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 My Site News: Crowd cheers on, welcomes back state champions |
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Monday, March 26
Crowd cheers on, welcomes back state champions
By Josh Langenbacher, jlangenbacher@altoonamirror.com
It didn’t take long after becoming a state champion for Bishop Guilfoyle’s Mary Forr to get a dose of reality.
One of the first people she saw after stepping off the bus with a gold medal draped around her neck was biology teacher Rob Lanier.
“No biology test on Tuesday,” Forr joked.
It was a compromise Lanier seemed willing to make.
“I just might take her up on it,” Lanier said as he congratulated Dani Williams, Christine Conrad and Courtney Carroll, among others.
Lanier was one of an estimated 250 followers who awaited the team’s arrival at the school on Pleasant Valley boulevard.
Police and fire trucks escorted the team’s bus back, arriving shortly after 3:30 Saturday afternoon with gold medals around their necks and bouquets of flowers in their hand. First off the bus was Courtney Carroll, who held the 2007 PIAA Class A girls’ championship trophy and net waist-high.
“Hold it up,” Forr urged.
Nearly 90 minutes earlier, Forr and the rest of her teammates claimed the school’s fourth gold ball and coach Mark Moschella’s second with a 43-38 win over North Catholic.
Moschella was the last one off the bus, emerging about three minutes after Carroll. Moschella was greeted by his daughter, Nikki, and grandson, Trent, among other family and friends.
Moschella presented his grandson, who was sick the eve of the game, with a plastic orange basketball and purple-and-gold M&M’s.
After loitering outside, the Lady Marauders’ fans headed to the school cafeteria, discussing the team’s heart and imagining the team’s disappointment had they lost.
Athletic director Rick Hatch started the celebration around 3:50 p.m. by leading the audience in prayer, then opened with a one-liner.
“How could you lose to Delone Catholic?” Hatch quipped, referring to the team’s lone blemish on a 31-1 season.
The state champions sat in two rows before a background of a projection screen replaying the game and a large piece of yellow paper tracking the Class A girls’ bracket, and a foreground of parents, cheerleaders, the Dawg Pound and other fans.
Moschella was introduced to a standing ovation and spoke for three minutes before turning the microphone over to assistant coaches Bill Adams, Laura Frederick, Pat Callahan and Rich Consiglio.
Following the coaches, all six seniors — Mary Forr, Courtney Carroll, Ashley Helsel, Dani Williams, Heather Craig and Rachel Sullivan — spoke during the 40-minute reception. Christine Conrad and Alli Williams also addressed the crowd.
Forr, Carroll, Helsel and Williams all started, but Craig and Sullivan didn’t play much.
“In the game of basketball, if you look at any team, there’s only room for so many,” Moschella said. “There is no quit in this senior group, and Rachel and Heather are two good examples of that.”
Sullivan joined Bishop Guilfoyle in ninth grade.
“I love the sport, I love these girls, I love the tradition, I love everything about it,” she said.
Craig called her classmates “goofs” whom she’s been close to since elementary school.
“We have fun,” she said. “Winning is even better.”
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