Fencor 1989s

6-4 Del. teen is a magnet for college scouts, coaches Keith Prince kprince@thenewsstar.com July 20, 2004 The future of women's basketball arrived in Monroe five days ago and it's in the person of an attractive and polite 14-year-old girl. This young girl, however, stands almost 6-5, shoots 3-pointers with ease, sees the floor like a college veteran, dribbles easily with either hand and is like a coach on the floor for her 14-and-under Pennsylvania AAU team, Fencor. Elena DelleDonne's reputation already precedes her at each new juncture, and college recruiters are lining up daily to see her - and hoping that she sees them. DelleDonne has been an AAU star since the age of 10, leading her team to four straight top five national finishes - including the AAU national championship at the age of 12 and a runner-up slot last year. A resident of Centerville, Del., she also led her Ursuline Academy high school team to the Delaware state championship last year, averaging 20.2 points per game and making all-state. She arrived in Monroe direct from St. Louis where last week she became only the second eighth grader ever invited to the prestigious Nike All-America Camp that features the top 80 teenage players in the country. On Monday, playing approximately half the game, she scored 30 points with a dozen rebounds as Fencor finished pool play undefeated and now heads into the national title hunt this afternoon. Asked about her Nike Camp experience, DelleDonne said, "It was great. It gave me a chance to see what is out there, what the talent level is like around the country. I have heard about a lot of girls and now I have gotten to compete with them." Even though she was playing primarily against 17-year-olds in camp, DelleDonne definitely held her own. Her only assessment was, "I could see how I stack up with the best and I could evaluate the areas where I need to improve. It was a positive experience. "The main thing I need is to become more physical. I am lifting weights with my dad, (and has for the past three years) and am getting stronger," she said. DelleDonne's AAU coach, Veronica Algeo, has been involved with basketball as either a player or coach for the past 20 years. This is her first year coaching "the big girl from Delaware," as DelleDonne is known throughout the country, and Alego gushes with praise. "First, you see the physical skills - dribbling, ball handling, shooting, rebounding," Alego said. "But it is also the intangibles she brings - the leadership, the court awareness, the maturity, and the concern for her teammates. "I have never seen anyone - boy or girl - with the total package that Elena possesses. "And, she is so unselfish. She is very concerned about doing interviews and bringing attention to herself. She has absolutely no ego and her teammates realize that and they take great pleasure in her success," said the coach. Teammate Colleen Magarity verified those sentiments. "The great thing about Elena is that she is so talented, but acts just like everybody else," she said. "In fact, when she knows there is an article out there about her, she won't tell us." Former Louisiana-Monroe coach Linda Harper, who guided the Lady Indians to the Final Four in 1985 and has led several AAU girls teams to high national finishes, got her first glimpse of DelleDonne on Monday morning. "She is definitely the real deal," Harper said. "I can't say that I have ever seen a girl with more skills at this age. I can see why colleges are excited. "If I were still in the business, I would be there watching, too - from the front row, with a banner that showed the name of my college," she said with a laugh. ©The News-Star July 20, 2004

Pennsylvania team takes home AAU title Keith Prince kprince@thenewsstar.com July 23, 2004 When Fencor defeated Kenner 71-61 Thursday afternoon at Fant-Ewing Coliseum, it did more than decide the 14-and-under AAU girls' basketball national championship. It also put an end to an incredible week of basketball in the Twin Cities that featured 100 teams and more than 1,000 girls from every section of the country. To win the championship, its second age-group title in the past three years, Fencor - based in Fort Washington, Pa. - won 10 games in six days. Championship day was the most grueling of all for the teams that made it into the "Final Four." A pair of semifinal games were played at 8:30 a.m. Fencor was forced into overtime to defeat the Tulsa Swoosh 79-75, and that game didn't end until 10:15 a.m. - meaning the eventual champs had less than two hours of rest before the last game. "We wouldn't have cared if they told us to play immediately," said 6-foot-4 Fencor star Elena DelleDonne who scored 44 points and 25 points in Thursday's wins. "We were really energized after the morning win, but when the last game started my legs felt like lead. I didn't care, though, because it was for the championship and we were going to give it our all," added DelleDonne. Fencor led throughout the first half before Kenner came back to take a five-point lead, 42-37, with 10 minutes left in the game. Fencor coach Veronica