By Dylan Butler
Darryl Hill, a 5-foot-10 senior, continues in a long line of great Cardozo point guards, which includes Brian Woodward, Duane Woodward and Rafer Alston. Cardozo head coach Ron Naclerio said Hill is one of the top players in the borough and the city's premier point guard, but the Judges' problem will be finding someone other than Hill to step up.
Gone are the fearsome frontcourt duo of Tremayne Singletary and Ryan Williams, bothof whom are now attending prep school. A big key to the season will be the play of 6-foot-4 senior Dana Townsend, the only other returning player with any real game experience.
“We have so many question marks this year,” Naclerio said. “The young kids have looked good, but then at times they look their age. We have some flashes of greatness, but they've just been flashes.”
Four seniors, Wayne Lloyd, J.R. Ward, Dmitri Dimitropolous and Joe Forbes, along with junior Darryl Philips, are largely untested while Naclerio has been impressed with some of his younger players, freshmen Duane Johnson and John Forbes and sophomore Terrell Robinson.
Van Buren is coming off one of its better seasons in recent memory. The VeeBees finished 10-4 in the league and beat Grady in the first round of the PSAL playoffs. According to head coach Perry Dortch, the VeeBees can make it back to the second round of the playoffs.
“It's viable,” he said. “We have a nice mix of returning players and guys up from the JV. We're a more disciplined team this year. These kids listen and learn.”
Senior point guard Josh Puello, 5-foot-10, and senior forward Darryl France, 6-foot-3, are the team's top returnees. Junior Mark Ifill, a 6-foot-4, 260-pound wide body, should help down low and senior John Darby, who wasn't on the team last year, will start as the team's shooting guard. Melvin Jackson and Jerome Burrett are up from the JV team and should add some scoring.
“We should play a well-disciplined, controlled game,” Dortch said. “We should be solid defensively and pretty smart offensively.”
After winning just five games last year, Francis Lewis head coach Randy James is hoping this year's team will make the leap into a playoff contender. One reason the Patriots should see post-season play is 6-foot-6 senior Damien Herard, arguably the borough's best player. The forward, who averaged 21 points a game last year, has already verbally committed to St. Francis College in Brooklyn, marking the school's first Division I basketball player since Fred Burton in 1983.
Joining Herard in the front court will be junior Tori Begho, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound transfer from basketball powerhouse Bergen Catholic in New Jersey, and 6-foot-4 senior Marlon Marshall. Jermaine Johnson, a 6-foot-4 senior, will add size to the back court. Five-foot-9 senior Steven Lewis and Dave Musialik, a 5-foot-11 guard, will alternate at running the point for Lewis.
“We have holes, we have weaknesses, but hopefully we can weather through them,” James said. “We should be better than we've been.”
For Campus Magnet head coach Chuck Granby, the objective remains the same: “to make the playoffs and get our seniors into college,” he said.
Two seniors who should not have a problem with finding a college are Devon Ray, a 6-foot-4 forward, and Elvis Belone, a 6-foot-2 guard. According to Granby, both have about an 80 average and are two of the better players in Queens.
Other top returnees for Campus Magnet, which finished last season with a 15-9 record and a first-round playoff loss to Boys & Girls, are juniors Mark Arrington, a 6-foot-2 swingman and Andrew Gordon, a 6-foot-5 forward/center, as well as seniors Ronald Gray and Damion Myier, both 6-foot-2 guards. Granby said he also likes what he sees in Kevin Casey, a 6-foot-6 freshman forward.
Joe Capuano takes over the reigns from Steve Pirowkowski as head coach of the Bayside boys' team, with Pirowkowski taking over the girls' varsity team. The Commodores return just four players from last year, led by 6-foot-5 senior forward Darryl Hawkins. Also back are C.J. Okogeri, a 6-foot junior guard who is expected to return in mid-December from a torn MCL suffered during the football season, 6-foot junior guard Lance Hazel and Peter Prossas, a 5-foot-9 senior guard who was academically ineligible last year.
Leading the 11 newcomers is Kasim Clarke, a 5-foot-4 senior point guard who transferred from Pennsylvania.
“We should play an up-tempo style and we are going to rely on our defense,” Capuano said. “We don't have much size, but we should be a good shooting team. We're going to build around how well we play defense.”
August Martin and Franklin K. Lane have an outside shot at fighting for the division's fourth and final playoff spot while Beach Channel and Far Rockaway round out the division.
Queens A-I
With the Queens A-I crown up for grabs, it looks like the Bryant Owls may be ready to reach up and grab the title this year. Leading the charge for John Demas' team is Dashawn Warren, a 6-foot-3 senior guard who averaged 21 points a game last year and has Division I colleges like Iona, Quinnipiac and Vermont after him.
