The team with the target takes the SCT title

The Toms River High School East girls soccer team was in another orbit by the first week of June 1985.

The Raiders were fresh off proving they were Ocean County's best club after holding back equally talented Monsignor Donovan in a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal by a 3-2 score that wasn't as close as that score indicated.

The Raiders were 16-1-1, the tie coming in the fifth game of the season against Toms River South, 1-1, the loss coming in early May to Toms River North, 2-1, the winning goal in that one a rocket launcher by Barbara Hedrick for what would be her only goal of the season that Raiders coach Ed Polhemus believed should have been stopped.

So on the phone that night after he reported his loss, Polhemus had made this one promise:

"Nancy Hearne is going to go back into goal," he said. "We're not going to let this happen again."

I've never told that story before in over 30 years since that fateful night. What I heard on the phone was a very low-keyed, soft-spoken man who obviously was stung by a North team that was good that year (10-6), but couldn't be better than his Raiders.

There was quite a lot of pressure on the Raiders that spring, my first as a sports reporting correspondent at the Observer. The Raiders were Ocean County's best team in 1984, winning the last county championship game on a sweltering, warm night at North against Donovan, 3-0, spoiling Donovan's attempt at an unbeaten season.

More importantly, most of the players on Polhemus' squad were returning for the 1985 season, including young ladies I grew up around in my life as I graduated from East just the year before, around-the-corner neighbor Denice McKenna, her buddy Karen Carlisle and Hearne, who was the All-County goalie on the Observer team in 1984. But as the season began, Polhemus believed his team would be much better if they moved Hearne onto the field to play defense. This really cool girl I knew in high school was a soccer talent, regardless of where Polhemus put her on the field.

Hearne was surrounded by defenders who were equally talented in what they did -- midfielder McKenna, stopper Sue Lauterborn, fullback Barbara Applegate and tall sweeper Leda Fenton, a smooth-working junior who by the end of the year became the most dominant defensive player in the county.

Their job was to make a younger, first-year goalkeeper feel comfortable and let her grow in the position. And it was working because East's defense had surrendered just six goals in 10 games in building a 9-0-1 record.

But then came the night of the North game. Two goals slipped past the goalie that should've been stopped.

End of experiment. Hearne back in the goal. Michele Adamkowski, who had a role in the defense most of the season, got moved into the main defender position to work with Applegate, who was on the other side defender spot. Polhemus had trusted his defense enough that he could make this move, but in the process, he alienated a young lady who never played soccer for him again.

The Raiders bounced back from the loss to North with wins over Shore Regional and Southern Regional, then stopped South in the rematch, 3-1, before pulling out a 2-1, double-overtime victory over Brick Memorial.

They had their hiccup and moved along. The Raiders were given the top seed for the inaugural Shore Conference Tournament in the third week of May. At 13-1-1, they looked tough to stop and right as the favorite. But unlike most coaches who downplay being the target everyone is shooting for, Polhemus was a far different cat than that.

He actually brought it on! "The only team that can beat us is ourselves," he would tell me once that season.

The man wasn't lacking for confidence. Ed Polhemus was way different than anyone else coaching the sport. When I'd throw that line out to other girls soccer coaches, I'd get a variety of responses, from rolled eyes to head shakes to pregnant pauses, followed by, "OK, if he says so."

So with targets on their backs and fronts, East went out in its opening game of the tournament at home at its then-home of Shelter Cove Park and put on a methodical display of precision soccer in a 2-0 victory over No. 16 seed  Point Pleasant Beach. About the only thing the Raiders didn't do was put the ball in the back of the net, but two goals worked on this day.

The next game would be Tuesday, May 28, at Shelter Cove Park again versus No. 9 seed Jackson Memorial, led by two talented All-County seniors in midfielders Sue Leahy and April Williams. Their coach was Mike Costa, who couldn't have cared less about Polhemus' quiet bluster -- he actually liked Polhemus, though his Jaguars were maybe the most physical of any in the Class A South opponents that East played in. The score this time was, like the last game, 2-0, but the Raiders had to work a little harder for this one as Hearne made a couple of key saves in the game to keep the Jaguars off the scoreboard.

With half the mission done, the next stop was the semifinal matchup with Donovan and its talented senior class that included leading scorer Stephanie Harmon, midfielder Barbara Callaghan, defender Barbara Indiero and goalie Maureen McShea. East built a 3-0 lead into the fourth quarter until a couple of mistakes led to two penalty kicks that freshman Liz Rehak converted into goals. Still, Donovan could not get the equalizer and East got off its field with a 3-2 victory.

So knocking off the fifth-seeded Griffins after knocking down No. 9 Jackson Memorial should have been a step closer to coronation as Shore queens, especially when the other side of the 16-team bracket saw upsets happen to No. 2 seed Wall and No. 3 seed Middletown North. In the end, the opponent for East's finale would be ... coach Gene Tutzauer's No. 11 seed Freehold Township Patriots, which upset its way to the finale.

Tutzauer was not only as down to earth a coach as you will ever meet, but he was throwing a deaf ear at Polhemus, who still was boasting about not only his own team's place in the Shore, but in the state, too, stating that if everyone played at the same time, he'd be an NJSIAA Group IV champion.

Tutzauer had three players that helped run the engine to this point in the tournament. Two of them were up front in forwards Irene Harth and Joyce Flood. The other was the "game-changer," another senior standout in Ami Scheinberg, her presence coming to the forefront throughout the tournament. Like Polhemus, Tutzauer had a quiet confidence going in, relishing the fact no one gave his team a chance against mighty, mighty East.

I knew this would be a great matchup, regardless of the seeds. And so that night, I had the choice of covering either this game or the Toms River South-Lakewood Ocean County Softball Tournament title game. Actually, my boss made the decision easier by sending me to the SCT soccer final because by this point, I could be trusted to turn a story around quickly. And I knew my target after the game to do all this was at the local Pizza Hut on Route 35 in Wall Township, not far from where I was going for the first time in my career as a journalist -- Wall Township High School, the designated site for the championship.

And so I was in "comfortable" garb for a 65-degree night on Tuesday, June 4, 1985. I arrived without much of a problem (the directions to the school were made easy by the wonderful dispatcher for the Wall Township police department). I can still see the outfit I wore in my head: A sleeveless, 1980s style white shirt with a button-up collar that Rick Springfield would be  proud of and a pair of blue OP-made rippled shorts, wearing socks and basketball sneakers.

Yes, I was comfortable. The area around Wall High's soccer/football field is extremely tight and allows little walking room between the field and the fence, so if anything, I was going to have to walk around benches and players, not that they cared at that point, for the entire game.

I asked Polhemus and assistant coach Rob Czarniewski how they were doing. Polhemus shrugged his shoulders and had an answer that resembled something out of, "It's up to them now."

These Raiders weren't just about defense. Yes, their defense was great, but they did score goals, led by Carlisle's 12 goals. After that, a whole bunch of Raiders followed in scoring: Linda Anderson was the next highest-scoring goal scorer with seven, followed by sophomore Stacy Komisar at five goals, Fenton and Bonnie Krall with four goals and four others -- Adamkowski, Lauterborn, McKenna and Applegate -- with three.

In other words, pick your poison on who was going to bury you for that game. Polhemus had so many options to go to and none of them were afraid to contribute. Defense, though, was the No. 1 priority with Polhemus, so that may be why the leading scorer on the team had 12 goals.

Viewing Freehold Township on the other side, I could see Tutzauer with arms folded watching his girls and watching him watch Scheinberg go through a regimen of hard shots that she was getting her hands on. From viewing that, I had a premonition she was set for anything East threw her way.

Mere moments into the game in front of a nice-sized crowd, East collected a corner kick. So not far from where Anderson was standing, I watched her take the kick into the box, a well-placed boot I might add. Out of nowhere came 5-foot-10 Fenton from her sweeper role to put a head on the ball ... lightning fast all this was happening, too.

Scheinberg didn't have a chance. But she was bailed out -- the ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced back to the goalkeeper before anyone else could get a foot on the ball. I saw Fenton with strong defensive ability, but not with that kind of offensive threat in her.

It was just three minutes into the game and East was already going at it. And East didn't stop. Fifteen minutes of this was becoming too much for Scheinberg and her teammates. And at 15:22, the Raiders finally got to the goalie. Anderson fired another corner kick toward the edge of the box where McKenna got it and flicked a shot onto the goal. Both Komisar and Krall got to the ball near each other and got it past Scheinberg from a short distance with the help of a Patriots defender's body deflecting it, not making it easier for the Freehold goalie. Komisar was credited with the goal and the Raiders had the 1-0 lead.

Freehold Township put some pressure on East's defense as the second quarter of the game arrived. But each time the Patriots had something, East's defense would have an answer. And when East's defense sent the ball down the other end, it was the quick sophomore pair of Komisar and Krall who would pick the ball up and give East's defense a rest.

And when it looked as if East might put the game away, there was Scheinberg shining in her final game as Patriots goalie to knock away potential game-breaking goals. With 6:22 to go before halftime, Scheinberg was tested again, this time by Carolyn Anderson, another of East's pesky, fast forwards. She beat the defender on her and found herself one-on-one with Scheinberg. Scheinberg came out to get the ball before Anderson could make a kick and the two collided.

Anderson came out of it OK, but Scheinberg didn't. She laid on that Wall field for a good three minutes, the stadium getting silent watching carefully Wall's trainer and Tutzauer tended to the goalkeeper. Finally, she stood up and walked off the field, a bit dazed. After a minute or so, though, she would come back into the game for the backup keeper.

The game got to halftime and while Scheinberg seemed to be better, East went into its huddle looking confident, feeling like it was "business as usual." Polhemus knew to expect a tough game from this gutty bunch, so to him, it was just popping in a few more goals.

But after halftime, Freehold Township came out rejuvenated and began getting the better of the play from an East team that looked like it still hadn't come out of the halftime ceremonies that saw both Red Bank Catholic (Monmouth County) and Lacey (Ocean County) receive their Sportsmanship of the Year honors from the Jersey Shore Soccer Officials Association.

And just outside of East's box, Harth let loose with a rocket launcher from 22 yards -- a shot that still was taking off with mighty force toward the bottom of the crossbar. This was the goal that was about to tie the game and turn this first-ever SCT final around, only two minutes into the second half.

However, that may have happened with East's former goalie. Nancy Hearne was in goal and she put every ounce of her 5-7 body into reaching as high as she could and knocking the game-tying goal over the crossbar with her right hand and out of danger.

This was the play of the game. This is why Ed Polhemus felt the need that a change in goal with a more established netminder was important. Period. By the end of the night, the outgoing, brown-eyed young lady finished with 10 saves, that stop of Harth easily the biggest save of the night.

Freehold Township didn't give in, though. The Patriots' offense continued to put pressure on the Raider defense, mainly due to the fast front it had. But once again, East's defense was up to the task, protecting Hearne and the goal like it was Fort Knox.

Said Tutzauer after the game to me, "When I saw the goal scored, I knew East's defense was coming. They're one of the best we've seen all year. We had opportunities, but they did the job on us."