Algeo said, "We've talked a lot about being able to emotionally handle the ebb and flow of a game. Our girls did that today, and it paid off down the stretch." After trailing by 5 points, Fencor scored 7 straight points and never relinquished the lead again over the final eight minutes. Local volunteer Linda Harper, who served as tournament coordinator, provided some astounding figures after the championship game. "During the six-day tournament, we played a total of 337 basketball games," she said. "We played in 18 gyms and we used three officials (referees) in each game along with three individuals handling game management duties (clock operator, scorekeeper and shot clock operator). "That figures out to a total of 2,022 individuals required to run those 337 games," she remarked. Harper added, "When you start thinking about meals, motel rooms, rent cars, gasoline, retail stores and other facets of putting on this type project, it is truly mind-boggling." No figures are yet available concerning the economic impact of the AAU project, but it is expected to be in the millions. ©The News-Star July 23, 2004

July 23, 2004 The Fairfax Stars, the 2003 13-and-under girls national champions, defeated Tulsa Swoosh 71-65 to finished third in the 2004 14-and-under girls national tournament. "We were tired," Fairfax coach Aggie McCormick-Dix said afterwards. "Playing two games a day at the level of play we have played throughout this tournament, we're really didn't have too much in our legs." Four teams tied for fifth place in the tournament: Southwest-Express, Florida-FBVA Orlando Comets Red, Arkansas-Mavericks, Michigan-Oakland Suns. -------------------------------------------------------------------- MA-Fencor 79, OK-Tulsa Swoosh 75 (OT) Elena DelleDonne scored a game-high 45 points to lead her Middle Atlantic Fencor (Pa.) team to a semifinal victory over the Tulsa Swoosh on Thursday. Fencor led the game by six at halftime, only to see Tulsa take the lead at 63-61 with 11.5 seconds left. Lindsay Kimmell of Fencor tied the game at 63-63 with a second left. DelleDonne finished 13-of-16 from the field. ------------------------------------------------------------------- SO/LA Kenner Angels 55, PV-Fairfax Stars 50 The Kenner Angels were down early, but came back to take a semifinal win against the Potomac Valley-Fairfax Stars. Fairfax controlled the game early with a 19-6 lead, before Kenner went on a 23-0 run to lead 39-19 at halftime. Adrienne Johnson led Kenner with 13 points. Dominique Stroman had 12 points for Fairfax. ©The News-Star July 23, 2004

DelleDonne family seems prepared for the future Keith Prince kprince@thenewsstar.com July 20, 2004 Upon learning about Elena DelleDonne - the 6-4 dynamo from Delaware who is already considered one of the nation's top prep basketball prospects at age 14 - my first thoughts turned to her parents. Elena and her folks, Ernest and Joan DelleDonne, are here this week with her AAU team, Fencor, attempting to win the 14-and-under national title. As a parent, I wondered how Ernie and Joan are dealing with the fact that their daughter is suddenly living in a "celebrity whirlwind" and will quite likely be there from now on. From all indications, she will possibly be the nation's most highly recruited player in the next several years. How has this dynamic changed their family's life? What can her parents do to help Elena the most? And, truthfully, will they be a help or hindrance in this entire process? Ernest and Joan DelleDonne talked about their unique situation Monday morning at Fant-Ewing Coliseum prior to Fencor's pool-play game. "First, it is true a lot of things are happening quickly to Elena," said her father. "We believe one of our biggest responsibilities is to warn her of the pitfalls that are out there. "But I can tell you we haven't changed as a family - and Elena hasn't changed as a person. The main way she combats all the attention is to focus on her own game. Her goal every day is to improve." Ernest DelleDonne also feels that his wife plays a huge role in keeping things moving smoothly at home. "Joan is remarkable. I don't see how she does all that she does to help all three of our children," he said. "She keeps everything normal for everything and at our home 'normal' means many different things." Added Joan: "Our world doesn't center around just Elena. It can't. And she would never want it that way. "However, I can tell you that her basketball career has already been a great joy ride for all of us." Elena's older brother, Gene, is an outstanding quarterback and has already committed to Duke as he heads into his senior season at Salesianum High School. Also, however, Elena's 20-year-old sister, Elizabeth, who was born deaf and blind and also has cerebral palsy, provides a true leveling agent for the DelleDonne family. "Elizabeth is my inspiration," Elena said. "She is what keeps me grounded. When I see the struggles she has every day, there is no way I can get overly impressed with anything I do in basketball." As with many girls who get involved in sports, her dad was her first big influence