Artie LaGreca envisioned a small, fast team with a run and gun offense this season. Given Midwood’s personnel, the coach thought that would be for the best.
But when 6-foot-2 senior forward Jewel Tunstull transferred from L.C. Bird (Va.) HS, things changed.
“By getting Jewel, it’s given us a different look than I expected us to have,” LaGreca said.
Midwood will probably be more of a halfcourt team now with a game-changing power forward. Her presence certainly makes a ninth straight trip to the PSAL city quarterfinals a very real possibility, not to mention the potential of going further.
“Her ability is all around,” LaGreca said of the Northeastern-bound Tunstull. “She does a lot of things. She’s not a one-dimensional post player. … For the one season we have her, we expect good things. She knows her role is going to be a scoring center.”
The Hornets graduated guard Victoria Story and forwards Jessica Previlon and Dawn Akingba, but two starters – seniors Gisell Peguero and Beranda Felder – return. LaGreca will rely on both of them, and they improved over the summer, he said.
Peguero will once again be the team’s starting point guard. She’s coming off a summer in which she blew up with Team Mike Moore. She drew raves from Murry Bergtraum coach Ed Grezinsky after a scrimmage Thursday night in Manhattan.
“She’s become an outstanding point guard,” LaGreca said of Peguero, who is getting looked at by C.W. Post and Adelphi, among other Division II schools. “She exudes confidence now when I watch her play. She’s being under-recruited. A lot more people better start looking at her.”
Felder, a bruising, 5-foot-10 forward, is Midwood’s blue-collar girl inside. She does all the dirty work, is a great rebounder and always draws the opposing team’s best post player on defense.
“No one on the court works harder than her,” LaGreca said. “She gets more out of her talent than anyone.”
Peguero and Felder will also have the responsibility of being leaders. They have taken on that that job seamlessly; Peguero is on the quiet side, Felder is the vocal one.
“If all of us are tired, she’ll be like, ‘Keep going hard,’” Peguero said of Felder. “She’s our horse.”
LaGreca said he’s been filling out the rest of the starting lineup with senior guards Brittney McFadden and Victoria Fleisher in scrimmages, but that could change. Both came off the bench last year and the coach expects them to play valuable minutes in 2009-10.
Also in the rotation will be 5-foot-10 junior forward Francess Henry, senior guard Yashika Morales, sophomore guard Kerslyn Fenelus, senior guard Christina Jean and 5-foot-8 freshman guard Monet Keane-Dawes, a “promising freshman,” LaGreca said.
“When you come back, you have to be better than you were last year,” Felder said. “Our bench has to be strong, too.”
LaGreca hasn’t discussed tangible goals with his players yet, but he thinks the quarterfinals are an attainable goal. He has laid down a gauntlet for his girls, too — a tough non-league schedule that includes North Babylon, Mary Louis, Archbishop Molloy, JFK (N.J.) and Manhattan Center.
Midwood has never been to the PSAL city championship game. Could the Hornets get there this year? LaGreca, nor his players, are thinking that far ahead.
“We’ve never been to the Garden, but I don’t think that should define my team,” LaGreca said. “Every year we always get better as the season goes on.”
That, for now, will be the lone goal.