Pelle Pelle Sponsors IZOD High School Hoops Showcase
January 20, 2010
IZOD High School Hoops Showcase
Focuses On Best Of AAU & Scholastic
The Division I talent on hand at Caldwell College ’s Newman Center on Jan. 24th will be bountiful to say the least, what with players such as St. Anthony’s 6-foot-8 inside force Devon Collier (Oregon State) and St. Benedict’s dynamic 6-2 point guard Myck Kabongo (Texas) on hand along with many others in an attractive 4-game menu, including the best of both boys and girls hoops. However, it’s the merging of the best intentions tied in with the almost-never-mentioned-but-all-important educational side of the sometimes-frowned-upon AAU basketball circuit, combined with an appreciation of the attractiveness of first-rate wintertime high school hoops, which will make the first Izod High School Showcase one of the more appealing days on the 2009-2010 scholastic hoops calendar.
The wide-ranging array of personalities on hand Sunday late January will include Team Izod’s own legendary Darryl Dawkins, a head coach with the three-year-old Fairfield-based AAU team and, of course, a retired NBA star who is also a world-wide ambassador of basketball, plus outstanding high school coaches, such as the noted father-son combination of St. Anthony’s Bob Hurley and St. Benedict’s Danny Hurley.
It all starts with a first-rate girls basketball contest at noon featuring traditional shore power St. John Vianney against Immaculata of Somerville followed by the first of three boys’ contests beginning at 2 p.m. with Long Branch vs. the Grey Bees of St. Benedict’s High School. Then, at 4 p.m., noted coach Joe Mantegna’s Blair Academy squad, which has produced the likes of NBA players Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls), Charlie Villanueva (Detroit Pistons) and Royal Ivey (Philadelphia 76ers), will meet NIA Prep of Newark, an up-and-coming national program with top-notch high school post-graduates, including 2009 All-Essex performers Devon Gibson (University High) and Rameel Johnson (Science Park), along with Montclair resident Shaquille Thomas, the nephew of NBA player Tim Thomas. “It’s a terrific field of high school teams, players and coaches, and Izod’s first annual High School Basketball Showcase is shaping up as a historic day in the continuing, and growing evolution of Team Izod’s basketball leadership program,