The Patriots put one more effort into cracking East's defense with minutes to go as a ball got sent into the box, but Fenton kicked it out of trouble. Another attempt and Applegate, having to deal with Harth most of the game, got the ball out of trouble.

Wash, rinse, repeat. That was East's defense on this evening.

Scheinberg was at her absolute best with 15 saves, proving she was Monmouth County's best goalie. Her effort would have helped lead to a Freehold Township title that night.

But not against East's ferocious defense and "tenacious sharks" as Polhemus would call his offense. The final whistle sounded and East had the first-ever Shore Conference Tournament championship, 1-0, capping a second straight 17-1-1 season, proving they were the Shore's best.

Still sounding assured and confident and not raising his voice a whole lot, Polhemus would say after the game, "I'm happy with my team's performance. All season long, I've been stressing team play and I'm happy about that. They were all tenacious sharks."

Fenton was all smiles. So was Adamkowski. Most of East's team was. I was happiest for McKenna, Carlisle and Hearne, the three girls I knew from my friendship with the McKenna family and with Denice. Everyone should walk away a champion in their final game, but unless you win that last game, most notably a championship, that is never going to happen in life.

The night got cooler as the game went on and my bare shoulders and legs were starting to feel it. So after it was over, I walked off the field, into the parking lot and pulled away in my 1973 Chevy Chevelle and back onto Route 35 and toward the Pizza Hut. As I ate my dinner of spaghetti and meatballs that night, I began to write my story in the notebook I carried for the game. It was a characteristic of mine to jot a story down from start to finish when I was on the road and I either couldn't get back to the office in time to write the story or just say silently, "I am sooooo not going back to the office." To this day, I still have that notebook and the five pages inside of it that entailed the story.

Long before we had the Radio Shack Tandys that would make writing and sending stories so much easier, I had to call collect off something that seems foreign today -- a pay phone. Once they knew it was from me and accepted, I told my boss East won, then he handed me over to Chris, our main sports writer who was a speed demon at taking dictation, something I learned to do with relative ease within due time.

I read Chris my story verbatim and whatever he did in editing was minor. The process took about 20 minutes to do, then he asked the boss if there was anything else that was needed for which he said there wasn't. I finished what I was doing and left the Pizza Hut at around 11:15 p.m.

The ride back to Toms River on Route 35, then Route 70 and Hooper Avenue took about 25 minutes and I was home. Now knowing my neighbors, the McKennas, very, very, very well, I figured once I parked the car on the street like I normally did, I could walk through the passageway between my home and their home, past their basketball court in their backyard and to the house and sure as night is dark there'd be some kind of party going on there. The McKenna house was a hub for that.

The professional side of this 18-year-old didn't want to do it, but hey, I was off work. I didn't care at that point. As I went further into that backyard, I could hear the noise like a party was going on. And there it was -- a party! I saw Flo, the McKenna matriarch and head of the household there, smiling face and inviting me in. I walked around the house and saw plenty of East soccer girls celebrating the title. I won't go further into the details, other than it was a very good time for all who came to visit.

As I walked around, I got near the front door and there was Stacy Komisar and Bonnie Krall, who lived across the street from the McKennas. I congratulated Komisar on the goal and the first thing she said to me, "I didn't score. She scored it." She was pointing to Krall, the baby of four sisters in her family. Then she explained that she was closer to the ball and had gotten to it first. Maybe I was obscured of the view, but everyone on the East side seemed to be convinced it was Komisar's goal off the McKenna assist.

For the record, though, these last 30 or so years, Stacy Komisar is credited with scoring the first-ever SCT girls soccer championship game goal ... even if she says Bonnie Krall did it.

After about a half hour, I headed back through the woods and finally into my house where mom wondered where I went to.

"East won. McKennas holding a party. I stopped in."

That was pretty much it.

East had a lot of representatives on the All-County team that year, but the one who should have been on that team was Nancy Hearne. But she wasn't the best defensive player when on the field. Players like Sue Lauterborn and, of course, Denice McKenna and Leda Fenton, were better and honored. And as for the whole goalie thing for All-County, I went with Lacey's up-and-coming star Juliann Schlossareck, who had played the whole season in net and was part of an unbeaten Lacey team until the Lions were knocked out by Donovan in the SCT quarterfinals.

Nancy Hearne was the kind of player you wanted on your soccer team, no matter where you put her. I'm sure she could have thrived as a forward. Problem is she wasn't outstanding in any of the field positions and the one place she was outstanding she didn't even play half the season there.

Everytime I saw her after the team came out, I felt bad. I really did. This beautiful yound lady no more than 10 months younger than me deserved praise and I couldn't give it to her. I saw Nancy Hearne last at Freehold Mall in 1987 while I was doing a chore. Hope she's doing OK.

Those East Raiders of 1985 were a fun team that had a huge target on its back and front thanks to the coach who was so self-assured he had the best team in the Shore.

They came through with flying colors -- flying sky high.

The moment of (SJ IV) truth for Kathy Snyder

When you lose championship games three previous times, you're always searching for an answer as to why those things happened and how can things be better if we get back to that point again.

The first thing Kathy Snyder did was not agree to play the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV girls basketball championship game against Toms River North in a much closer venue for both North and her Southern Regional High School Rams. That, she said, was a mistake the year before when she agreed to the game much closer in Toms River at High School East.

"By playing the game in Toms River, we got every fan to come and pad the spectator numbers for Toms River North," she started. "So this time, we'll play the game in Rancocas Valley and keep it there."

Rancocas Valley was in the small town of Mount Holly out in western New Jersey, somewhere between Camden and Trenton. It's nowhere near the Jersey Shore, but it was a familiar court to Kathy Snyder -- she had lost on this court two years earlier against Washington Township High School. That loss didn't bother her that much -- Washington Township rallied from a 25-17 halftime deficit and won the game. The Minutemen were a better team and found a way to break Snyder's suffocating defensive pressure and time-consuming possessions.

This time around, Snyder's Southern Rams were better than coach Ray Cervino's Toms River North Mariners. But it was the Mariners who were defending the SJ IV championship from a year earlier when they, like Washington Township the year before them, overcame a 15-9 halftime deficit to quadruple their point output in the second half and get fans from basketball crazy Toms River fired up en route to a 45-30 victory, giving Cervino his first South Jersey title in 16 years as a head coach.

This time around, the Rams were the favored team to win the SJ IV title ... but they needed North's help to make it such a scenario after North stunned top-seeded Shawnee, 64-60, in the SJ IV semifinal round. So for the second straight year, the SJ IV championship was an all-Ocean County affair between the two best teams in the sport.

Southern and North was such a rivalry that one would call "perfect." I know, I know ... you've heard that one before, but think about this: How many so-called "rivalries" are played as fiercely on the court or on the field by two competitive teams, but at the end of the day, they could put those differences between the lines aside and be respectful and friendly with one another?

That was North-Southern girls basketball. Only the boys soccer rivalry between Crescent City and Pierson Taylor, two schools 15 miles apart in distance, have that similar and better a rivalry in all my years in the business.

The two head coaches -- Snyder and Cervino -- weren't just successful basketball coaches, but were also very good friends off of it. Cervino told me once how much he respected Snyder by getting beaten often by Snyder in the beginning of their rivalry. You see, he and his Mariners lost their first 13 games to Snyder-coached Southern teams before finally getting the best of her with a season sweep of the Rams in the 1988-89 season. Then the Mariners did it again in the 1989-90 season behind the play of Cervino's daughter, point guard Nicole Cervino, and center Heidi Vandenburg.

From the 1990-91 season on, North held an 8-6 lead in the series between Shore Conference Class A South rivals, which included a pair of memorable South Jersey Group IV matchups. Beside the '96 SJ IV title game, there was an even more memorable SJ IV quarterfinal round game at Southern where the Rams trailed 39-36 with mere seconds left in the game when freshman center Candice McCallum stepped out behind the 3-point line, fired a shot while being knocked to the floor by North center Dana Simonelli and swishing the shot. Off the foul, McCallum hit the free throw with four seconds to go and Southern won the dramatic matchup, 40-39, with Snyder jumping on the court not even a second after the clock expired and hugging her freshman star in the making.

This was one of the most intense rivalries I've ever covered in scholastic sports.

During the 1996-97 season, the teams split a pair of Class A South games with North catching Southern flat-footed and on an off night in a 47-42 victory. That was on December 23. On January 24, 1997, the tables had turned dramatically as Southern flattened North, 47-21, using its trademark suffocating defense on leading scorer Melissa Fazio, holding her to four points.

Southern's world lived and breathed around both its defense and 6-foot-2 center McCallum, a four-year varsity star in the middle averaging 20.5 points and just over 10 rebounds a game and who was going to be taking her talents to Georgia Tech after graduating. For as ferocious a competitor as she was on the court, Candice McCallum was a sweet-smiling pussycat off of it, a delight to talk to. For her, you wanted to see Southern at long last win this championship that had eluded them.

But it wasn't McCallum this title eluded longer than it did Kathy Snyder. A three-sport star at Shore Regional and 1973 graduate of the school when she was Kathy Leslie, Snyder had built a reputation as a hard-nosed coach who demanded the most out of her girls, but knew which buttons to push with each and every one of her players, whether it was the star player like a McCallum or a Michelle Jones or a Jill Spaschak or a Charity Smead or a Mary Tantillo or a Kathy Harlfinger or the seventh or eight player coming off the bench.

Good coaches make teams better. Great coaches make them champions.

And that was the one thing missing from Snyder's resume ... that defining state sectional championship. Class A South titles are nice. The 1984 Shore Conference Tournament championship was the most memorable game in her coaching career when a Spaschak jumper at the buzzer gave Southern a 42-40 win over Neptune at Brick Memorial High School.

But it was a month later that Snyder and the Rams suffered the worst heartache in her coaching career. The Rams were 27-1 and destined to win the state Group IV championship. They made it to the SJ IV championship game with Washington Township, had things in command at the start of the third quarter until whistles began to blow more against the coach's players. Star guard Spaschak fouled out shockingly in the third quarter. The lead began to slip away. Questionable non-calls were happening against Washington Township. The Minutemen seemed to find their way to the free-throw line quite a bit. And while all this was going on, the announcers from Clear Cable-8 who were calling the game, Ken Turp and Nick Werkman, began to chastise the referees, some of the audio is cut out of the rebroadcast of the game.

It was maybe one of the biggest rook jobs in the history of high school sports, especially involving Ocean County teams. Southern lost that game in overtime, and it was found out not too long after the game that one of the game officials was a roommate with the Washington Township coach. This is where the rule was changed on officiating assignments where any association with the coach or the school disallowed an official to do that team's games. Snyder, understandably, never wanted to talk about that particular night.

And it took 11 years for Snyder and her Rams to get back to the SJ IV title game, though Washington Township didn't need any help to come back and win that game in 1995.

These Rams were buoyed up front by McCallum and 6-2 senior forward Heather Gardner, who, too, had seen her share of Southern Regional successes and setbacks. Junior forward Tiffany McCallum, Candice's cousin, and junior guards Erin Gillece and Jessica Naughton rounded out Southern's starting lineup.

