Leshauna Phinazee is a year older and one of the Knights’ leaders. (Damion Reid)
If you were watching girls basketball practice at John F. Kennedy on Wednesday, you might have thought you wandered into the wrong gym. Those were the Knights alright, but something was weird – they were practicing offense, layup drills, shooting drills and more. For more than an hour.
For 12 years, Kennedy coach O’Neil Glenn has made defense his hallmark. The Knights have lived by it or died by it. And two trips to the PSAL Class AA city championship game at Madison Square Garden in three seasons means he’s been more than successful.
But this year’s team could be different. Defense is still No. 1, but Kennedy might actually be able to put points up consistently.
“I think we’re going to be a much better scoring team,” Glenn said.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want point totals in the 30s. Kennedy will just be able to win games in different ways now. Eight regulars return from a team that fell to Bergtraum at the Garden and new faces like Dmitria Abbott, who missed the entire 2009-10 season with a torn ACL, and JV callup Joya McFarland give the Knights more scoring punch.
“We can accomplish big things,” junior forward Sarah (Bama) Vann said. “Maybe more than anybody’s expecting. Right now we’re kind of under the radar – the same as last year. But we’re determined to fight through that and not listen to what anybody has to stay.”
She’ll be one of the most important returners. Already a beast inside, Vann is bigger, stronger and has added range on her jump shot. Junior forward LeShauna Phinazee is cerebral and not afraid to bang around down low with bigger girls, qualities that Glenn loves. Senior point guard Shaquaya Daniels was money in the postseason and has only improved and junior wing Chelsea Custodio is 5-foot-10 and can shoot out to 17 feet.
“This is probably my deepest team ever,” Glenn said.
Junior forward Robin Daley is going to see important time down low, Abbott is an athletic 5-foot-9 with 3-point range and McFarland is a pure scorer with a solid jump shot. Kennedy will be even more dangerous once senior sharpshooter Isis Alonso returns to the team after dealing with personal issues.
Glenn is also hoping Deaisia Acklin realizes the potential she showed last year when she was the team’s most valuable player at the Garden. Then there’s 6-foot newcomer Cherokee Stewart and 5-foot-9 athletic sophomore Zakiya Mason, a transfer from Bryant and the younger sister of Bishop Ford star Diani Mason.
All the returning players have certainly benefited from that run to the city championship game, too.
“It’s an experience, but we want to win it,” Phinazee said. “It’s not fun if you don’t win.”
Kennedy will be put to the test right away. On Nov. 27, the Knights meet CHSAA powerhouse Nazareth at the Rucker girls basketball event at South Shore and a day later they meet St. Peter’s.
“It’s to see where we’re at,” Glenn said. “We have a nice nucleus coming back. It’s to see how much better they have gotten.”
The coach feels his team is a legitimate title contender. Murry Bergtraum has won 13 straight PSAL city championships and the Lady Blazers are always the team to beat. Can Kennedy be the team to end the streak? Glenn said he doesn’t know, but that’s what he wants.
“Every year I go into the season looking to win, looking to be a champion,” he said. “If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be coaching.”
The one issue might be how the newer players respond to Glenn and his defensively intense system. When they mess up, he lets them know it – loudly. He says they’re “having a hard time” adjusting. Luckily, there are veterans around who can explain things.
“If he wants to yell, let him yell,” Vann said. “Just do it the way he wants you to do it. He knows what he’s talking about. If we do what he tells us to do, it definitely works. I know a lot of girls are not used to him screaming, yelling. They think he’s coming at them. He’s really not. He’s letting them know this is the way it really works. And it really works.”
Kennedy is deep, experience and primed to be one of the PSAL’s elite teams again. Glenn, not prone to positive hyperbole, is actually pleased at where the Knights are at right now. OK, maybe that’s going too far.
“Am I ever happy?” he snorted. “Seriously?”