2/15/2008 - Handicapping the Festival
Sparta girls basketball coach Fred Geffken has only received one technical foul in his illustrious career and he remembers it like it was yesterday.
“It was in the county tournament final in my first year of coaching,” said the Sussex County Hall-of-Famer. “There was about 30 seconds left and I thought there was a carry and it wasn’t called. So I said to the ref, “That was a carry,” and he turned and looked at me and said, “That’s enough, coach,” and he T’d me up. I couldn’t believe it. The ref was Mark Schulte and I really didn’t know him at the time. But that was my only T.”
It seems fitting that the only technical Geffken would get would come from another SUCO Hall-of-Famer in Schulte. But aside from the technical, things have gone pretty well for Geffken when it comes to the tournament, to say the least.
Geffken, the winningest basketball coach in Sussex County history (boys and girls) has guided the Spartans to 14 Sussex County Interscholastic League Festival titles since its inception in 1982, an impressive feat. But here is the amazing fact: The Spartans have advanced to the final every year since 1982.
That’s right. Ever since the tourney was recognized by the SCIL (the tournament was called the Sussex County Coaches Tournament prior to 1982 and was split into two divisions) a Geffken-led Sparta team has played for the title. The country has held six Presidential elections and fought two wars in Iraq in that time and the senior players on Geffken’s 1982 team are now in the in their mid 40s. Incredible.
“It is pretty neat,’ said the ever-humble Geffken, as classy as a man you will ever meet. “It is very difficult to do, especially when everyone is shooting for you. If someone knocks you off, it makes their season. That is a credit to all the kids who have played for me.
“I don’t think you will see this happen ever again,” added Geffken, who is 643-121 in 28 seasons with 19 SCIL regular-season crowns, 12 sectional titles and three state championships. “But honestly, this year, we haven’t even talked about it. We just want to play well every game and all we are worried about is playing well tonight (Friday) against Newton.”
During Sparta’s annual run to the Festival final, the Spartans were usually the best team in the league. But not every year and one particular championship sticks out in his mind.
Back in 2000, Hopatcong had the best starting five in the SCIL with 1,000-point scorers, guard Kat McPhail and center Jamie Douglas. The Chiefs also boasted a great point guard in Patricia Hughes and tough as nail forwards, Jen Hughes and Melissa Kern.
The Chiefs, who had beaten Sparta the year before in the final, were looking for a repeat and some revenge after they let the SCIL regular season title slip through their hands with a double-overtime setback to Sparta and an upset loss at High Point in consecutive games a couple of weeks earlier.
But the Spartans, led by Tara Dilworth, Adrienne Warner, Melissa Yeagley, Jenn Dillow and Olivia Keil, pulled off the win and won the season series against the Chiefs.
“My biggest challenge was getting them to believe they could play with Hopatcong,” said Geffken. “They had played that group from Hopatcong when they were in seventh and eighth grade and lost to them six times and most of them blowouts. Hopatcong had a great team but our kids really stepped up.”
Although they reached the final, it took the Spartans four years to finally win the title. They lost to Hopatcong, which was coached by Bob Wheeler, who had a great run with the Chiefs, in the first final in 1982. Wallkill and its SUCO Hall-of-Fame coach Greta Sencevicky won the next two titles before the Spartans went onto win the crown in 1985 as well as the 1985 Group 2 state championship.
Sencevicky, who also coached at old Franklin High School, was a pioneer in SCIL girls hoops, along with John Zamos, who coached Newton’s girls with Linda Cordes in the mid 1970s. Sencevicky, who went 209-145, led the first girls hoops team in Sussex County history into the state tournament.
Well, if the Spartans are going to continue their streak this year they will have their work cut out for them. The Spartans (11-8) are 11-6 in SCIL play, tied with Newton (13-8). They will square off tonight in Sparta and the winner will host the rematch in the opening round of the Festival Monday. The Spartans and Braves will be either the fourth or fifth seeds depending on tonight’s outcome.
High Point (18-2, 17-1 SCIL) is locked in at No. 1 after winning its first SCIL crown since 1980 and second in school history. The Wildcats are the defending Festival champs and have won two Festival crowns overall. Sparta, obviously, leads the way with 14 titles, followed by Jefferson with five (the last one coming in 2003), Hopatcong (1982, 1999) and Wallkill Valley (1983-84) with two, while Pope John (1999) has won one title.
The seeding for the tourney won’t be official until after tonight’s games. But here are the possible scenarios. After beating Pope John and High Point, red-hot Jefferson (14-6, 13-4) will be the No. 2 seed even if ties with Pope John (14-6, 12-5). Although the Falcons and Lions split, Jefferson owns a win over High Point, a higher seeded team, which is the next tiebreaker.
With PJ at No. 3, that leaves the Sparta-Newton battle for the No. 4 and No. 5 slots. Lenape Valley (9-13), fresh off its great win over Pope John is 7-10 in league play and still has Vernon tonight. Wallkill Valley (8-13) completed its SCIL slate and is 7-11, but even if Lenape loses, the Pats will still get the No. 6 seed by virtue of its season sweep of the Rangers, who will be the seventh seed.
Now it gets interesting. Vernon (5-15) and Kittatinny (4-15) are both 3-14 entering tonight. Vernon plays Lenape Valley and Kittatinny hosts Jefferson. If each team wins or if both teams lose, they are still tied. The teams split their regular season clashes and they each own two wins over Hopatcong. The final tiebreaker is a coin flip and I have been told on good authority that Vernon won the flip the other day.
No matter how it shakes out the girls tourney for the first time in years is pretty wide open. High Point is the favorite, but after a close call to a scrappy Wallkill club in overtime the other night and the loss to Jefferson, the Wildcats have come back to the pack a little bit. But my feeling is that the Wildcats are tourney-tested and will repeat.
The boys side is set, but the SCIL regular season crown is still undecided. Jefferson (18-3, 15-2) can wrap up its first crown since 2003 with a win tonight over Kittatinny. But if the Falcons lose and Pope John (17-4, 14-3) and Newton (19-3, 14-3) win, there will be a three-way tie for the league crown for the first time since Vernon, Hopatcong and Jefferson did it in 1983.
But even if the Falcons lose, they will be the top seed for the Festival by virtue of their season sweep over Newton. The Falcons split with PJ, but the next tiebreaker is wins over next highest seed and PJ and Newton split this year. So if all three teams win, it will be Jefferson, Pope John and Newton. Vernon (12-7, 12-5), which has won four out of the last Festival crowns and is the defending champ, is the fourth seed and red-hot Sparta (12-9, 10-7) is the fifth seed.
Kittatinny (10-10, 8-9), Wallkill Valley (7-14, 6-12) and Hopatcong (6-16, 4-13) round out the top eight.
Now if the girls tourney is wide open, I don’t know what to call the boys Festival. Any one of top five teams has a legitimate chance to win it all, while Kittatinny and Wallkill Valley are very dangerous and won’t be an easy out. Hopatcong, I feel, is just too young to make a serious run.
But the boys tourney has always been more wide open. Sparta has the most titles with nine, followed by Vernon and Newton with seven. Matt Ferguson of Vernon and John Davey of Newton always have their teams ready for the tourney, no matter what their seed.
Pope John and Jefferson have each won a title despite making numerous appearances in the final, while Lenape Valley won the first-ever Festival in 1982. The other interesting fact on the boys side is that every school has made it the final at least once with Wallkill Valley being the last team to join the party in 2006.
So it looks like we have a great week of hoops ahead this week, so get out there and enjoy it.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
|