in that area. "We spent a lot of time together playing basketball when I was young. He got me involved in YWCA basketball at 5 and I loved it from the start. "My dad is still there when I want to work on something special and we still lift weighs together," she said of her 6-6 father, who also played college basketball. "Mom is the one who is always there to talk to. She can lift my spirits if there is a problem, but also keep me on an even keel at the right time." As for his daughter's phenomenal progress, Ernest said, "AAU has played a tremendous role in her basketball. I definitely put it ahead of high school basketball from a developmental standpoint. "In high school, you may face two or three good players in a game. In AAU, especially when you get on the national level, the talent pool is much better throughout a team's lineup," he said. Also, the fact that Fencor's team is playing together as a group for the fifth year helps tremendously. "I came home from the Nike Camp with a much greater respect for our AAU team," said Ernest DelleDonne. "Our girls play together so well and all nine of them are talented." Elena DelleDonne said her team "is like a group of sisters. We enjoy each other and do a lot of things together. We all support each other totally. "I wouldn't want to be going through this without them," she said. Despite the growing attention, it appears Elena DelleDonne and her family are well prepared to pass the "whirlwind test" they face over the next four years. Keith Prince is a staff writer for The News-Star. Contact him at 362-0235 or at P.O. Box 1502, Monroe, La. 71210. ©The News-Star July 20, 2004

DelleDonne's reputation is growing 'Big girl from Delaware' building an imposing reputation By DOUG LESMERISES Staff reporter 07/11/2004 If you follow girls basketball, or high school athletics or sports of any kind in Delaware, you probably have heard of Elena DelleDonne. You might know that she will be a freshman at Ursuline Academy this fall and that as an eighth-grader she averaged 20.2 points per game, made first team All-State and helped lead the Raiders to the state title. You might know that she is 6-foot-3 and plays like a guard and that she's just 14 years old. You should know that she's very, very good at basketball. You might not know just how good. Anyone in the country who pays serious attention to girls basketball knows Elena DelleDonne, too. And they've never really seen anyone like her. The "big girl from Delaware," they call her. Her home state packed gyms and offered cheers during her first high school season, but without a broader context, differentiating between a great player in a small state and a burgeoning phenom was difficult to do. That process will be clarified this week, when DelleDonne joins 79 other top high school players in the prestigious Nike All-America Camp at St. Louis. She is just the second eighth-grader in the eight-year history of the camp to earn an invitation. The other was Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood, who committed to play at Tennessee before her freshman year of high school and will finally suit up for the Lady Vols this season. Asked if DelleDonne is really one of the best 80 high school players in the nation though she hasn't reached ninth grade, Mary Thompson, director of girls basketball for Nike, laughed at the silly question. Asked if DelleDonne is the best 14-year-old girls basketball player in America, Thompson said, "Absolutely." Accolades for the next ... Ask around, and DelleDonne draws comparisons to LeBron James, who just finished his rookie year in the NBA after a career as the most famous high school basketball player ever. To Michelle Wie, the 14-year-old golfer from Hawaii who has been playing in professional events with men and women. To Diana Taurasi, the recent University of Connecticut graduate considered to be one of the best players in the history of women's college basketball. Yes, DelleDonne has four years of high school basketball remaining. But Duke, North Carolina and Maryland have offered her full basketball scholarships. And all anyone can go on is what they see now. "She is as good a player as I've seen at that age," said Lou Kern, a former women's basketball coach at Fordham University who has been involved in the game for 32 years and is running the AAU tournament in which DelleDonne's team is playing this weekend. "I have not seen a better one. And I saw a lot of players, some of which went on to the WNBA." Included in Kern's list is Chamique Holdsclaw, the former Tennessee star and current WNBA player some have called the female Michael Jordan, and Sue Bird, the former UConn point guard who was the No. 1 pick in the 2002 WNBA draft. "Holdsclaw, when she was in eighth grade, she was 6-1 with nowhere near the overall skills," Kern said. "She wasn't as complete a player as this one. And Sue Bird was a true point guard, but she wasn't nearly as skilled." DelleDonne is squeezing the Nike camp into her busy schedule, and she's proud to say she'll miss only one practice with her 14-and-under AAU team, Fencor, because