Fred Charleston, father of WW-P North girls’ varsity basketball coach Bret Charleston, watches and shakes his head. The Knights are simply smothering Princeton High School out on the basketball court.##M:[more]## Sophomore forward Danielle Parisi is darting everywhere, rabbit-quick and into every play. Each time a Princeton girl gets the ball it seems as if at least four Knight hands are waving in her face. The Little Tigers can barely get a shot off. And if they do, count on North forwards Liz Tang or Kathy Ruiz to grab the rebound.
No coach of either gender in any sport could ask for more hustle than the Knights are showing tonight. “Gotta say,” observes Fred Charleston, “girls’ basketball has come a long, long way.”
Back in 1965, when he played boys’ varsity basketball for East Brunswick, the girls’ team competed with six players — three defense and three offense — each sticking to their half of the court. Apparently, it was deemed unwise to run the ladies full court. Thank heavens for female athletic liberation.
Retired from a career as a boiler maker, Charleston Sr. has come tonight, to see his son coach the Knights to what will be a romping 52-33 victory. In his father’s footsteps, Charleston Jr. also played for East Brunswick as a forward, then continued at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. After coaching at Somerville, Bret moved to North where he currently coaches and teaches history and government. Right now, he sits on the bench, tense and still, giving occasional directions in a quiet voice that only his players seem to hear.
By the end of the first quarter, the aggressive Knights’ defense has held the noticeably taller Tigers to a mere five points. Problem is, the Knights, despite total control, have scored only eight themselves.
At this point, Knights’ center, senior Brooke Wiener glances at the scoreboard, gets angry, and takes the rest of the team with her. The only actually tall player on a remarkably short team, Wiener has proved a true leader and scorer in the North Basketball girls’ seven victories. In the team’s only two losses, against traditionally strong Hunterdon and South Brunswick, Wiener had proved a rallying point.
Finally, in the second quarter, Wiener starts sinking her shots. So does senior power forward Regina Potter. The Knights girls maintain a very disciplined, low pass pattern, feeding the ball constantly to the player under the basket. It is a regimen of long experience. Starting seniors Potter, Wiener, and Lauren Lentine have been catching each others’ passes for four seasons. In fact, Wiener, and Lentine claim a hoop shooting camaraderie since first grade. Into this established pattern have stepped forward Kathy Ruiz and sophomore guard Tang.
By the close of the first half, the North girls have boosted their lead to 32-13. As the teams launch into the second half, the training begins to show.
Princeton, overmatched defensively, is getting tired, while Charleston’s girls are charging as hard as their first quarter. “Our greatest strength is defense,” says the markedly aggressive Parisi. “Also, we are all in good shape. Coach Charleston keeps us running and moving strong.” Parisi claims some early training advantage, having been instructed in the game from an early age by her mother Michelle. At a mere 5-foot-1, Michelle Parisi played guard on the women’s basketball team for the City University of New York.
“That was 1976,” says Mrs. Parisi, watching her daughter play “and it is a whole different ball game for women now. The girls now are so much better organized. They individually train harder and work all year to stay in shape; something we never did.” She also notes that her daughter and her teammates bring a much finer understanding of the game than in her day. Like boys coming to football tryouts, the girls already know the rules and the strategies.
Beyond the training and long-bred skill, Mrs. Parisi notices a difference in the girls themselves. “We played because we loved it, these girls have the fun, but an aggression too. When I watch Regina (Potter) and my Danielle I see a controlled, reckless abandon on the court, which we just never had.”
Yet, an overwhelming press on defense and strong ball handling do not necessarily win games. Halfway through the third quarter coach Charleston can be seen head in hands after his girls have laid up and missed four shots in less than 10 seconds.
“They’d be great if only they could get the darn ball in the hoop,” he says. During the first quarter, the Knights were missing approximately three out of four shots. Even by fourth quarter, their shooting average had raised to only about 50 percent.
“Our real problem,” assesses Wiener, “is that we don’t finish our shots. Even foul shots, we aren’t closing on them. That’s why Coach has us working 45 minutes some practices on shooting alone.”
The Knights’ slow scoring start against Princeton has been symptomatic all season. “We don’t seem to come to the game psyched up enough,” says Lentine. Potter, the only senior team member planning to continue her basketball in college, sees it more a focusing matter. “We are a short team; everybody works hard, but we have to learn more than how to hustle in the first quarter. We’ve got to blend,” she says.
By the fourth quarter, North’s domination is complete. Charleston rotates all his players in. Freshman Erin Egan and sophomore Megan Pisani continue defending and scoring in good order. They have caught the fever.
At the buzzer Wiener has 14 points, Potter 9. The Knights have shown their power. How well will they do in the states? Now 8-3 on the season, they might go all the way, if, as Charleston says, they can only get the ball in the hoop.
