Fencor 1989s

It seemed like just another stop on the AAU circuit as the 16-and-under team from upstate New York got ready for it’s game against a team called Fencor(from Penn). Popping onto the court was a team clad in warm-ups with the name Fencor on its back, a team that appeared more like the little sisters of their opponents, because they sure did not look anything like 16-years-olds. “ We were supposed to play a national championship team, and someone said they won the 12-and-unders last year, but that was impossible, because they wouldn’t play a 16-and-under team,” said the scorekeeper to one of the Fencor coaches. By early in the second half, the Fencor 13’s held a 42-9 lead before calling off the dogs. Beating girls who, off the court, could probably be their baby sitters is par for the course for a team aiming to stay on top. After coming in third as 10’s and fifth as 11’s Fencor won the AAU National Championship last July in Amarillo, Texas. Fencor did not romp the title. It grittily slogged through the losers’ bracket after an early loss to the Texas Express. Fencor won five games in 30 hours and beat Texas twice on the final day to win the championship. There were the obligatory newspaper articles on the girls in their hometown, and the team was even featured in a television commercial by a local car dealer. But with a new AAU season comes defending the championship. Like in any sport, when you are on top, everyone is looking to knock you off. Fencor is a member of the Middle Atlantic region, which includes Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and the state of Delaware. The last team before this one from the Middle Atlantic to win a National Championship was the Comets’ 12-years-olds in 1997. The coach of that team, Bill Dessart-Majer, remembers the following year very well. “Every game was a Super Bowl for the other team”, he says. “Every game was a war.” “It is so hard to win a National Championship, but no one can take it away from you.” Fencor started the new AAU season well, winning all four games in its own Fencor Invitational, with no game closer than 15 points, mostly against teams of 15 and 16-years-olds. A total of 57 players tried out for the team this year (Fencor actually fields a total of 22 teams in ages 9 to 18, and the 13’s were one of six different Fencor teams to go to AAU nationals in 2002), but only one new player cracked the roster, Deree Fooks of Camden, NJ, who had previously played for the Philadelphia Belles. Although the team still has its punishing practices two to three times a week and vigorous playing schedule, things are not exactly the same as last season. College coaches are starting to show an interest in the players, even though three of the team’s top players(6’4” shooting guard Elena Delle Donne, 6’ forward Rose Tarnowski and 5’11” guard Caroline Doty) are only in seventh Grade. When Cathy Rush’s Future Stars organization decided to hold an elite-only tournament for East Coast high school age AAU teams, an exception was made for Fencor to be in it. Another age exception was made for Fencor by Blue Chip to let them play in its big college showcase at Virginia Commonwealth University in mid-April. Fencor coach Keith Webster, who has guided the team since its members were 11, knows winning the title last year means no guarantees for this season. “The first practice we had the championship trophy there, and I told the kids to touch it because it was the last time they would see it,” says Webster, a veteran high school coach in the Philadelphia area. “ That was last year. We’re onto this year.” One advantage that Fencor has, Webster feels, is that while many successful young AAU teams backslide as time goes on because their players do not grow, that is not the case with Fencor, as in addition to Fooks and the three tall seventh graders, they also have 6’2” Megan Marcinkowski and 5’10” Shannon Ferguson. How Fencor does as the hunted instead of the hunter will be discovered July 22-31 at the 13-and-under AAU Nationals in Dayton, Ohio.