Last local standing
Allentown Central Catholic may have toughest foe of them all
In one of the most famous sports movie lines of all-time, Tom Hanks, playing the irascible and often-inebriated manager Jimmy Dykes in “A League Of Their Own,” said: “There’s no crying in baseball.”
Maybe, but there is definitely crying in basketball when a season comes to an end, and the longer the season goes, the more emotional the end becomes.
The toughest locker rooms to visit are the ones when a team has just had its season end.
And, it’s not just the players who get emotional. Coaches, too, feel the pain because of how much time and energy is spent in a sport that has become, like most scholastic sports, a 12-month-peryear endeavor.
Allentown Central Catholic coach Dennis Csensits has had his share of difficult locker rooms, but he also had the experience of a lifetime two years ago in Hershey when his team won the PIAA Class 4A championship, ending a 35-year drought for Lehigh Valley teams.
Obviously, one of those closing scenes is preferable to the other, and there’s no doubt which scene Csensits would rather have as his team prepares for Monday night’s PIAA Class 4A semifinal against mighty Neumann-Goretti from the Philadelphia Catholic League. It’s a 7 p.m. tip at Pottstown.
No matter what happens, this one figures to be emotional.
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity,” Csensits said. “Our guys and our coaches have worked really hard to put ourselves in a position to play in the last week of the season and we’re looking forward to matching up with Neumann-Goretti. They’re a great basketball team. They are well-balanced. Robert Wright III is all-everything in the Philadelphia Catholic League but they have a lot of size and athleticism to go along with him. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ve been working hard to get our arms around these guys from a scouting standpoint. We’ll be ready to go.”
Csensits said this run has been a team effort, not only among the players, but also among the assistant coaches at ACCHS and the support staff. Steve Neikam, Csensits’ brother-in-law, and Kevin Keeler, were both head coaches. Dave Gehris and Brandon Lister have both been mainstays on the Vikings bench for several years.
“The continuity of our coaching and the quality of the coaches are a huge part of our success and probably more this year than any year,” Csensits said. “We really had to adjust who we are as a basketball team from style of play and each member of our staff has had huge input on how we play and kind of put their own signature on this team. It’s a great example to our players because these guys could all be head coaches in our league, but they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Our coaches sacrifice to make things work and that carries over to our players.”
There’s also teamwork within the ACCHS administration. Csensits is also the school’s athletic director and during the basketball season he said he relies a lot on Assistant Athletic Director Colleen Nosovitch, Equipment Manager Donnie Leauber and athletic department secretary Melissa Stahley, among others.
“We all work together to make it happen and while we’re still playing basketball, we’re also excited about the spring sports getting started,” Csensits said.
That’s why when it ends — whether it’s in the semifinals or with a gold medal presentation Thursday night in Hershey — it’s going to be emotional. Tears will likely flow when Csensits greets his team’s four seniors — Anthony Jones, Griffin Patridge, Alistar Stewart-Smith and Nico Pulieri — one last time.
“At this point of the season everyone in the program is tremendously invested,” Csensits said. “Everyone has sacrificed a lot to get the team to this point. We’ve been together now, day in and day out, for four months going back to mid-November. They’ve all worked tremendously hard. They’ve earned this opportunity and I think they are ready to make the most of it.”