For North, Fazio, a 5-9 fiery redhead with a lot of talent as the No. 3 swing player, was, like Candice McCallum, the leading basketball scorer, boys or girls, in her school's history. She had carried North on her back a good amount of the season, averaging 21 points a contest. Her supporting cast was pretty good, too, in senior forward Kim Palmer at 8.4 points a game, junior point guard Lauren Skripko, averaging 8.9 points a game and center Joanne Ihrig, averaging 6.6 points a matchup.

Still, one night before this big showdown in western New Jersrey, what did I catch Snyder doing? Yeah ... watching North games on VCR, including the loss to them earlier in the season. She did not want to miss an unturned stone.

She said to me, "I need to be totally prepared. It makes me comfortable to see a team on tape. It may drive other people crazy around me, but what would drive me crazy was if I wasn't prepared. I'm watching the tapes and looking at things I haven't seen before."

That's how much this championship would mean to Snyder. Even the slightest hiccup could cause a North run that would force her team out of its comfort zone and play a different style than what it was used to playing.

And so on the night of March 11, 1997, as I arrived at Rancocas Valley High, a school tucked away within Mount Holly's suburban setting, and as I walked in to the gym, long-form notepad in tow as always, I saw Kathy Snyder sitting there, calm as could be. I knew from the comments she made to me the night before she was prepared for her 39th battle with Cervino and his Mariners. Then again, when you've won 302 career games at that point, you must have been doing something correct over the years.

Cervino, on the other hand, was a ball of energy compared to Snyder as he kept looking to his ladies on the court, then talking with assistant coach Steve Hill, then just pacing. Maybe he knew something I didn't know that night.

As the game started in a packed gym -- not bad for two schools having to travel over 55 miles to get to its destination -- the teams were feeling each other out. Southern held a 10-6 lead in the first quarter, which indicated to me that they weren't looking to slow this game down by any means unlike in previous Southern-North matchups. There was no apprehension here -- Snyder and Southern told North and Cervino to "bring it on" in not so many words.

That's when the Rams "brought it." And, as always, it started with the defense -- a 10-second violation when North's backcourt couldn't get the ball over the midcourt line. Off the turnover, Candice McCallum got the ball inside and was fouled. She hit two free throws to make it 12-6.

On the next possession, Gillece stole the ball, drove to the hoop for the layup and scored and was fouled. She completed the three-point play, making it 15-6. Once again, North had trouble bringing the ball into the front court and Naughton came up with a steal this time. Naughton waited for her teammates to get back over to their side of the court, hit Tiffany McCallum with a pass behind the 3-point arc, and McCallum drained her trey attempt to make it 18-6. She may have pulled the trigger a bit early, according to Snyder, but as the coach would tell me later, "The way everything was going down, I thought just let her go and it went in."

Cervino, already standing up watching this horrific showing, got Skripko to call a timeout. North fans were in absolute shock. Southern fans were in elation. Snyder greeted her players with hand-claps, something I got used to witnessing in all my years of covering the sport, as to tell her girls they did a remarkable job. The very boisterous Snyder was exuberant in what her players were doing and telling them to keep it up (it didn't hurt I was sitting not far from Southern's side of the court).

And whatever Cervino was trying to draw up didn't work -- North threw the ball away for yet another turnover. On the next possession, Tiffany McCallum found Naughton, who returned the earlier favor by nailing a 3-pointer to make it 21-6, capping off an 11-0 run. North got a late basket in the first quarter, but it was 21-8 after the opening eight minutes.

This was scary. Very scary. Why? Because in the previous 13 games in this rivalry when North began to thrive, Southern Regional averaged 35.1 points per game. After one quarter, they were already close to that average. That didn't bode well for the Mariners one bit, so by that alone, I knew they were in trouble. Southern, 22-3 going into this game, again didn't get here by accident.

And again, whatever Cervino said didn't work. Two baskets by Southern made it 25-8, then to make things worse, backup center-forward Lauren Anderson -- better known for her prowess on a softball field as a star pitcher -- was called for charging.

Now that frustrated Cervino, who ended up getting a technical foul for his words and actions. A well-liked coach in my years of covering the sport, he would tell me later that this was to motivate his players who weren't very motivated at all.

Of all things, that technical foul sparked something under North as the Mariners went on an 11-4 run to cut the lead to 30-19 before halftime as suddenly, it was North slowing the game down.

But the Mariners had a tall order left in front of them. Two 6-footers were dominating things inside and no one from North wanted to take shots other than Fazio, who was struggling mightily with Gardner all over her. One thing Cervino was good at for all the years I covered girls basketball was how he could make adjustments at halftime.

One problem, though: Snyder and the Rams had been in front of SJ IV title games her three previous times. I saw two of those in person. In 1995, they were ahead 25-17 in this same gym against Washington Township and saw the energized Minutemen storm back to win. Same thing at East's gym the year before against North, Southern holding a delicate, hard-to-watch 15-9 lead, purposely slowing down a better North team until North made the adjustments to come back and win that matchup, 45-30, and ultimately reach the NJSIAA Group IV title game.

Snyder knew it was coming. And her premonition was right -- North looked like the team that dominated Southern for most of the middle part of the 1990s, moving the ball around until finding the open girl for the basket and not turning the ball over, handing it over to Southern just once in the third quarter. The 30-19 lead got cut into and when Palmer, who along with Joanne Ihrig had four points each in the third quarter, hit a short jumper with 1:11 to go, Southern's lead had been cut to 36-33.

Suddenly, North was in whispering range of Southern. It was uncertain, but did Southern just exhaust itself after nearly three quarters? Surely, Snyder was going to call a timeout, right?

Well, she allowed her players to have leeway again, like she did the entire game. They were a veteran bunch, so in Snyder's mind, the idea was to allow them to have a say in the matter instead of her pushing the buttons. Southern worked the ball around until Tiffany McCallum got the ball and drove to the layup for a bucket that pushed the lead back to five points with 49 seconds left in the third quarter.

That's how it would end: With North making a charge, but Southern making the final statement of the period and up 38-33. Now if they could hold on for the final eight minutes, the long pursuit of an SJ IV championship was finally reached.

From my vantage point, I could see Cervino pumping up his young ladies as best as they could, but Tiffany McCallum's layup took a little of the wind out of their sails. Yet, a five-point deficit wasn't out of reach at all.

On the first possession, North moved the ball around until Barb Ihrig found a hole in the Rams' interior defense, getting a pass from Skripko and scoring, cutting the lead to three points again.

However, for North, that would be about the only thing it did right in the entire quarter.

Southern proceeded to go on a 12-0 run, shutting down North for the next 5 minutes and 46 seconds. Southern's two big girls -- Candice McCallum and Gardner -- were dominant against North's interior players and scored four points each in the run. Tiffany McCallum had two points as did Naughton. No matter how many timeouts Cervino called, the ship was sinking. Unlike the nearly flawless third quarter that saw the Mariners get back into the game, they were the complete opposite, committing nine turnovers in the final eight minutes. In the end, Gardner's defense held Fazio to just eight points on 4-of-16 shooting as Joanne Ihrig led the way with 10 points for North.

"We made mistakes, but I think they were fatigue mistakes," he told me after the game. "Fatigue is always a great leveler."

When Naughton delivered two free throws with 56 seconds left in the game, it gave Southern a 56-37 lead, the biggest of the game. And it gave Snyder, now brandishing a smile that had rarely existed in these games for years, a chance to start substituting her players. Each player came off the court with a high-five or a hug from their mentor. There were many hugs going around that gym on the Southern side of the court.

As the last second ticked off Southern's 58-40 victory, the two rival coaches reached the mid-point of the sidelines and embraced.

"What I told Kathy was if I was going to lose, I was going to lose to a class coach and program," Cervino said afterward. "I knew how hard they wanted it and personally, it was nice to see an all-Ocean final."

Snyder was getting hugs all the way around -- from her players to parents to athletic director and biggest fan of her, Kim DeGraw-Cole, and then her biggest fan of everyone in the building that night, her husband, Ken, Toms River East's longtime football coach. If only we had a photographer shooting the game for us -- but unfortunately being over 50 miles away didn't allow us for any of our photographers to travel to take pictures that evening.

This night belonged to the Kathy Harlfingers, Jill Spaschaks, Judy Keefers, Jodie Davises and Kiersten Sciallos and others who got to this point and came up short. More importantly, it belonged to the coach, who at 24 years old took over this program and molded it in her tough-nosed, defensive-minded form and made it the watermark for other coaches and programs to attain.

Twenty-four was now 41, but Snyder was every bit the youthful 24-year-old at that moment. Never had I seen Kathy Snyder smile as much as she did that night.

"The monkey's finally off my back," she told me. "It's a really good feeling. I'm excited about this because this is what these kids wanted."

For Candice McCallum, who got to this point two previous times only to come up empty-handed, it was a night she won't ever forget. She finished with a game-high 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, also coming up with a steal and a block.

"This was the last thing we needed to accomplish," she said to me, blue eyes beaming, smile electric enough to light the area between Mount Holly and Manahawkin. "It seems all pretty complete now."

Winning the elusive and always-competitive South Jersey Group IV has always defined programs. You get through the Shawnees, Lenapes, Cherokees, Washington Townships and other well-known South Jersey-area programs to win a South Jersey Group IV girls basketball championship for the biggest schools, you've done something.

But the journey was not ending here. There was an NJSIAA Group IV semifinal awaiting the Rams and Snyder at Ewing Township High School in Trenton against Central Jersey Group IV champion Piscataway, whose main player was 6-1 center and University of Connecticut signee Ashja Jones. Unfortunately for Snyder and her players, Piscataway had been humiliated in this game a year earlier by North, so this team wasn't having any of that this time around.

In the end on March 13, Southern lost to Piscataway, 61-38, as Jones scored 21 points and had the better of McCallum, also handing out nine assists as the Rams doubled on her, and pulling down eight rebounds to go along with four steals. Sisters Lisa Guarneri (15 points, 11 rebounds, six steals, one block) and Jessica Guarneri (14 points) had huge games.

McCallum would finish her career at Southern with 1,923 points, good enough for second place at that point behind the great Christie Pearce of Point Pleasant Boro and her 2,190 points.

Snyder would go on to continue to have this amazing ride as both girls basketball and field hockey coach at Southern and would reach two more SJ IV basketball championship games long after I left the Observer in 2008-09 and 2009-10. And no matter who came through those doors at Southern and were coached by her, she was still going to ride them hard like she had for over a generation, calling girls out by their last names, making others wonder if they ever truly had a first name during their high school years.

She continued to touch lives in a positive manner even if it meant yelling at those young ladies to do better, just like she had been told by the legendary Nancy Williams when she was a star athlete at Shore Regional High School in field hockey, girls basketball and track and field. There was never a "no excuse" mode when it came to Snyder, even for herself as she fought breast cancer during the 2006-07 school season. It was business as usual for her as a coach.

