MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / November 24, 2000

RESERVE – Walking into the East St. John High School gym, one immediatelynotices the banners hanging on the walls signifying the various championships won the by school’s athletic teams. Among the banners are those for thegirls’ basketball team – a bi-district championship in 1986 under head coach Penny Moak and district championships and regional playoff appearances from 1997-2000 under head coach Troy Giordano.

But there is one accomplishment by the team that a banner does not show – 48 straight victories by the Lady Cats in this gym as the 2000-01 season gets underway.

East St. John puts that streak on the line in the season opener againstCarver tonight (Nov. 13). But despite the pressure of keeping that streakalive and getting the season off on a positive note, the Lady Cats are loose in warm-ups.

Finally, with less than 30 minutes before tip-off, Giordano gathers the team into its meeting room.

“It’s time to get serious,” Giordano says. “After tonight, half of the teamsin the state will be 1-0. The other half will be 0-1. You know what’s on the line- a 48-game winning streak and it’s our first game.” Noting the size of the Carver players, Giordano tells the team that there are two ways to overcome that – “Run them to death and get them in foul trouble.”Joe Williams, the team’s announcer and keeper of the scorebook, gets the crowd up with his player introductions. “There is basketball fever tonight asyour East St. John Lady Cats take on the Carver Lady Rams,” Williamsannounces as the teams take the court.

But it’s the Lady Rams who catch the fever first, jumping out to a 4-0 lead as Keana Brittin bounces a pass inside to Cindy Weber. Kinya Lennix finallygets the Lady Cats on the board with 5:35 left, driving down the lane as Danielle Stemley clears out the defense.

Lennix ties the game at six with 4:15 left in the first quarter after a technical foul is assessed against Carver. Twenty seconds later, Stemleyburies a 3-pointer from the right side to give the Lady Cats the lead for good.

East St. John continues to pull away. Kojovana Hamilton intercepts a pass inthe back court and takes it in, making it 11-6 with 2:10 left.

After a jumper by Lennix, Hamilton drops a pass back to Stemley for a 3- pointer from the top of the key. Stemley adds another layup off a reboundand outlet by Courtney Drayton to make it 18-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Erin Keller gets the Lady Cats’ first points of the second quarter with a 3- pointer from the right side with 6:23 left. East St. John then goes on a 10-0run over the next three minutes. Two free throws by Lennix makes it 31-8with 3:30 remaining.

A put back by Lacrisha Walker off a steal by Ashley Porter makes it 37-14 with 45 seconds left in the half. Jasmine Collins and Erika Gaddus hit 3-pointers in the closing seconds to cut the deficit to 37-20 at the break.

“Play your defense,” Giordano tells the team at halftime. “Push thebasketball. You will get layups if you run your lanes.”East St. John builds on its lead as the second half opens. Stemley pulls up inthe lane and buries a jumper to make it a 20-point game.

On the next trip down the court, Velinda Ard puts back a miss by Keller to make it 43-23. A drive by Lennix makes it 47-23 with 3:27 left. Porter hits a jumper in the lane and Jada Mason scores on a put back as the Lady Cats take a 51-26 lead into the fourth quarter.

The bench takes over in the final quarter. Porter scores six points in thequarter as the Lady Cats close out a 63-40 win. The streak is now at 49.”Good job,” Giordano tells the team in the meeting room. “Everybody gotplaying time and that’s what we wanted. Keep it going.”The team will not have much time to revel in its victory. It begins play in theHammond Tournament the following night against Independence. A win therecreates a rematch with Loranger, a team the Lady Cats had rallied from 11 points down in the last 1:05 to tie in the Hammond Jamboree.

A Changing Game “Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up knowing it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up knowing itmust out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matterwhether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you had better be running.” – Herb Caen.Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball with a peach basket anda ball in the late 1800s. From that moment on, the game has gone throughconstant changes. From the two-handed set jump shots in the early years ofthe sport to the center-dominated game of the 1960s and 70s, the Showtime offense of the Lakers in the 1980s and the triangle game of the Bulls in the 90s, trends have come and gone on nearly a yearly basis.

A coach that does not keep with them is like the gazelle and lion in the desert – he will quickly be eaten or left behind.

One of the best places to keep up with the latest trend are the coaches clinics that can be found almost anywhere in the country. Nearly everycollege and pro coach, either active or retired to the broadcast booth, has one as does such companies as Nike.

Giordano is a big believer in clinics. He has been attending between three andfour clinics a year for the past seven years. He estimates thatapproximately 90 percent of the practice drills that the Lady Cats run and 75 percent of its conditioning and offseason workouts have come from those clinics.

Giordano went to a clinic held by Billy Donovan, the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Florida, in late October.

There, he picked up a fullcourt matchup press used by the Gators that came in handy in East St. John’s season opener against Carver, a team that had asize advantage on the Lady Cats. But Giordano really wanted it for theDistrict 7-5A wars this year.

Donovan went so far as to send a tape of the defense to Giordano. Along theway, Giordano also picked up three practice drills from the Gators that he has implemented.

“Anytime you can pick up three practice drills and a defense, that is a successful camp,” Giordano said.

Practice is what Giordano is interested in when he attend the clinics. Coachescan talk all they want but he wants to see them put those words into action.

He sees how they provide discipline, the pace of their practices and how individual workouts are conducted.

“When you go to clinics where they just have speakers, you don’t get as much as if they practice,” Giordano explains. “Don’t tell me what to do, showme what to do.”Giordano tries to attend the clinics held by the coaches who are winning, such as those held by Bobby Knight, Roy Williams and Donovan.

“I want to see what the most successful coaches and programs are doing,” Giordano said. “It makes us better coaches. I see what trends are out thereand what the best people are doing. Nobody invents anything new inbasketball. We pick up pieces here and there and piece them together.”

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