‘Playing for Joey’: A Bucks County community used basketball to help one of its own

Joe Monaghan Sr. describes it as “hitting like a ton of bricks.”

Not the news that his son, Joey Jr., developed a rare and extremely aggressive form of cancer in his back, but just how fast the metastatic sarcoma had reached the stage four level.

“We were just not prepared for the news. It blew us away,” Monaghan said. “We thought it was a kidney stone. I had kidney stones, so I assumed it was the same thing, but we never knew or would’ve ever guessed it was this.”

But on this day, when talking about Joey, a former high school basketball player from Pennsbury who went on to play college ball at Marywood University, and ultimately landed his “dream job” in the Sixers ticket office, Monaghan wasn’t getting many words out that didn’t arrive alongside a stream of tears.

In part, because his son was preparing for his second round of chemotherapy on the same day the Pennsbury basketball community rallied in the creation of a one-day basketball clinic and fundraiser at Pennsbury Racquet Club called “Playing for Joey.”

Everyone knows Frank Sciolla.

Not just in the Pennsbury community, but within Philly basketball circles. The work he has done with the Pennsbury boys’ and girls’ team and before that as the head boys coach at Conwell-Egan has made him a trusted resource when it comes to area hoops — and a path to playing in college.

However, all of that arrives with the constant messages from parents, players, and others wanting to pick his brain on what it takes to get to the next level. His bona fide proof of knowing exactly what it would take would be his daughter, Ava Sciolla.

Last season, Ava was named the best Class 6A girls basketball player in the state by the Pennsylvania Sportswriters Association and signed to play at Maryland.

Life, mainly Ava’s and the preparation of her first year with the Terrapins, made little time for extracurricular activities like social media for Frank. But that was OK, as he’ll tell you it was a much-needed break coming off a frenetic season with the Falcons girls’ run to a third Suburban One League title.

“So I swore off social media coming out of the end of the basketball season,” said Sciolla. “[During] the last live recruiting period, I get a lot of direct messages from parents and it was getting overwhelming. When I logged back on Facebook, the very first thing I saw is that [Joey] had been diagnosed with cancer. I had literally just [seen] Joey playing and coaching about a month ago.”

It became an immediate call to action for a fallen member of his community.

“I’ve known Joey since he was a little kid from watching the play, even though I wasn’t coaching the Pennsbury boys at the time — I was coaching at Egan. I knew his mother from CYO [leagues] or church events. I knew Joey’s older sister, she had played basketball with Ava. Joey and his family are fantastic members of our community, so our first thought was, how can we motivate them? How can we pull them up?”

Through a hybrid of her social media handles and her father’s contacts, the Sciollas created “Playing for Joey,” a one-day skills camp run by both Frank and Ava.

But it wasn’t just Ava and Frank who chipped in with programming.

The Sixers learned of what the Sciollas were doing for their colleague and offered up their spirit team, drum corps, and mascot Franklin, to attend the event.

And then the donations. Even before the camp, Ava noted that the “support for Joey and his family had been tremendous.” Marywood University started a fundraiser selling T-shirts that read: “Your Fight is Our Fight.” The Sixers offered a donation. Falcons Elite, the premier boys’ basketball league for Pennsbury, had a fundraiser via Venmo.

Two hundred fifty-five people attended the pay-what-you-can event with the proceeds all aimed to help Joey’s fight. By the end, the event raised over $40,000 for the Monaghan family.

“This is the type of thing Joey Monaghan would do,” said Frank Sciolla. “This is one of these universally high energy positive, well-liked young men who always takes time for other people. Our community really stepped up to help.

Added Ava: “This was a no-brainer for me. I wanted to help as soon as I learned about what Joey and his family were going through. He’s not only a member of our community but of our basketball community and it’s a really tight group. This was important to our family to do what we can and I’m overwhelmed at the number of people who felt the exact same way.”

» READ MORE: Pennsbury guard Ava Sciolla, a coach’s daughter, is prepared to put in the work at Maryland

Joe Monaghan just wants Joey to tell the truth.

Move the meter above a three or a four when the doctor asks about pain. Tell the nurses exactly what’s needed.

On this, a continued fight for full remission, he begs Joey to be as forthcoming as possible. In part, because Joe will never forget just how scary things were when his son initially went in for testing.

“They did a scan on his body and it showed some fluid in one [side] of his lung,” Monaghan recalls. “Within three or four days, by his next scan, his lungs were almost full. At that point, they pumped out 3.8 liters of fluid from his lung. But he’d never tell anyone how bad it got or how he felt. He’d tell doctors his pain was at like a three or a four, I’d say ‘dude, come on I know you, you’re at like an eight.’ But that’s just the kind of kid he is, he doesn’t want to be a burden on [anyone].”

Right now, the Monaghans are back to being Joey’s caretakers. They keep a copious logbook to figure out where he’s at each day. They assist in monitoring his medication. Changing bed sheets, whatever he needs.

Whatever it’s going to take.

It’s been about a week since Joey Monaghan underwent his second round of chemotherapy at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It was a series his mother, Sue Curran Duffy, described on her Facebook page as “heavy infusions of chemotherapy for three consecutive days.”

He’s preparing for a third round amid constant check-ins from members of the community who check in on his progress and litter Curran Duffy’s social media with comments of praise, love, and support.

“He loves his support and is appreciative that so many people care about what he’s going through,” Joe Monaghan said of his son. “He cried when he saw [Ava’s] video. He knows he’s got people in his corner rooting for him to beat this. He doesn’t want to let them down. Again, that’s Joe. I don’t know if it’s the Irish in him or what, but this kid’s a fighter.”