Sadly, the journey ended on the morning of January 24, 2014, when Snyder, now 58, died in her sleep, leaving behind Ken, their three children and grandchildren. Those weren't ripples of her passing the day she died -- those were seismic shifts in the scholastic sports ground. And days later at a memorial honoring her life, hundreds of those young ladies who played for Snyder for the 35 years she was there coaching them came out to pay their respects, tell stories, funny and serious, about her and say glowing things of their coach even as they probably heard her voice ringing in their ears for years.

Kathy Snyder was an inspiration to those young ladies who have grown up to become mothers ... even grandmothers. It may have sounded like tough love if something didn't go right, but over 500 wins in a basketball career and another 300 in field hockey attest to her greatness.

To this day, she will be on my personal Mount Rushmore of great female high school coaches alongside Toms River North's Becky Miller, Toms River East/Donovan Catholic's Debbie Schwartz and Crescent City Junior-Senior High's Holly Pickens. In her honor, the court at the school she put on the map as a coach and leader is named after her.

I was blessed that night to witness what happened when everything came together in a positive manner for Kathy Snyder and her Southern Regional girls basketball players in that Rancocas Valley High gym.

To me, she will always be the epitome of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," because that night, her players took her persona and rode it to a state sectional championship.

A long overdue one, too.

A Donovan girls soccer title at long last

Covering high school girls soccer for the third spring at the Observer, I got to know plenty of the coaches and players in Ocean County.

It didn't hurt that I was only 20 years old and finishing up my third year of college, my first at Monmouth. I was just a little older than the kids who were playing the sport, so I got to know the players well enough.

One of the girls soccer teams I got to cover in my home county was Monsignor Donovan. When I first covered the Griffins two years earlier, they were a mix of seniors like Stephanie Harmon, Barb Callaghan and Maureen McShea and freshman and sophomore standouts like Liz Rehak, Colleen Hanhart, Jilene DeFilippis and Kim Brickner, whose star was getting bigger as a scoring machine.

But the one thing that eluded the Griffins and good-guy coach Bill Slocum was a title of some kind. In 1984, the Griffins were 17-0 as an independent in the Shore Conference, one victory away from clinching an unbeaten season with the Ocean County Tournament title. But an exhausted Donovan team could not handle the humidity and warmth of the June night against Toms River East, losing in the final, 3-0. A year later, the Griffins played in the Shore Conference Class B South, but lost out on the B South title by half a game to Wall. The Griffins advanced to the first-ever Shore Conference Tournament semifinals, but lost again to East, this time, 3-2, in a game that was not as close as the final score indicated. Then in 1986, a knee injury to sweeper Hanhart sent the Griffins reeling, even though they held it together to finish second in the B South to Wall again.

This time in 1987, the Griffins were being put into a new division -- smaller Class C as part of a nine-team grouping. The one team, though, that was going to give the Griffins fits was Freehold Boro. The Colonials were a talented bunch, but seemed to be lacking in something, whether it was physicality or experience.. In their first meeting in Freehold, the Griffins won.

And the Griffins were finally going to win some kind of a title. They were 14-1 in Class C and 16-1 overall as they came into their final divisional game -- against the Colonials, who were 13-2 in the division and needed a win to clinch a division title share with the Griffins. Overall, they were 14-2.

So the stage was set for this Thursday afternoon at Donovan, May 21, 1987. It was a 3:30 p.m. start, but I knew that school was letting out sometime around 2 p.m. At that time, I was dating a senior at Donovan named Mary. I told her about this game and that I was covering it, so she stayed around after school to wait on me. We connected somewhere near the tunnel of the school heading out to the football/soccer field and sat in the bleachers for a while. She and I had planned a trip to Dorney Park the next day, but that got put on hold for a month for reasons that, to this day, befuddle me. We ended up going on her 18th birthday, which happened to fall on the final Saturday of June.

After we said our goodbyes as she took a later bus home, it was time to cover this game.

Donovan had a formidable front line led by Brickner and her county-best 28 goals coming into the game, DeFilippis and sophomore Meredith Tompkins. The midfield had a lot of experience with senior Karen Baiersdorfer and juniors Rehak. The defense was the team's bread and butter, though, led by senior veteran Chris Smith, junior Michele Fosgreen, freshman Sue Baiersdorfer and the heart and soul of the team, Hanhart, now in her fourth year on the varsity, at sweeper. By now, the Bayville resident had been fully recovered from her knee injury.

Freehold Boro had a young team with untapped potential. Julie Simon, a fiery redhead, was just a sophomore on that team, as was forward Karen O'Brien. The Colonials were not a bad team. This game had potential to be a classic.

But for Donovan, this one had the chance to make history. And so under blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s, the teams got off on time.

One thing these Colonials liked doing was overlapping, and forcing the defense to have to make a decision on who to cover and who gets picked up. Freehold Boro forced Donovan into this quandary in a game the teams played in 1986, a game the Colonials won, 4-3. And Boro decided to try those tricks again in the first meeting against the Griffins. They did score off of it, but the Griffins won that game, 3-1.

Each offensive attempt by the Colonials was being meant with resistance by Donovan's defense as Baiersdorfer shut down her offensive counterpart and Smith and midfielder Kelly Carrigan did their best to make things troublesome for O'Brien. And if by any chance the ball squirted by them, either Hanhart or goalie Kris Brickner, Kim's older sister, was there to pick it up and set Donovan's offense in motion.

Trouble was that Donovan was having the same problems. They tried a number of things, from putting passes together to find Kim Brickner, or just trying the kick-and-run method for Brickner to break free from the defense and out-race everyone to the other end of the net to put a shot on goalie Paula Arcoleo. But led by Simon, the Colonials held firm. Shots were hard to come by, and as the third quarter came to an end and it remained scoreless, Slocum remained concerned. He knew at any moment, Freehold Boro's offense could break free and score a goal. By the time the fourth quarter started, all he was asking for from his players was a goal as he huddled them up just one last time.

The crowd there was small when the game began, but as the game got later on, more fans were filing into the stands or around the field.

Just 4:40 into the final quarter, the Griffins had the perfect chance to break the tie. Rehak served a perfect headball Brickner's way. She put her head on the ball and it eluded Arcoleo, a sure goal in mere moments.

But out of nowhere came sweeper Dena Thyne to knock the ball away on the goal line and keep the game scoreless.

There it was! The opportunity the Griffins needed. Even if this game ended in a tie, the Griffins would be outright division champions, but it'd be sweeter if they could win the game and put the stamp of approval on their regular season.

Minutes later, Donovan was back down in Freehold territory. The Colonial defense was scrambling, trying to get the ball out of its box. One deflection after another kept Donovan on the attack.

Then the moment came and it was by accident.

The Colonials tried again to get the ball out of the zone, but it didn't clear DeFilippis' tower and the 5-foot-8 forward-midfielder deflected it right in Rehak's direction. She kicked the ball from one side of the box to the other where Brickner was waiting about 12 yards out. Brickner delivered a shot that avoided Arcoleo, who was now rushing to make it to the other side of the goal. The ball eluded Arcoleo and into the back of the net.

The Griffins had their goal and now half a period to protect the lead.

For the next 10 minutes, though, the Colonials were mounting threats. Each threat, though, was met with resistance. Only a freshman, Sue Baiersdorfer was having the best game of her young career. Each member of that defense was holding its weight in keeping the Colonials down. Two more trips down in Donovan's end wound up finishing in a save by Kris Brickner in one instance, and the ball just eluding the goal off an O'Brien shot in the other.

Those last minutes were filled with consternation, Slocum quietly wishing the time time away. But like his players, he could sense the end coming.

And when the head referee blew the final whistle, the reality had arrived.

Donovan 1, Freehold Boro 0. Class C Division champions.

In this instance, the celebration was more memorable than most of the game. Player hugged one another and fans came onto the field and shared the moment with the girls who had worked so hard to win that first championship.

And they had a surprise waiting -- two bottles of non-alcoholic champagne. They wanted to party and celebrate like the big boys and girls did, though I'm not sure wind ever got to the sisters of the school of this kind of party. So the seniors were in charge of opening the non-alcoholic bubbly and passed the bottle around to take swigs or just pour it on each other.

All the while, Hanhart was looking for one person.

"Where's coach Slocum?" she asked. Then she found him. And after she caught up to him, he was wearing about half of the bottle in her hand that she dumped on him.

It was mighty cold and smelly -- and Bill Slocum didn't mind a bit. His young ladies had delivered a division title.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world," said Hanhart, blue eyes glistening over this memorable victory. "We deserved it because of our dedication and hard work and Mr. Slocum's standing beside us."

This one, though, was dedicated to Hanhart, as well as fellow seniors Smith, Kris Brickner, Karen Baiersdorfer and Kris Hermann. Hanhart had gotten so close to a title and now she had something to walk away with from Donovan.

Donovan was the second-best team in Ocean County at that point and through most of the season behind a surprising Point Pleasant Boro club. The Griffins were given the No. 3 seed in the tournament and had a strong chance to go very far and make the championship in a possible all-Ocean County matchup with the top-seeded Panthers at the end.

Sadly, though, it didn't happen. After Brickner scored three times in a 5-1 opening-round win against No. 14 seeded Raritan, the Griffins gave up two goals to Laura Wilson and sixth-seeded Wall captured a 2-1 win to stunningly take Donovan out of the quarterfinal round.

Most of the Griffins players were back for the 1988 season and they were expected to once again have a big season with Donovan's junior trio of Brickner, Rehak and DeFillipis back. But in the biggest game of the season, the Griffins were stunned by Freehold Boro on Freehold's field this time, 2-1, giving up two second-half goals in the process. Under new coach Heshy Moses, the Colonials took the Class C title away from Donovan with the physical play and direction that had been lacking the year before, relegating Donovan to a 10th seed in the SCT, where the Griffins once again lost late, giving up three goals in the final five minutes of play and falling, 3-2, to No. 7 seed Raritan in the '88 SCT first round.

Those losses were costly because Slocum, who announced he was resigning from the coaching position after seven seasons, came within two victories of 100 for his career, finishing instead with 98. Brickner would become Ocean County's all-time leading career scorer with 96 goals and 53 assists for 245 points. But that would last seemingly for a couple of cups of coffee as Point Boro's scoring maven, Kim Yankowski, darted right past Brickner in 1990, en route to a career total of 356 points

And things would never be the same. That era of dominance for Donovan between 1984-88 was officially over. They had some great times, but that one title on that beautiful afternoon in 1987 was the only thing they would come away with in the end.

Still, it was an enjoyable era for the Griffins. It was a fun time for those involved.

That victory against Freehold Boro will always be a landmark in my mind.

It gave the Griffins something to remember in the end.

Raider resiliency against P.K. Yonge's talented team

For the third straight year, the Crescent City Junior-Senior High School boys basketball team was heading to the state tournament. However, unlike the previous two years when the Raiders outlasted Father Lopez of Daytona Beach in district championship matchups, this time, the Raiders were going to be heading out on the road.

