Peekskill-Cortlandt Patch Weekly Sports Report

When the Peekskill girls state Class A basketball championship squad held its dinner on April 25 at the Reef, it was part of a sweet victory tour. 

That tour started in the beginning of April when the team went to Philadelphia to watch the Philadelphia 76ers play, courtesy of the team's forward Elton Brand, a 1997 Peekskill graduate. The tour also included having a parade thrown for them in their honor by the City of Peekskill.

Also honoring the team at other events were the Peekskill Board of Education and the Rotary Club.

“It just feels good that not only was everyone behind us during the season, it was also behind us during this congratulatory period," Peekskill coach Rodney Headley Jr. said. "It means a lot. It gives a lot of motivation to the younger girls to see that type of love when you win something big, how much people can support you. It’s good motivation for the younger players and a nice farewell for the seniors, something they will never forget.”

Those seniors are Tanisha Crew, Jazmin Garcia, Kiana Letsinger, Tasia Nolan and Sheridan Taylor.

“Academically, they set the bar pretty high, all of them maintaining honor roll status throughout their senior year," Headley Jr. said. "As far as sports wise, you couldn’t ask for a group of harder workers. They put emphasis on what it takes, how much time and effort you have to put in order to get to that goal of a state title.”

Wagner returns

The guest speaker at the dinner was '86 Peekskill graduate Sheila Wagner. At the time of her graduation, she was the all-time leading scorer in New York State history for either the boys or the girls with 2,476 points.

Wagner, who went on to play in college at Georgia Tech, was called up to play on the varsity a few games into her eighth grade season and the rest is history.

“I didn’t know anything about that record," Wagner said. "The only record I was chasing was Todd Scott's. That is the only record I knew about. The record for the state, I only had heard about that toward the end of the season.”

Scott, who graduated in '83, held the overall record at PHS before Wagner and still is the all-time boys hoop leader in points at Peekskill with 2,057 (Brand is second with 2,027).

Wagner said that while she was pleased to at least temporarily have the state scoring record, it wasn't the thing that gave her the most joy while playing for Peekskill.

“I was just having a talk with my JV coach, Joe Urbanowicz; he came up and said, ‘You were very unselfish'," Wagner said. "Playing and scoring all those points was great but what I really enjoyed the most was having everyone on the team score, having everyone get in the scorebook, that was the most exciting thing for me.”

Wagner came down from the Albany area, where she lives, to attend the dinner and said she wouldn't have missed it for the world.

“I am very honored, I am very happy," Wagner said. "I knew eventually that we would win a state championship. It doesn’t matter how many years I have been out of school I am just happy for these girls. It’s a great group of girls who are well deserving of being honored.”

Nolan wins award

Tasia Nolan was named the Leona B. Headley Athletic Leadership Award at the dinner.

The award was established by the Headley Family, to honor the memory of their mother (of assistant coach Rodney Headley Sr.), who was a role model to the many girls she coached in the sport of basketball at Holy Cross in New York City.

Nolan earned the award because of her great sportsmanship, her ability to be assertive and a team leader both on and off the court.

Panas fights ‘til end

Things may have not gone Walter Panas’ way in its 12-5 baseball loss to visiting Lakeland (7-2) on April 30. However, scoring five runs in the seventh inning after being down 12-0 showed that the Panthers (6-3) are going to fight until the end of each and every game, something that bodes well for them for the second half of the year.

“I always tell the team, they have to keep fighting until the end, no matter what the score is,” Panas coach Anthony Fata said. “Whether it’s 1-0 or 11-0, they have to keep playing. Seven innings anything can happen.”

Panas got those five runs on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Toub, RBI singles by Jeremy Guerrero and Miguel Arroyo and a two-run double by Carmine Gentile.

Unfortunately, Panas ran into one of the best pitchers in the state in Lakeland starter Joey Arena, who threw 5.1 shutout innings to earn the victory.

“We were overmatched tonight. That kid can pitch,” Fata said of Arena. “He’s smart. He works you outside, he works you inside. The kid is good. We just have to regroup, pick up the pieces and get rid of this loss quickly, because it can carry over if you don't and get ready for Brewster on Monday." 

That game is at Panas at 4:30 p.m.

“It’s like I told the guys, we have Brewster on Monday, Putnam Valley on Wednesday and got these guys [at Lakeland] next week on Friday,” Fata continued. “What goes around, comes around sometimes, so hopefully next time it works out for us when we play them again.”