team, think twice before looking past the top girls teams the Two River area has to offer.
Sitting atop that list, and recognized as one of the best high school women’s programs not only in New Jersey, but the country, are the Saint John Vianney Lancers.
In the USA TODAY preseason rankings, the Lancers came in at No. 12 on the list, the highest-rated New Jersey team.
2015 was a brilliant year for SJV’s program, as the team ended a 31-1 season with a win in the Tournament of Champions against Manasquan High School, another nationally-ranked girls squad.
Led by 11th year head coach Dawn Karpell, also a former Lady Lancer from her playing days in the early 1990’s, she hopes to bring success back onto the court for her alma mater.
Despite graduating a vastly talented senior class, Karpell believes this season’s team is just as talented, and maybe even more athletic.
“We finished ninth in the country last year, and graduated five or six kids,” she said. “In the same breath, we’re returning one of the top scorers from that team in Kimi Evans, a senior, who signed with Seton Hall in the preseason.”
Evans, the team’s center, figures to be the focal point of Saint John Vianney’s success this season. She currently sits at 939 points scored in her career, and it is only a matter of time before her name sits up in the rafters along with a plethora of other great Lancer girls basketball players.
“Offensively, she has to get the ball,” Karpell said. “We’re going to move it around and get some different looks to find different ways to get her touches, so teams can’t just key in on her.”
Besides Evans, SJV has four other seniors who have signed on to play college hoops at the next level: Courtney Dobrzynski, University of Hartford; Riley Kehoe, Dominican College; Julia Ramos, Drew University; and Abby Anderko, Catholic University.
Karpell says that roster depth can allow her team to try some new looks throughout the season.
“I think because of our depth this year, we’re going to press a lot more than we have in the past few years, and our real staple is our half-court defense,” she said. “We’re a real true man-to-man team, and we’re going to try to make it difficult for teams to run what they run.”
Over on the other side of the Navesink sits another competitive girls squad in the Shore Conference, the Rumson-Fair Haven Bulldogs.
With a competitive roster returning for another year, the only big change for the Bulldogs this year is the man standing on the sidelines.
Legendary coach George Sourlis, who was at the helm of the RFH girls hoops team for three decades, stepped down at the end of last season. His replacement is the now former boys assistant coach Dave Callahan.
“I think George definitely left a lot of well-coached talent over the last three years, but I think it depends on the kind of bar that you want to set,” Callahan said.
Hannah Scanlan is one of the Shore’s top players and looks to lead Rumson-Fair Haven to challenge for a state title. Photo courtesy of Rich Chrampanis
And under Callahan, expect that bar to be equally as high, as he takes over a 22-7 team. Under his mantra of the Three E’s – energy, enthusiasm and effort – expect the Bulldogs to pressure their opponents all game long.
“We like to play an up-tempo game, we like to push the ball, spread the court out and have the players play up to their strengths,” Callahan said. “High tempo, high energy players is what we’re looking for.”
A trio of seniors fit that bill quite well. Hannah Scanlan, Katie Foos and Megan Volker are the girls that Callahan is going to rely on in his inaugural season.
Scanlan, a Bryant University-commit who averaged 11 points per game in her junior year, will play a big role down by the net.
“Hannah’s one of the best, if not the best, post players in the Shore Conference, and one of the best in the state,” the first-year coach said.
Foos, who signed with New York University after the season ends, does a bit of everything.
Callahan noted her shooting skills, awareness on the court and abilities as a passer.
“A” Central, a division now without Manasquan High School, seems to be a two-team race to first place between SJV and RFH.
“We always want to win our division, that’s the first thing, so that’ll be a battle with Vianney; I know they’ve got a nice winning streak going against us right now,” Callahan said.
Outside of these two powerhouse programs, another consistently-competitive Shore team resides off Middletown-Lincroft Road, the Middletown South Eagles.
The Eagles, led by Tom Brennan, now in his 21st season, plan to bring another solid team to the court.
Brennan was at the center of a health scare last season, after being sidelined due to heart complications and a quadruple bypass procedure right before the New Year.
In 2016, those worries seem to be far off in the past.
“For the most part, it’s all good,” Brennan said about his health coming into this season. “Everything under the hood, as the doctor tells me, is working fine. It’s just such an invasive procedure, the quadruple bypass, so it’s the physical recovery, more than anything else, that I’m still dealing with.”
With Brennan feeling better, and a 25-4 season in the history books, he looks for the Lady Eagles to continue their success despite some schedule changes.
Middletown South now shifts over to “B” North from “A” North, and moves to Group Four from Group Three, where they have been a familiar face during Brennan’s tenure.
“Going into that division – on top of the fact that I think there’s a lot of talented teams in that division – there’s a whole different gamut of players you have to learn and coaching styles that you have to learn,” Brennan said.
Also, the departure of Stephanie Karcz, who was a topflight player for the Eagles during her career, will affect the starting five.
Sliding in to fill Karcz’s shoes will be Haley Dalonzo, a guard coming off an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery from last season.
Prior to the injury, Brennan felt Dalonzo was on her way to All-Shore recognition.
“She’s a tenacious defender, and then from the offensive standpoint, she likes to get to the rim,” Brennan said. “She can shoot from the outside very efficiently, but she really is an aggressive kid trying to get there off the bounce.”
A trip back to the sectional finals seems to be on the horizon for Middletown South again, and to accomplish that, the team will need to focus on the basics.
“To get to a Group 4 championship, I don’t think the formula really changes much,” Brennan said. “You have to be able to defend, have to be able to rebound, and you have to reverse the ball against the better defenses that you’ll face throughout the course of the year.”
Another year under head coach Joe Montano means another year of dominant girls basketball for Red Bank Catholic. Manasquan High School moved over to “B” North, meaning a new set of challenges in front of the Caseys for 2016.
To combat that, senior guard Josie Larkins, a University of Vermont commit, is one of three captains looking to cement RBC’s squad as a top team in the Shore Conference.
“She’s a kid that over a four-year period has really improved both athletically and basketball-wise defensively, she made herself a college player,” Montano said of Larkins. “She’s a kid on a night-in, night-out basis for us who needs to be able to be good offensively, she can create her own shot and make the other kids better out on the floor.”
Also look for Maureen Coakley to be a key piece of the Caseys defense, their top physical presence in the lane. The 5’11 senior forward/center hybrid averaged eight rebounds per game in her junior season.