In the District 6-3A championship game on Saturday, February 11, 2006, the Raiders lost to the tournament host Union County High Tigers, 58-50, as the Tigers used a balanced attack to beat top-seeded Crescent City. Brendan Odom and a guy better known for his football prowess – C.J. Spiller – both had 16 points in the championship. The Raiders had beaten the Tigers three times during the regular season, but in the fourth and most important matchup, they simply didn't get it done.

Still, in Florida, district tournament winners and championship losers advance on to the state tournament with the district champs opening up at home and the district runners-up having to travel on the road to the corresponding district champion. In this case, that meant the Raiders would lock up with the No. 2 team in the state in Class 3A, District 5 champion P.K. Yonge of Gainesville.

Personally, I knew the Raiders were going to give the Blue Wave fits, even if P.K. Yonge had three quality ballplayers who were All-State worthy – all-everything guard Willie Powers and shooting guard Myk Brown, along with tougher-than-nails center Adio Mutima. The Blue Wave were coming off a 60-47 district championship win over Williston and were 23-4 going in.

That 23-4 record made Crescent City's 14-11 mark look weak, like coach Al Carter's Raiders had no right to be on the same court as the Wave. On paper, this should have been a no-contest.

But the Raiders had some scrappy kids on their team. They had point guard Danny Jones. They had another scrapper in Adarius Baker. They had an up-and-coming star in sophomore Toshmon Stevens.

And they had The Man at the swing forward-guard position in 6-foot-5 Dexter Clark, a smooth customer who wasn't afraid to take the ball to the hole or take the outside shot. In many ways, he could find his way to the foul line. He was, without much doubt, Putnam County's best ball player, so if he had a good game, that meant the other guys were involved in the action and they would give these Wave players everything they can handle.

I left for Gainesville from my apartment at about 4:45 p.m. on this Thursday afternoon, February 16, 2006, and made pretty good time, stopping at the nearby Mexican restaurant, On The Border, which sadly no longer exists in that spot. Had a great meal and at about 6:40, I headed back the other way for a five-minute trip to P.K. Yonge, a school nestled in a corner right across from the University of Florida and on the same side of the road behind many of the UF dormitories that sat there.

Gainesville was a pretty happenin' place in the winter of 2005-06 and just trying to get to the school was a bit of a challenge, but I did get there. It was about 6:50 p.m., just 10 minutes before tip-off. I went to make sure I had everything in my car. Then I searched for my press pass.

Nothing. Check again in my glove compartment or in the container case in between the front seats, even underneath both seats. Checked in my wallet. I think I checked everything four times. Couldn't find it. All I had was a piece of paper with my name on it to prove it was me, but it didn't have my picture on it or the name of the newspaper.

At that moment, it was my only hope. I got into the small foyer between the front door and the gymnasium. I explained that I could not find my press pass and this was my pass and I would confirm that to anyone there with one phone call to my boss if need be.

These people, though, wanted proof. Simple, pure proof. I had none other than my driver's license, but that didn't have anything to do with what I did for a living. This was a bad place to be at 6:55 p.m. and it was about to get worse. I had no physical money on me and it would have cost $6 to get in. By 2006, I was doing everything via check card. If I had to run out to a Wachovia bank, I would have taken 15 minutes to get to the bank and back. No branch was anywhere near me.

It was really a bad situation. All I kept saying was that I could prove to them who I was, and they wouldn't let me in. It got so bad that some overzealous officer thought it was a wonderful idea to just physically push me out the door.

Over a fucking high school basketball game! Can you believe this?

Well, now I'm standing outside and without money or proof of who I was and what I did for a living. Legitimate proof that is. But one person saw what was going on and intervened.

He was Crescent City Junior-Senior High's principal, Joe Warren. Now, he and I had conversations over the 2 1/2 years I was at the paper and he was principal. Warren and head coach Carter were high school classmates at now defunct Hastings High and it was Warren who got Carter the job as the school's boys basketball coach in 1998.

Mr. Warren certainly had an interest in this game and having it covered. The man pulled out his wallet and paid the $6 for me to get in. I was embarrassed because all of a sudden I had no press pass to get me in for free, but I was willing to take the opportunity to allow him to let me in and thank him for it.

So by the time I sat down, I had already lost nearly two minutes of this game. The Raiders were already down 6-1. And it was about to get worse: a 3-point field goal by Powers was followed by a layup from Brown and then another 3-pointer, this time by Powers.

P.K. Yonge 14, Crescent City 1. Carter called his second timeout.

How ugly was this going to get? Did I just waste Joe Warren's money? That's about how I felt at the time. We were only 2:49 into the game and the Blue Wave were already threatening to make this into an epic rout.

But coming out of the timeout, the Raiders showed life. Clark was fouled and hit one free throw, then Baker delivered a layup for a basket. That was followed by a Clark free throw, a three-point play by Clark and a steal and basket by Jones.

Now it was 14-10, a much better game to watch. And in the final minute of the first quarter, layups by Chavarrious Hill and Dwight Milton knotted the game at 14-all as the buzzer sounded. The Raiders had hit five of their last eight shots in the period and their defense stymied the Blue Wave into seven straight misses to wipe away the 13-point deficit.

The enthusiasm from the Raider bench because of the rally had coach Carter and assistants Clarence "Pooh Bear" Williams and Quentin Lewis excited. They knew they could attack the Blue Wave defense and found out they were a really good offensive team, but a not-so-great defensive team.

And they continued to attack. A free throw by Jones was followed up by two free throws by Hill, giving the Raiders an improbable 17-14 lead. Finally, though, after going a second short of six minutes without point, Mutima hit a short jumper to cut the lead to one. Hill answered with a jumper to make it a three-point game.

The teams swapped free throws to make it 20-17 with 5:21 left in the first half.

Then something I didn't even expect happened – the Raiders had another gear they could go into all of a sudden. Clark hit a layup, then two possessions later, Baker was fouled and hit two free throws. And baskets by Clark and Milton suddenly made it 28-17 with 1:43 to go before halftime.

Yes, the visitors were leading by 11 points! This was after starting the game down 14-1.  Yes, against the No. 2 team in the state in that classification, Crescent City just went on an improbable 27-3 run!

The Blue Wave couldn't find the ocean if they were standing on the edge of the dock. That's how awful they were in their shot selection. Here they were, a team with three All-State caliber players looking absolutely clueless! From the basket delivered by Mutima with 6:46 to go before the half until now, the Blue Wave had missed 14 straight shots – 14! For whatever reason, P.K. Yonge looked like a team that shouldn't have been on the same court with the Raiders.

And then the Blue Wave missed their 15th straight shot as a 3-point attempt by Jason Palmquist missed the mark and Jones came down with the rebound.

But the Raiders got careless. Powers stole the ball from Clark and had clear sailing to the basket for an easy layup. The Raiders missed their next three shots, including a block by Powers off a shot by Milton. And with two seconds to go before the half, Sterling Jewell (that's really his name, I couldn't make it up if I tried) delivered a 3-pointer to cut the Raiders' lead to 28-22 at the break.

Now I've always been a firm believer that you never want to give the other team that's down a little bit of momentum because that could take them a long, long way the rest of the game. And yes, I was worried for the Raiders. They had done everything that was asked of them by their head coach and had a six-point lead to show for it.

But games are really won and lost in the locker room during the halftime break. The team that's down makes adjustments. The team winning does everything it can to stay the course and not fall victim to complacency.

And it seemed in the Raiders' first possession of the third quarter, they were still the better team as Jones drove past Powers and got his shot up before Powers could make a play, banking the layup home to make it 30-22.

However, the Blue Wave defense was about to make things miserable on Jones and his teammates by switching to an all-out, full-court defense. The Raiders couldn't handle it. And after a couple of missed shots, the Blue Wave found the mark as Powers hit another trey to make it 30-25. A steal led to a missed trey by Travis Johnson, but Arnett Hall rebounded the shot and was fouled by Stevens. He calmly sank the free throws to make it a three-point game.

Another turnover by the Raiders was followed by a steal by Clark, who made his way free of Wave defenders down the other end of the court and slam-dunked two points hard enough to let P.K. Yonge's players and coaches know that the Raiders were not going away like a shadow in the night.

But once again, another answer as Brown connected on a 3-pointer to make it 32-30. Palmquist would hit a jumper on the next P.K. Yonge possession and the game was tied at 32-all.

Such a back-and-forth game filled with emotions on both sides.

The Raiders took the lead back on a basket by Baker at 34-32 with 3:49 left in the quarter, but again, it was Brown connecting from long distance. The Blue Wave led it 35-34, wiping out the Raiders' 11-point lead in the second period.

Baker hit another basket to put the Raiders back on top with 2:37 left in the quarter, but 14 seconds later, Mutima put back in a missed shot by Jewell and the Blue Wave led one more time.

Then the crusher. Off a Clark missed shot, the Wave set up for Powers, who was sitting about 28 feet from the basket. He got his shot up well behind the arc ... swish! Today even in my notes from that game, I put the three letters "N.B.A." next to them to designate how long a shot it was.

And when Brown found the mark with his third 3-pointer of the quarter, Carter needed another timeout down 43-36 with 1:28 left to go in the period. The teams would trade points before Powers got a step on Jones and beat Crescent City's tall players for a basket with seven seconds left before the buzzer, giving the Blue Wave a seemingly comfortable 48-40 lead going into the final quarter.

This should now be a runaway. That was my thought. The Blue Wave fans were pumped. They seemed to have done everything right in the pivotal third quarter, coming up with nine Raider turnovers and going 9-for-16 from the field and 5-of-9 from behind the 3-point arc.

All was going well, especially within the first minute of the final quarter when Powers came up with his third steal and handed off to Brown for the easy layup, giving the Wave a 50-40 lead. And while the Raiders were having a hard time with their possessions, turning it over for the 21st time in the game, Powers missed a shot, but Johnson was there for the putback to give the Wave a commanding 52-40 lead.

Two free throws by Jones off a steal was countered, though, by a layup by Brown. But with six minutes to go, Jones delivered a 3-pointer to make it 54-45. For some reason, that sparked the Raiders again.

A steal by Jones led to a feed at the other end for Stevens, whose 6-5 frame put every ounce into an emphatic slam dunk to make it 54-47. After a missed shot by Brown, Hill rebounded, fed Jones and Jones delivered a scissors-cutting layup to make it a five-point game.

P.K. Yonge called timeout with 4:57 left in the game. By now, they figured out how resilient these Raiders were. Even in a packed P.K. Yonge gym filled with excited Blue Wave fans, they couldn't believe what was happening. But they still had the lead.

However, a miss layup inside by Mutima gave Clark the rebound and the Raiders fed the hot hand – Danny Jones. The point guard took the ball to the hoop and was fouled by Powers, his only foul of the game. Jones sank both free throws to cut the lead to 54-51.

The Wave finally answered on a short jumper by Mutima to make it 56-51. The Raiders didn't back down, though and when Jones hit a short-range jumper, it was a three-point game again with 3:01 to go.

But Powers was fouled by Stevens and hit two free throws. Missed shots by Jones and Clark eventually led to a layup by Mutima.

P.K. Yonge once again had this one under control, 60-53.

