St. Gabriel adds to school’s history with CYO title
The seventh and eighth grade boys basketball team from St. Gabriel Parish in Norwood recently claimed the CYO Region 30 championship.
Colin Schumm and Gavin Walls were the leaders as the Tigers defeated St. Thomas the Apostle (Chester Heights) to claim the Region 30 title for the first time since 2012.
St. Gabriel, which finished its season with a 20-4 record, claimed the program’s first archdiocesan tournament victory, advancing to the elite eight of that event before having its season come to an end.
Although the St. Gabriel School closed more than 10 years ago, the parish has maintained its football, basketball and track and field programs despite limited funds and no gym of its own. The boys and girls basketball teams have access to the gym at the Interboro School District Administration Building in Prospect Park on a limited basis.
Schumm, a center who was named to the Archdiocesan all-star team, and Walls were St. Gabriel’s leaders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots for the season. Among the other members of the Tigers’ championship team were Robert Forbes, DeShawn Johnson, Damon Sturlazzi, Justin Stevenson, Patrick Brennan, Ohfame Ijeboy and Noah Lamey.
Al Rolek is St. Gabriel’s head coach, and Jim DiBattista, who also is the school’s varsity football coach, is his assistant.
Students at Haverford High School staged a rally in support of tougher gun laws Friday, which was the anniversary of the 1999 school shootings at Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado.
Thoughts of the Columbine incident stirred up memories for Haverford’s varsity baseball coach Paul Bogosian. One of the Columbine students who survived the school shooting was a baseball player named Josh Lapp, who spoke on the television show Nightline hours after what had taken place that day.
Lapp was in the library when the shooting began and helped shield a young lady from seeing their fellow students being killed. When the two escaped the building, Lapp assisted in a make-shift triage on the school grounds and helped get transportation to the hospital for a wounded student.
Bogosian tracked Lapp’s family down, spoke to the young man, who was 16 at the time, and about six weeks later invited him to this area and brought him as a guest to the
All-Delco banquet. “(He) makes me proud to know him … and is a true hero,” Bogosian told his Facebook followers Friday.
Lapp, who is married and the father of two children, posted a reply to Bogosian’s message.
“Thanks, Paul. Crazy to think that I have lived longer with Columbine than I haven’t. Having you as a true friend has meant a lot to me. You’re one of a kind, and such a great person,” he wrote.
The Interboro boys and girls track teams held their fifth annual Litter Pick-Up Run last week.
As part of a practice activity, the athletes ran to the parks, playgrounds, and common areas in the communities of Glenolden, Norwood and Prospect Park and gathered 22 trash bags filled with litter that had accumulated in those areas.
The Interboro boys and girls cross country teams staged a similar activity during their fall season.
Interboro will be hosting the Delaware County Boys Track and Field Championships at the South Avenue Athletic Complex Thursday, May 3, and Saturday, May 5.
Those attending the meet are asked to bring canned and prepared food donations for Loaves and Fishes, a food bank in Prospect Park. In previous years, the average donation from this collection has been about 300 pounds of food.
The Sports Legends of Delaware County Museum on Iven Road in Radnor continues preparations for its June 2 dedication of a statue of Emlen Tunnell, the Radnor High graduate who saved two lives while serving with the Coast Guard during World War II, played for two NFL championship teams — the 1956 New York Giants and 1961 Green Bay Packers — and was the first African-American elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The statue will be located outside the Radnor Township Municipal Building on Iven Road.
Delaware County Council will hold its weekly public meeting at the Radnor Township Building at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 2. During the meeting, Council will recognize the Sports Legends Museum as well as the Emlen Tunnell Statue unveiling.
Jim Vankoski, Sports Legends Museum curator, has announced that former major league pitcher Bobby Shantz will be among those attending the Emlen Tunnell statue unveiling.
Shantz, a Pottstown native who was born in 1925, the same year as Tunnell, earned the Most Valuable Player award while pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952. He is the oldest living winner of the MVP award.
Tunnell made his NFL debut in 1948, while Shantz appeared in a major league game for the first time in 1949.
A pair of former basketball officials, who were among the top-rated refs in District 1 during their days in stripes, were on opposing sides at the recent Checking for Cancer lacrosse game between Agnes Irwin School and host Episcopal Academy.
Pat Ellers, former field hockey coach at Yeadon High School, was cheering for Agnes Irwin, where her granddaughter, Paige Crowther, is a freshman goalie.
Joe Lindsay, whose sons, Mark, an NBA official, and Joe, who worked one of Villanova’s NCAA Tournament games, following him into officiating, was following Episcopal Academy, where his granddaughter, Sarah Groark, also is a freshman player.