Demas said Warren has adjusted his game this year to become a more complete team player and has seen an increase in both steals and assists.
The Owls, coming off an 11-13 year, can score. They are averaging 85 points a game in their 5-0 start this season.
Carl Rhodes, a 6-foot-2, 240-pound junior forward, joins Warren as the team's co-captain. Dwayne Walker, a 6-foot senior point guard, who averaged 20 points a game last year and 6-foot-4 senior forward Emir Hot also return for the Owls.
Diego Agular, a 6-foot-7 junior center who played for the Brazilian junior national team, is the team's top newcomer and 6-foot senior guard Joel Major, 6-foot-1 Fleans Dervishi and 6-foot-3 senior Nashwan Mohammed will also be dangerous off the bench for Bryant.
“We can score quickly,” said Demas, in his 14th year as head coach. “Every game, we've had five guys in double figure scoring. We're a very offensive minded team.”
After two consecutive trips to the 'A' division quarterfinals and a 22-4 season last year, a lot was expected of the Newtown Pioneers coming into this season, especially with the return of the top player in Queens and one of the up-and-coming stars in city hoops, 6-foot-8 Charie Villanueva.
But Villanueva opted to follow in the footsteps of former Cardozo star Royal Ivey and transfered to Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. where he will be re-classified as a sophomore. Also heading to the Garden State was last year's starting point guard Michel Diboty and starters Juan Ortiz and Max Colin graduated.
Senior Johnny Carter, a 6-foot-4 power forward, 6-foot-4 center Jamel Moye and 6-foot-4 swingman Matt Nichols are the tri-captains of Pat Torney's team. Tristan Verette will take over at the point and 6-foot-4 sophomore Andre Cole fills out the starting five.
But after that the Pioneers lack depth and experience and repeating as division champs for a third straight year will be tough.
The 2000-01 season marks the end of an era in Hillcrest basketball as the only boys' varsity coach the school has ever know, Ken Gershon calls it a career after 30 years on the bench.
The Hawks return four players with a wealth of experience, including four-year starter Mike Thompson. Gershon said the 6-foot-3 forward, who averaged 16 points per game last year, is the reason he hadn't retired earlier.
Also back for Hillcrest is 6-foot-4 senior Wayne Innis, 6-foot-4 senior Marquis Reid and 5-foot-11 senior point guard Perry Campbell. And with 6-foot-3 junior Antoine Williams, 6-foot-2 junior Costa McKnight and 5-foot-11 junior John Caban, Gershon said his team will be one of the more physical squads he's coached.
“We'll be competitive in games,” he said. “We're going to play physical basketball and the teams I've coached over the years haven't been as physical. We're physically mature even though three of our seniors don't turn 18 until after the season.”
Much like Cardozo, when people think of Jamaica basketball, the school's lone line of great point guards immediately come to mind, including Levell Sanders, Javar Cheatham, Cheyne Gadson and last year's tandem of Dave Brown and Orlando Biggers.
But this Beavers team doesn't have that one floor leader. Instead it has a talented senior in Nathaniel Parker, a 6-foot-7 forward and a sophomore Darryl Eilam, who Thompson said will make a name for himself in the next two years.
“We will be competitive because of the tradition,” Thompson said. “But this season should be a roller coaster ride.”
Edison head coach Floyd Bank has had only two losing seasons in 45 years of coaching high school basketball. Last year was one of them. The senior-laden squad, a bunch Bank expected so much out of, missed the playoffs last season.
This year's team is inexperienced and if the team's three preseason games are any indication, Bank's first back-to-back losing seasons may be on the horizon.
“I'm not pleased with what I saw in our three preseason games,” Bank said. “If we don't show big improvement, we may struggle.”
Seniors Lawrence Carson, a 6-foot-4 forward and Reysaad Monamed, a 6-foot guard are the team's top two players, although neither played last year. Bank also expects Charles Jones, a 6-foot-4 senior center to contribute.
“The biggest thing now is they have to finish their plays and cut down on the mistakes,” Bank said. “We need to be more aggressive on offense and defense.”
Two words can describe Springfield Gardens this year, young and small.
The Golden Eagles, coming off a 4-15 year, have just three seniors and only one player, junior Adrian Uter who transfered from Seward Park in Manhattan, taller than 6-foot-3.
Senior Brandon Williams, a 5-foot-9 point guard, is the Golden Eagles top player. Yohance Brown, a 5-foot-9 guard, and Reggie Holmes, a 6-foot power forward, are the only other seniors on the team. Juniors Leonard Walker, a 5-foot-9 guard, and Jason Wilds, a 5-foot-6 guard, round out the top returnees.
With Ronald Yates at Division I University of Maryland-Baltimore County, a young Forest Hills team should once again struggle to make the playoffs as will Grover Cleveland.