What complicated matters in this was that Carter had no trust in his bench and played a six-man set for the entire game – starters Clark, Jones, Hill, Stevens and Baker and reserve Milton. They hung in there as long as they did as the Wave shuffled players in and out the entire night, including a short stint by Chip Polite, who just a year before played his high school ball at Interlachen High, one of the schools in our coverage area.

Maybe they finally got tired. The looks on the players' faces with 1:41 left and down seven points were not good. But after Carter had used his next-to-last timeout, he implored his guys to dig down deep one more time. They had gone on spurts most of the night and he felt they had one more in them.

But there was a looming factor as well and it was one that lingered in my mind the year before: When the Raiders fell behind at home against Providence of Jacksonville late in the fourth of the previous year's first-round state tournament opener, Providence played a frustrating game of keep-away, never allowing the Raiders to see the ball unless they fouled them ... and Providence players were hitting their free throws without much hassle to cap a 52-39 win.

Somehow, it felt like the writing was on the wall. Even if the Raiders were to hit a shot on this possession, the Blue Wave were going to do the keep-away thing. They were 9-for-13 from the charity stripe at this point. Not a whole lot of positivity going into that last 101 seconds.

So the Raiders get the ball and work it around until they get it to Clark. He got fouled by Mutima. He hit the first of two free throws, but missed the second with Mutima pulling down the board with 1:29 left.

Here we go ... the human wheel is in motion and the keep-away game begins. Except it didn't! For some vapor-lock reason, P.K. Yonge coach Mark Griseck continued to run his offense inexplicably! Powers took a 3-point try. Missed badly.

Clark got the rebound and with Jones pushing it down the floor, he got the ball back to Clark, who calmly sank a jump shot.

P.K. Yonge 60, Crescent City 56.

Back the Wave went and once again, they took a shot they never should have taken. Powers took a short jumper that missed and lo and behold, Hill got the rebound. Jones got free with a pass from Clark and buried a jumper, his 12th and 13th points of the quarter.

P.K. Yonge 60, Crescent City 58. Only 39 seconds left to go.

And on the next possession, it was Jones stepping in front of a pass in the backcourt and delivering the ball to Clark. Clark took the ball to the basket and got fouled with 30.5 seconds to play.

Hey, P.K. Yonge players and coaches ... say this isn't so! How can you continue to play your offense with a lead late knowing the moment the Raiders get their hands on the ball, they're going to score?!?

The improbable was literally taking place in front of my eyes – eyes that weren't supposed to be seeing this if not for Crescent City principal Joe Warren.

Clark calmly went to the free-throw line and delivered both attempts, his 15th and 16th points of the game, to tie it up at 60-all.

This wasn't supposed to happen, yet it was! Now the Blue Wave had a reason to really run their offense after pissing away a seven-point lead in a matter of 71 seconds. The Wave worked the ball around the perimeter until it found the hands of Powers. Powers was being tightly covered by Jones. The two had been going at it all night long.

Powers began to make his move inside the 3-point arc, pulled back and took a jumper from about 18 feet.

Swish! 

Carter called his last timeout with 16 seconds to go and the Wave back up 62-60. He set up a play that would go to either of his two hot hands – Jones or Clark. They were capable of tying this game again.

Out of the timeout, Jones got the ball inbounds and handed off to Clark at the top of key. Clark had Brown on him, even though Brown was saddled with four fouls, one more away from fouling out.

Clark, who had to step out of this game after being hit in the top of the eye off a defensive play, making it bleed, put the ball on the floor with less than 10 seconds to go and began his drive to the hoop. He stopped just to his left of the hoop and took a shot that banked off the backboard and hit the front of the rim.

Unfortunately, the magic was gone as the ball bounced away from the hoop and Mutima had his 10th rebound of the game. He got the ball quickly to Powers, who was finally fouled by Baker with 2.7 seconds to go. It was still a one-and-one free-throw opportunity, but without a timeout, it would feel like a desperation heave for the Raiders.

Powers, who finished with a game-high 26 points, three steals and two blocks, missed the free throw. But sensing how tired the Raiders players were, Mutima stepped in to grab the rebound and put the ball back into the hoop with two-tenths of a second to go, his ninth and 10th points of the game to go along with his 11 rebounds.

There was nothing to do. The Raiders inbounded the ball and couldn't do anything else.

P.K. Yonge, who also got 21 points from Brown, had been outplayed for most of this game, but yet, great teams find a way to win in the end. And this team did, 64-60, to advance to the next round of the state tournament.

The dejection was visible on the faces of the Raiders players, who had poured everything they had into this one, but it still wasn't enough. Jones ended up with 18 points and eight rebounds in his final game, while Clark ended his career with 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Their positive-minded coach came out and he and I talked afterward. He said he was walking out of that gym with his head held high. And why not? They had a great game and put it all out there.

He would say to me later, "No one gave us a chance to win this game. Everyone who was there watching it knows we should've won it. But no one gave us any kind of chance to win. And we came so close to winning it, too."

The sad thing was that this was Crescent City's sixth trip to the state tournament under the affable Carter – and it was the Raiders' sixth loss. I called Carter in a column Putnam County's version of Sisyphus, who in Greek mythology was best known for rolling a rock up the hill, only to have it come back the other way.

In 2004, Crescent City led Providence by 10 points with just under four minutes to go in a state playoff game, only to watch Providence go on a 12-1 run the rest of the way to pull out a 43-42 victory.

I was starting to wonder if Carter and his Raiders could finally roll that rock up the hill to the top without incident.

P.K. Yonge went on from that scare to hammer Wildwood, 76-51, but would lose in the Region 2-3A final to Jones High of Orlando, 61-57, most likely because Jones High was a better all-around team and unlike Crescent City, Jones had the tools to put P.K. Yonge away.

A year later, Crescent City lost the District 6-3A title game again, this time to county rival Interlachen, 57-47. And that meant another road trip to open the state tournament for the Raiders – and a trip to Gainesville to face the Blue Wave. This time, though, P.K. Yonge made sure there'd be no doubt as to who the better team was – it was 54-16 at halftime and the Blue Wave went on to crush the Raiders, 75-28.

That would be the last time the Raiders made the state tournament for seven years. Then on February 18, 2014, the Raiders and Carter finally broke through in the state tournament after winning the District 8-1A title, beating Williston at home, 52-48, in the Region 4-1A semifinals. That led to playing for the Region 4-1A championship three days later. But when big man Datwan Lewis picked up a costly fourth foul in the third quarter and his team leading 29-22 in Chiefland's small and noisy gym, the host team responded by going on a 20-4 run the rest of the way and to a 42-33 win that gave them a state 1A Final Four berth.

It wasn't Crescent City's time then. But 2015 sure was their time. The Raiders won another District 8-1A title, beat Newberry in the first-round region opener, then beat back Williston, 67-53, at home to secure the program's first-ever state Final Four berth. They lost to Hawthorne, 57-40, at the Lakeland Center, in the 1A state semifinal round.

Still, Carter was no long Sisyphus – that rock got pushed up the hill until winning a region title.

And looking back on how much blood, sweat and tears went into getting there, it's a true testament to the program that it never once quit, even in lean years.

As much as I remember the great wins in the mid-2010 decade, my mind always goes back to that night in Gainesville when the Raiders pushed back against the No. 2 team in the state and darn-near beat them.

It also goes back to how lucky I was that I had an ally on my side to see that game.

That $6 is still waiting to be handed back to Joe Warren. Hopefully, very, very soon.

From near extinction to district champions

Some high school sports teams are never destined for success. Why? Because you need a whole bunch of things to happen for a team to turn from a floor mat to show stopper.

One of those things is coaching. Good coaches can make teams better. Great coaches can make their teams believe they can win championships.

That seemed to be the thing that was lacking with the Crescent City Junior-Senior High School girls basketball team in the first few years I was a writer at the Palatka Daily News. In the first three years I was there, the program had gone through three coaches and had combined for a record of 20-29. Now how are you supposed to get better when your coaches don't stick around? A conundrum to say the least. And though the 20 wins looked nice on the outside, a lot of those victories were coming against schools that had even less in talent than the Raiders had.

Still, this was a team that was building up to something good in the 2006-07 season. There were three seniors who had gutted it out for those three years in Raider uniforms – senior forward-center Kayla Strickland, guard-forward Donshitessa Banks and the leader of that group, guard LaToya Scott, whose brother, Walter Curry, was a standout football player at Crescent City, then again in college at Albany State in Georgia, where he was a Division II All-American and spent time with the San Francisco 49ers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, where I got to do a story on him in 2010 in his effort to try to make the team (he didn't and unfortunately that was his last opportunity to latch on to an NFL team).

This team had talent. They also had some nice players on the younger level. One of those players was a "project" in 5-foot-11 seventh-grade center Kayshia Brady. She may have been 5-11 in real life, but with a large arm span, she could play like a girl about 6-foot-7. But she was raw ... very raw. And 13-year-olds need constructive guidance to believe they can go to that next level.

She was about to be part of the varsity team because Crescent City housed both middle schoolers and high schoolers, allowing middle schoolers to play with the high schoolers, a decision that had been made a decade before when seventh- and eighth-graders were allowed to come to Crescent City.

The team was set for maybe a very good season. Nobody knew, really. But there was one missing factor.

A coach.

The previous coach made the decision to not return for the next year.  And no one was running to the athletic director's office to apply for the job. June became July. July became August. August became September. And before September could turn to October, a decision was needed to be made.

Will the program stay or will it go into extinction, at least for the year? To this day, I can not believe that the program would have gone away and the seniors who were devoted to the team in spite of losing records would have had nowhere to go in their senior years.

That's when the "savior" came along. All they had to do was find her in the gymnasium coaching the volleyball team.

But in this case, Holly Pickens knew the program. Well, maybe not up-to-the-second knowing it, but she had two stints as the Raiders' coach, winning a district championship in the 1984-85 season and getting the team to the state tournament two straight years, and then again in the 1990s, she coached the team for a few years.

More importantly, though, Coach P was about the school and not allowing a program to go under, especially one she had ties to. She took the job.

And right off the bat, things began to turn around with the team. The regular losing was over and the players grateful to play that season thanks to a positive influence on them and the program were responding. Before long, the Raiders were building a nice season under Pickens. They finished the district regular season with a mark of 9-1, the only loss coming to Keystone Heights and head coach Mike Ruszkowski, the former Palatka High girls coach and all-around super guy. The Indians were also 9-1 in district play.

It came down to a coin toss for who would get the first seed since all the other tiebreakers had been exausted. This was crucial. If the Raiders lost the coin toss, they would be the second seed in the upcoming District 6-3A tournament held at new school Palm Coast Matanzas High. That would relegate the Raiders to a likely semifinal matchup with a tough and frustrating, third-seeded Union County team from Lake Butler. A correct call of the coin would give the Raiders the top seed and have them face either the host and first-year Matanzas Pirates or regional rival Pierson Taylor High, neither team very good that season.

It is uncertain who made the call, but when the coin came down, it landed in Crescent City's favor.