of the camp. Fencor, based in Fort Washington, Pa., is playing at Kern's Future Stars College Showcase this weekend in New York. DelleDonne will return this evening, fly to St. Louis on Monday morning, attend the Nike camp, then meet her Fencor teammates in Louisiana for the AAU Nationals next weekend. Starting when she was 10, DelleDonne's AAU teams have finished third, fifth, first and second in their age group at nationals. That helps make your name. "Across the country, everyone knows who Elena is," said Aggie McCormick-Dix, coach of the Fairfax (Va.) Stars, the team that beat Fencor in the AAU Nationals championship game last year. "She's the best eighth-grader in the country. I probably have the second-best. But what's so amazing about her is her understanding of the game." That understanding of the game and of herself is why Nike invited a 14-year-old. College coaches can make suggestions, and DelleDonne said the North Carolina staff put in a good word. AAU Nationals are the norm now, but this is DelleDonne's first national exposure on her own. There will be players there old enough to have babysat for her, which is why she'll stay in a hotel with her parents instead of a dorm with the other players. "Her maturity level said a lot for her being invited, not just her basketball ability," Nike's Thompson said. "She is going to go on and do great things. I saw her at AAU Nationals last year, and she made her first six 3-pointers. And she's a big kid. You would compare her to the next Taurasi sort of thing. Taurasi stood out when she was young, but not quite this young." DelleDonne expects that a few of the other players can't wait, either, eager to test the "big girl from Delaware." "I'm sure they'll want to give it to me, but that's fine," DelleDonne said. "I know they're going to be really strong and all, but I think I can hang with them skills-wise. I'm not really nervous. I've been waiting so long, I can't wait to go." The Olympic dream And no one can wait for what she'll do next. Bill McDonough, who runs several AAU tournaments as the owner of Blue Chip Basketball and coaches a Philadelphia AAU team called the Rebels, said DelleDonne will become the next Olympian from this area. He's talking about her making the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, after her senior year in high school. "She's the finest player at that age, male or female, that I've ever seen," he said. "She's three years advanced for her age. And a 6-3 woman is like a 6-9 man in basketball, and you don't see 6-9 players play on the perimeter like she does." Told of all the players with whom she has been compared, DelleDonne was flattered and further motivated, knowing that her work in the gym is paying off. Told of the suggestion of the Olympics in four years, she concurred. "That's one of my biggest goals," she said. "I'd love to be in that." She is setting a goal; the rest of us are getting ahead of ourselves. The current Sports Illustrated includes a "Where Are They Now" section featuring the seven players the magazine in 1986 deemed to be the best boys basketball players in their respective grades, from 12th through sixth. The 11th-grader was future NBA All-Star Alonzo Mourning. The senior and sophomore made the NBA. But none of the top players from ninth through sixth grade played in the pros, and only one even played at a four-year college. But the predictions of amazing things for DelleDonne are based on what she has done so far. Her size sets her apart. Her dribbling and passing skills would be exceptional for a player eight inches shorter. She can score inside, on 12-foot jumpers and from behind the 3-point line. Watching her older brother, Gene, a Salesianum School quarterback who will play football at Duke in 2005, she has a firm grasp on life as a well-known high school athlete. And then there is the way her Fencor coach, Veronica Algeo, rubs her hands over her face and grasps for the right words to describe this player. "She really is everything you would ever wish a player to be," said Algeo, who played college basketball at Ursinus College and is a high school coach. "It's going to be a LeBron James kind of thing. I've never seen anything like it. This girl has got it all. We're not just talking about averaging 40 points per game - it's more than that. "Her work ethic is beyond anything I've ever seen. And her leadership ... it's hard to get NBA players to understand the leadership concept, and to see a 14-year-old kid do it, it's amazing." Welcome to the camp The four-day Nike camp includes morning classes on things like manners, anger management, team-building and NCAA rules. Several guest speakers are planned. But the players are there for the two games a day and the chance to mix it up with the best competition in the country. For DelleDonne, who said she doesn't personally know any of the other players who will be at the camp, it will serve as an introduction. The big girl from Delaware will get a chance to show what she can do. We know that she's very, very good. Reach Doug Lesmerises at dlesmerises@delawareonline.com.