Undermanned Kennedy-Kenrick tops McDevitt

With all due respect, the motto of a wonderful military organization must be borrowed and altered.

The Few. The Proud. The Wolverines.

Not only does it rhyme with the real motto, it's extremely apropos.

As the final basketball season in school history winds down, Kennedy-Kenrick High, in Norristown, finds itself with 11 players. Before you start thinking that's not too bad a number, be informed: That's total. As in varsity and JV guys mixed together.

Poor grades and/or behavior issues claimed some. Injuries sidetracked others. A few more decided their time could be better spent elsewhere.

And then came last night.

In its third-to-last outing, K-K claimed a victory. And not the moral variety, either. A bona fide capital W, accompanied by stirred-up emotions, especially from coach Jack Flanagan.

After the Wolverines topped visiting Bishop McDevitt, 63-59, in a Catholic Blue contest witnessed by maybe 125 people, including K-K's 21 cheerleaders, the players and coaches came scrambling down the steps toward their locker room. Or maybe they didn't. Touch the steps, that is. They might have floated.

Inside, Flanagan roared at full volume, "Nobody gives you anything! But if you really want it, it's there for you!"

He then pointed to this guy, and that guy, and this guy, and kept saying, "You! . . . You! . . . You! . . . You! . . . It's about us! It always will be! We will always have this! A Catholic League win!"

There'll be two more chances for victory, both at home, Friday vs. Archbishop Wood and Sunday vs. Lansdale Catholic. But this might have been it, the school's final hoops triumph.

And there haven't been many in recent years, especially in league games. On Jan. 11, 2009, K-K beat McDevitt, 46-41, to snap a 42-game CL skid. In '06, on Jan. 17, they'd edged Archbishop Carroll, 49-48, to halt a 53-gamer. The Wolverines entered this one at 0-13 in Blue play and 4-14 overall.

"I guess this is the same feeling I had for football," said senior guard Cullen Rota, the school's top performer in both sports. "You want to go out and play well for everyone who's been a part of the program. To get a win tonight, you feel like you did it for your family, the students, your classmates, the graduates . . . It's a pretty emotional feeling."

Rota is one of four strictly-varsity players, along with fellow seniors John Candelore, Frank "Crazy Man" Giunta and Matt Brennan.

In this one, he contributed 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and four steals and found himself enjoying involvement in every big play down the stretch.

Often, his primary playmate was wing guard Brent Mahoney, a 6-foot, 145-pound freshman who for almost the past month has been the poster boy for serious double duty.

With rare exceptions, he has been going the distance in the JV and varsity games since K-K's first game vs. McDevitt on Jan. 13.

"When that JV game ended," Mahoney said, "coach Flanagan just said to me, 'You're starting the varsity game, too.' I was really surprised, but excited, too. I'm used to it now. It's a great experience, but it makes you pretty tired, too. I'm exhausted by the end of the varsity game."

Mahoney, a lefty, finished with 15 points and four steals. He nailed a trio of treys and his two free throws put K-K ahead for good, at 56-55, with 1:20 remaining.

"I was disappointed we didn't get the JV win," Mahoney said, "but this was nice."

When asked to describe what happens at home before he collapses, Mahoney said, "Drink a bottle of water, eat some dinner, lay on the couch . . . "

No homework, eh?

"I do that before the games," he said, laughing.

K-K suited seven players (as did McDevitt) for the JV contest, which it lost, 23-19. Yes, 23-19. As that one wound down, the Fab Four were off in a corner, loosening up. In the varsity game, Flanagan used Jamel Stinson, also a frosh and a JV stalwart, as the sixth man, while James Pavlos saw a little bit as the seventh man. (Candelore and Brennan fouled out.) Martin McCluskey and Nick Frangiosa cheered ferociously.

Brennan (13) also hit three treys. Stinson managed 10 points and nine rebounds. Giunta shot 4-for-7 for eight points while Candelore was fortunate enough to start an 11-point run that followed a weird circumstance.

With 2:38 left in the first half, the referees were finally informed by K-K's scorekeeper that the name and number of McDevitt sub Darren Wright did not appear in either scorebook. That's a tech. Candelore hit both free throws, three treys were added in bombs-away fashion, and Stinson converted a follow right before the buzzer. Down four to up seven. Crazy.

"We were all talking today in school," Rota said. "We all felt good about tonight. We came out ready to play."

Matt Conroy (21) and Gerald Scott (20) led McDevitt in scoring while Conroy (nine) and Drew Siegfried, football stars both, combined for 17 rebounds. Frosh Kenyatta Long managed nine points and three apiece of assists/steals.

Like many of K-K's underclassmen, Mahoney will be attending the new school, Pope John Paul II, set to open next September in Upper Providence Township. It'll draw mostly from K-K and St. Pius in Pottstown, but will not compete in the Catholic League. This is K-K's 17th school year. Its forerunner, Bishop Kenrick, which occupied the same building, was part of CL basketball for 30 seasons.

"There's a long legacy at this school," Rota said. "Not sure what'll happen, but we're going to go out and try to win these last two games."

Right now, they're the few, the proud, the winnin' Wolverines. *