Imagine that – from a doormat to the top seed in a district tournament and almost a certainty that the program would win the semifinal matchup and make the state tournament for the first time since 1986.

And Crescent City prevailed in its semifinal rather easily, handing Matanzas a 36-17 loss to improve to 12-4 on the season as Scott outscored the Pirates herself with 19 points and Brady had seven points, seven blocked shots and 14 rebounds.

This caused a bit of a problem, but I also knew that if my boss needed me to go somewhere, I'd gladly go, especially a championship. After all, I had tickets the next Saturday night in Tallahassee for my friend Arrii and I to see Jimmy Buffett in concert. I wasn't giving those up, so if one of our county boys basketball teams made the final, he covered for me – and would do so as Interlachen beat Crescent City for the District 6-3A championship at Crescent City.

He wanted to see Palatka's girls play for a district championship that Saturday night, February 3, 2007, at Clay High School against St. Augustine High. Told him I had no problem going to Matanzas High to see Crescent City face off with third seed Union County, which sprung the upset on Keystone Heights in the other semifinal, 39-31. (See! This is why that coin toss was extremely important!)

But I had two issues before going to the game on that Saturday night. The first issue was I was heading to Disney World the next day (which, oh by the way, was Super Bowl Sunday as the Colts faced off with the Bears that evening) with my friend Ginny, who I had to pick up at her home in Orange Park, drive across the Buckman Bridge on I-295 down to I-95 and then 75 miles to Daytona Beach to the Suburban Lodge Hotel we were staying in that night. By the time we got there in my Toyota Corolla and checked in, it was 6:25 p.m. and it was a quick goodbye back out the door and back up I-95 another 36 miles to Palm Coast to find a school I had never been to before.

All I knew was the exit I had to get off of (Exit 298) and it turns out in the end, I could have gotten off at the exit before that at Exit 289 and taken one road a few miles up until I hit the school. That most likely would have saved about 10 minutes on my trip. By the time I got off at the exit, I was on US-1 heading south this time. This north/south/north driving was making me insane.

By the time I found the school I was to go to, I had gone a good eight miles out of my way. But as the grey clouds thickened up on this late February evening, the only thing missing as I approached this school way in the distance standing beside itself was lightning and thunder, followed by that evil organ music that accompanies it. I felt like I was driving the Scooby-Doo mystery van.

Somehow I figured I got close to where the gymnasium was located and parked beside some other cars that were in the lot near me. I found the right door and by the time I walked in at 7:15 p.m., there was 5:13 left to play in the first quarter and Crescent City was already leading 6-2. Eventually, I would catch up to what I needed to collect, and I would be able to seek out someone at least on Crescent City's side who was doing stats for the game and pick up on rebounds, steals and blocked shots.

The gym looked as if it was just built a month or so earlier. I had not seen lights this bright in a gymnasium in a long, long time.

By the time I had caught up, the Raiders had built a 9-3 lead with 3:11 left in the first quarter. Turns out this would be the biggest lead of the night. As the game wore on and I had finally caught up on the early points of the game, the teams would swap the lead 11 times.

Yes, 11 times! I was preparing for what could be a long night and an overtime or two. The Raiders held an 18-14 lead at halftime, but the Tigers, who had two capable scorers in Amber Franzlubers and Miranda Kent, didn't back down. By the end of the third quarter, the Tigers had the lead 30-27, just eight minutes from the title.

The Raiders battled back and tied the game at 33-all with just under four minutes to go on a basket by Strickland, a big body in the middle who was enforcer down low.

On the next possession, the Tigers turned the ball over. This would be a trend for late in the game not just for the Tigers, but for the Raiders as well. It was a close game, but it was also a sloppy one, too.

So the Raiders bring the ball up the court and the ball finds Scott's hands. She saw her defender in front of her and thought she could dribble toward the base line and take a shot. To this day, I am pretty sure that she did not count her steps to where she needed to be correctly and with that defender still on top of her, she threw a shot up toward the basket.

And to this day, I still have no idea how that ball landed in the basket. Scott threw up what looked like nothing more than a prayer. The ball hit the upper right-hand corner of the backboard and for some reason, it had enough spin to come downward toward the basket. It fell through ... and for a 3-point field goal, no less.

Seriously! You couldn't take that shot in a horse game and hit it the way LaToya Scott put it up. To this very day, Holly Pickens still can't believe the ball found the hoop. Then again, maybe someone was smiling down on her for taking over this program.

Back the other way came the Tigers. They missed and Brady rebounded. Then the Raiders came down and missed and Franzlubbers would rebound. With under a minute to go, it was still 36-33 in Crescent City's favor. Now I'm sitting in the stands just not even believing that this impossible 3-point shot with 3:11 to go in the game was going to be it – no more scoring! Nothing! Someone had to do something, right?

With 33.2 seconds left, Banks was fouled. The Tigers were over the limit in fouls and so Banks had a one-and-one free-throw situation. Banks calmly nailed the first free throw to make it a four-point lead. But the second free throw missed, Franzlubbers went up for the rebound and got fouled by Brady.

Oh, boy, seventh-grade jitters! This team came so far and now, fouls were going to decide if they walked out of this gymnasium winners or not. One second had come off the clock, so with 31.9 seconds left, Franzlubbers sank both free throws to make it 37-35.

And the seventh-grader was about to make it worse. With 23.6 seconds left, Brady turned the ball over.

Nooooooooooooooooo! Suddenly, my hands found the back of my head in a folded manner in worry for the team I was covering. Union County called timeout and set up a play. It was going to Kent, a sharp-shooting guard. The ball got to Kent and she fired.

It was off the mark. The Raiders dodged a bullet when Strickland came up with the rebound. But as soon as she got a hold of the ball to secure it, so, too, did Union County's Ashley Clemmons. The official blew the whistle for the held-ball possession.

The arrow was pointing in Union County's favor with 11 seconds left to go.

When is this going to end!? That was probably what Pickens was feeling. The veteran coach had just turned 47 in November, but was feeling inside like she was 74. Union County called a timeout and came up with a play. It was designed to go again to Kent. She was their bread-and-butter standout from the outside.

From watching what would happen next, the play was designed for Kent to find an opening and take a shot. Apparently, Pickens knew what was going to happen.

So off the inbound pass, Kent received the ball. She saw spots she could dribble to, but as soon as she headed toward them, Raider defenders were coming out to meet her. There was no way they were allowing her to beat them. Kent had 16 points for the game and Franzlubbers, guarded well by Banks, had 15 points. The rest of the team – four points.

So with six seconds left, Kent passed the ball off to diminutive point guard Ashli Watson. Watson received the pass somewhere at the top of the key in no man's land for guards. But once she got the ball, she was determined to take it to the hole and tie the game.

She, though, had one obstacle in her way – Kayshia Brady. As Watson put her shot up, Brady stuck her left hand up at the same time.

Pickens couldn't look. She had seen her "project" commit numerous fouls that season and she pretty much thought it was going to happen again. But as the buzzer sounded, there was not another sound to accompany it.

No official's whistle. Suddenly, Crescent City players began running furiously back toward Pickens and their Raider teammates. The coach turned back and realized that her seventh-grade "project" had just blocked Watson's shot cleanly, sending the tying shot away.

Players jumped on each other, but in one of the greatest celebration moments I have ever witnessed in all my years, LaToya Scott went sprawling to the floor, back on the ground ... creating make-believe snow angels.

Crescent City 37, Union County 35. District 6-3A champions.

Even Hollywood producers would have a hard time believing this stuff really happened. Seriously! This is the make-believe world, but in this case, it was real. The team that wasn't supposed to be playing was now about to claim a trophy it had not won in 22 years in the sport. The seniors got to collect the trophy from Matanzas' athletic director and proudly paraded it toward to the Raiders' rooting section where they got to cheer the spoils the team just picked up.

Holly Pickens was somewhere between proud and tears. I couldn't tell which. I reminded her that this championship would not have existed had she not taken the job. She answered back, "If all it took was returning as basketball coach, I would've done it long ago. I can't even express in words how I feel. I am so proud of the way the girls played their tails off."

And they had to. Every last point was going to matter in this battle of attrition between two defensive-minded teams that got sloppy, but gave the fans there that Saturday night a classic.

"I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I'd be holding this (the trophy)," Scott said near tears.

Scott finished with a team-high 15 points. Strickland ended up with 10. And as for Kayshia Brady, she didn't have a bad game either – seven points, three blocks and 20 rebounds. Yes ... 20 rebounds. That night, a star was born on that Matanzas court and the 13-year-old would continue to dominate in the sport, earning our paper's girls basketball player of the year honor two times, volleyball player of the year in the county three times and female track athlete of the year three more times. Brady went on to a stellar four-year college volleyball career at Florida Southern University in Lakeland. To this day, she and the great Christie Pearce Rampone are the two best female athletes I ever got to cover in my 30-plus years in the business.

The run the Raiders had in their season came to a quick end in the next game when they lost their state tournament opener at home to Newberry, 42-37, in a game they should have won if not for the 46 missed shots and 34 turnovers they committed that night.

The season ended with the Raiders going 13-5, their most successful in a generation. Not bad for a program that was about to be shut down that year. Pickens would go on to coach the Raiders for two more years before giving it up to her assistant coach, Steve Cummings. The program has made the state tournament as a district runner-up over the years, but has not won a district championship since that night nine years ago.

As for myself, I couldn't wait to get back to Daytona Beach to the hotel to type in the story on my new laptop that I gotten the previous October. It was all still fresh in my mind and I didn't want it to go stale. Ginny had ordered Chinese food from a place nearby and with the hotel room equipped with a stove and a microwave, I had the leftovers from what she had ordered that night, which was great since I had not eaten for hours.

The next day, we headed out to Disney World, enjoyed the day at Epcot and I took her home that night. It would be the last time I spent a day at Disney World. We listened to the Super Bowl on the way back into Putnam County that evening and by about 7:30, I had gotten her home and I was heading back from Orange Park to my place, but spent the last part of the game eating at the Palatka Beef O'Brady's near where I lived.

And the memory of that basketball game still lingers to this day. Whenever I hear about a program packing up for a year in Putnam County, I always hope it's not true. Because somewhere, there's a coach who can step in and make something amazing happen for a group of boys or girls hungry to do great things.

It did happen one winter. It happened in the most dramatic of ways.

The flick that ended Central's field hockey season ... and the aftermath

My first year of covering high school field hockey was the 1985 season. Dan Brennan, who had done the job in my first full year of working at the Observer, had left the previous January for the Star-Ledger and now the job was mine the next fall.

I learned a lot in that first year of covering the sport. I had some great coaches to learn about the sport, from Toms River East's Gail Halbfoster to Toms River South's Barbara Hughes to Point Pleasant Boro's Judy Goldstein to Toms River North's Becky Miller to Central Regional's Madeline Dutton.

They made my education quite a bit easier. And I got to go watch games during my off-time from work and school, like Friday, November 1, 1985 at Winding River Park across from Community Memorial Hospital when Toms River South hosted Point Boro and I took the family dog to the park just so she could get away from the house. For one moment that day I thought South's Toni-Marie Izzie wanted to take Andie (the dog) with her home.

I was ready for the postseason that year, which included that second annual Shore Conference Tournament, which South and Point Boro were playing a first-round match in, and the state tournament. Toms River North, led by sensational sophomore scoring machine Kim Bush, and a talented senior group that included Missy Bernacki and Val Trotman, were eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV tournament.

By Friday, November 15, 1985, the only team left in the state tournament from Ocean County was Central Regional. Coach Dutton's Golden Eagle was upperclassmen heavy and were doing well in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III Tournament. And they made it to the championship game on this day against a team with a top-notch reputation in the sport, Camden Catholic, coached by Chris Palladino and led by leading scorer Erica Richards.

The game was to be played at a neutral site, in this case Hightstown High School, which really was an unusual site for a final. Why, you may wonder? First, Hightstown High is technically a Central Jersey-based school, located in Mercer County. I guess field hockey compared to other sports and locations for games and teams for that matter was just "different." Of course, at a school I've never been to before, I had to get directions to the school the old-fashioned way ... by calling the Hightstown Police Department. They gave me what I thought was easy directions.

Then again for this just-turned 19-year-old mind, easy wasn't as easy as it sounded. I took Route 571 through western Ocean County up to Route 537 and onto I-195, the belt road across central New Jersey which had not been finished connecting into the Trenton area at that time. But I was to get off at the exit on Route 539 that led me into Hightstown. I knew there was a road that needed to be taken that would take me straight to the high school.

But finding the road was a challenge. The problem was I didn't have all afternoon to drive up and down every road. Turns out someone gave me the wrong road name at the police department and when I got into Hightstown, a local was able to lead me to a road called Leshin Lane. So back in the other direction I went until I saw the sign for Leshin Lane. Made a right turn and this long road led me to the high school.

So it existed. And I can see the teams warming up in the back on this clear, beautiful fall afternoon with temperatures in the mid 50s.

Dutton's charges were led by a talented senior class -- Kathy Laing, Barbara Lange, Sue Bondalich, Kerri Quinn and the ringleader of the senior players, center-forward Cory Golembeski, a very beautiful young lady with an outgoing and sometimes flirtatious personality. Dutton made her responsible for calling in Central Regional's wins and losses that season. She was a joy to take information from over the phone. She also came from a strong sports background since her dad, Gerry, was the athletic director at CRHS.

But the talent was even better in the junior class, starting with defenders Betty Hester and Mandy Dafeldecker and going to forwards Jackie George and Janet O'Rourke and goalkeeper Dawn Cosnoski.  The Golden Eagles were 15-4 and actually looked like the favorites to win the title compared to the 10-3-3 Irish, who were the defending SJ III champions.

In 1985, I didn't know many of the moms and dads of the Golden Eagles team, but one mom was very outgoing and friendly, a strawberry blonde named Jayne. She was Mandy Dafeldecker's mom and she had the personality to invite an entire room to a party even if she didn't know you. You easily can be attracted to that. You don't meet too many Jayne Dafeldeckers in the world. She brought her whole family to the game -- her husband Bob and her two other daughters, Amy, a freshman at CRHS, and Amber, a 10-year-old.

My job in covering field hockey was like that of covering soccer -- just walk up and down the field to cover the action from close range. Hey, it was worth the workout each and every time I covered a field hockey match (or soccer for that matter).

It was clear from the start that Central meant business. Six minutes into the match, they forced the issue and when Golembeski took a rebound off goalkeeper Liz Callahan and blasted an in-close shot past her, the Golden Eagles were on their way, up 1-0.

Today was going to be the day that Central was going to make history for the program. But slowly, the Irish were gaining momentum and at the 13:30 mark, they tied the match when Richards took a pass from Nancy Wright on the right wing and ripped a shot that Cosnoski had no chance of stopping. Simple textbook field hockey passing and scoring and it was 1-1.

And the Irish weren't finished with their assault. Not one bit. Moments after tying the match, they were heading down the field looking to flex their muscle. Somewhere in the circle, the ball got tangled under the feet of a Golden Eagle defender. No one ever really pointed out the Central player who got tangled up with the ball, but nonetheless, the official on the game put her arms up in a crossed position and I knew what that meant.

Central was in trouble for a kick that wasn't delivered by Cosnoski and a penalty flick was called. Palladino called upon Richards to calmly slip the ball into the back of the net and make it 2-1. Done deal. Camden Catholic was on its way to another SJ III title.

Someone forgot to tell Cosnoski that this was Camden Catholic's day, though. I can still see Richards pushing the ball to the right of Cosnoski and the goalie reacting with a right hand save away from trouble. Central fans and players celebrated the goalie's stop and the game remained tied at 1-all.

Turns out this was going to be a game of wild swings. One moment, Central was dominating, the next it was Camden Catholic and then again it was Central. The first half alone was exhausting with all the swings. And the last swing in the first 30 minutes belonged to the Golden Eagles. Central put pressure in Notre Dame's semi-circle and O'Rourke put a well-placed pass on the stick of George, who put it the ball past Callahan, making it 2-1 with eight minutes left in the first half.

That was how it would stay up until halftime. By the half, I was just minding my own business and counting up stats until I felt the back of my head assaulted -- a soccer ball hit me unexpectedly. When you don't expect those, they can hurt. I turned around to see who the culprit may be ... and there was this sheepish grin on the face of 10-year-old Amber Dafeldecker with a soft-spoken "Sorry," following it. The Dafeldeckers, turns out, were a true soccer family and if there was an open space, someone was kicking a ball around within the family.

I smiled back ... but man that hurt. The head is the part of your body you don't take lightly or for granted. It was hard to be forgiving for that moment, but ultimately, I did. Meanwhile, Central was just 30 minutes away from winning an SJ III title and moving on to the Group III semifinal.

The second half was a back-and-forth battle for control in the first 15 minutes. But at the midway part of the half, the Irish found the run that would tie the match up as Karen Walsh set up Wright for a short-range blast past Cosnoski.

And that was it for the second half. Neither team mustered a major threat to take the lead and so after 60 minutes of hockey, we were tied. And we were heading for overtime and the "golden goal" moment for either team. The next goal would win the SJ III title. Central came out of its huddle with Dutton fired up and ready to go. So did Camden Catholic. I had a feeling that with the way this game was playing out, it was going to be a perfectly placed and set up goal that would decide the championship. I was prepared for it.

Ten minutes of the first overtime and Central Regional attacked. And attacked. And attacked again. The Golden Eagles had nine -- yes, nine! -- penalty corner opportunities, including an insane seven in a row. You'd think one of these would end the game, right. Nope! Callahan and the defense was up to the task of knocking the ball away each time.

So we switched up sides and played another 10 minutes. If it was still tied after that 10-minute period, we were going to the dreaded one-on-one penalty shot session that no one, including myself, liked. But it was the way for advancement and so it was advisable to get this game done before that happened.

The second overtime was a little more even as both teams challenged back and forth. Then it happened -- just two minutes into that second extra session, the Golden Eagles were called for "intentional blocking" in their semi-circle with the Irish on the attack, which meant that someone trapped the ball under them and didn't allow the play to take place. It could have been Cosnoski or Hester or Dafeldecker. Who knows who got called for it, but nonetheless, it was called by the official on the field.

Suddenly, the Irish had another penalty flick to make. And Richards was called upon again to take the shot, even though she was stoned on the first attempt in regulation time by Cosnoski. But it's funny how these things work -- one moment, you miss on a great shot, and then the next moment, you put an absolute clunker on goal ... and get lucky.

Richards got lucky. It wasn't a great shot, but Cosnoski was expecting something waist-high like the last time. Richards hit a groundball that eluded the Central goalie and trickled into the net.

It was over. Camden Catholic players stormed the field. Central players came off stunned, some in tears. The Golden Eagles' season was over. I hated the fact that the game was decided on a call like that. Maybe the intentional blocking happened, maybe it didn't. But I didn't think the ball was blocked or kept away from play for that long personally. To this day, I thought it may have been too quick a whistle. You always try to let the teams play unless the call was that egregious and then you have to make that call.

Dutton, who I couldn't thank anymore for helping me throughout the season, would tell me afterward about the two penalty strokes in the game, "The first penalty shot was uncalled for. The second was a right call. It was a good game. It was just a shame that it had to be a referee's game. I wish it would have been decided by the girls playing the game."

I think her sentiment was agreed by all that played. But the way it was quoted -- that top part of the quote about the two penalty flicks -- was awkward. However, that was what I heard and I may have made the mistake of misquoting her.

All I knew was that I had to get back into Toms River and get to Toms River South for a Friday night football matchup between South and North that Friday night. It wasn't much of a football game as South decked North, 31-15, and the only "highlight" was a heated argument after the game between South coach Chip Labarca and North coach Jerry Clarey, Labarca pissed off because of some kind of film exchange snafu between the schools. It was all happening in front of me and then-Asbury Park Press writer Al Ditzel. The only person we were able to talk to was outstanding South tight end Dwayne King afterward. It was ugly that night.

Got back to the Observer building right there not far from South to type in both of my game stories for the day and leave since we didn't have a Saturday paper. The stories went into the paper and I didn't think anything of what I wrote.

Now it's Monday, November 18, 1985, and the last county field hockey team left playing, Toms River North, is hosting Shore Regional in the Shore Conference Tournament championship, which has been put on hold for the moment due to Shore's success in the state tournament. Shore was amazing year in and year out. It's halftime of this exciting match, which North would win, oh by the way, on penalty shot one-on-ones. That's a whole different story for a whole different time.

I got called over to the fence by a familiar voice. It was Cory Golembeski. So I walk over, say hi, and then get hit with this.

"You made our coach and team look like a bunch of assholes!" 

That was her way of telling me what her coach said was twisted and misquoted. All that aside, how did I make the team look like a bunch of assholes? I certainly wasn't trying to. I certainly would have apologized for it. As a matter of fact, her coach in my 14 years covering the sport at the paper never mentioned the quote because she would have. Trust me ... she would have.

And I hate to admit it, that would be the last time I played nice with Cory Golembeski since she practically walked away from me after that. I don't play that game -- you want to say something to me, let's talk it out. Don't walk the hell away. All this just floored me.

She made All-County and since I had to supervise the picture taking in the Observer office, she came in, we didn't say a word to each other, she left and that was it. We never saw or talked to one another again.

The end of Central's season was sad and maybe a little controversial. But it only made for motivation in 1986 when that group of Central juniors the year before, led by Cosnoski, Dafeldecker, George, Hester, O'Rourke and Jen Kleva, won the SJ III title, made an amazing comeback in the Group III semifinals against North Hunterdon down 2-0 in regulation time with mere minutes to go to tie it in regulation, then won it in overtime to get to the championship against Northern Highlands at Rider College, losing in the championship, 3-1.

Dutton won Coach of the Year honors for the 1986 season and numerous players made the All-County team that year.

But the 1985 season got things rolling for that '86 club. Central made it easy for my "education" in the sport. I couldn't help but thank Dutton for that.

It was an enjoyable first full season covering the sport in every way, shape and form.