Tom Mugavero of The Express-Times and lehighvalleylive.com has been covering and researching scholastic girls basketball in the region since 1987. Here is his all-decade girls basketball team for the 2000s along with a 10-player first team, an honorable mention list, coach of the decade and scoring leaders for each season of the decade.
Eligible players and coaches, by Mugavero’s rules, are from schools in Hunterdon and Warren counties in New Jersey and Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties, plus Palisades High School in Bucks County, in Pennsylvania.
Allentown Central Catholic dominated this decade as coach Mike Kopp passed Pine Grove’s Ron Rhen for the most girls basketball coaching victories in District 11 with his 675th win. Kopp then passed Pittsburgh North Catholic’s Don Barth for most victories in PIAA history with his 789th.
In the first season of the next decade Kopp became Pennsylvania’s all-time leader, boys and girls, with his 802nd win. He is 914-202 in 38 seasons at Notre Dame Green Pond and Central Catholic entering the 2014-15 season.
On Tuesday, Kopp was named the National High School Coaches Association Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
From 2001-04, Central won an unprecedented four straight PIAA Class AAA state championships and reached another state title game in 2006. The Vikings went 23-0 in District 11 games and won all 10 AAA district titles in the decade. Central also won eight conference championships and finished the decade 268-42 overall.
Parkland enjoyed its most continued success in the 2000s under coach Patti Sikorski Heffner and won its only PIAA Class AAAA championship in 2006. That made Sikorski Heffner the only coach in Express-Times region history to win state titles with two different programs (Catasauqua in 1988 in Class AA).
The Trojans also won their only conference title in 2006 and their first two of three District 11 championships in 2005 and 2007.
Freedom, which tied its school record for wins with a 25-6 record in 2005-06, defeated Parkland in the 2006 district final in one of the biggest upsets in region history before the Trojans went on to win the state crown.
The East Penn Conference reorganized after the 2001-02 season and became the Lehigh Valley Conference after the seven teams that defected to the Mountain Valley Conference four seasons earlier reunited with Allen, Central, Bethlehem Catholic, Dieruff and Emmaus.
Parkland, in 2006, and Emmaus, in 2007, were the only teams to deny Central Catholic conference titles in the decade.
Emmaus won three District 11 Class AAAA titles, including back-to-back in 2001 and 2002, while Liberty won its only two district titles in history to open and close the decade. Pleasant Valley won its only district title in 2003, and Allen won its sixth overall and first in 27 seasons in 2008.
Northwestern, in 2006, won its only district title and was the only non-Schuylkill League team to win a District 11 Class AA crown in the decade under third-year coach Chris Deutsch, who has become the Tigers’ all-time leader in victories with a 177-106 record entering the 2014-15 season.
Pleasant Valley won the first five MVC titles in a decade that saw Pocono Mountain split into two schools, East and West, with East Stroudsburg doing the same, North and South. Pocono Mountain West and East Stroudsburg South each won two MVC titles.
Catasauqua won the first three Colonial League titles of the 2000s, and Bangor won the last two to break a 24-year league championship drought. Northwestern also won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 to end a 28-year championship drought of any kind.
Voorhees and North Hunterdon each won four Hunterdon-Warren Tournament titles and Hunterdon Central won the other two as Hunterdon County continued its dominance of the tournament that started in 1988 and would expand to include Sussex County teams to start the next decade.
Belvidere enjoyed its best sustained success when it won four straight Skyland Conference division titles, two each in the Raritan and Valley divisions, and went 81-19 in a four-year span behind all-time scorer Chrissie Beha (1,512 points from 2002-06) and Marielle Thorsen (1,219 from 2004-08). The County Seaters played in two of their four sectional titles games in the 2000s.
2000s ALL-DECADE TEAM
Players
(Player, high school(s) and year graduated)
Jackie Adamshick, Central Catholic, 2002 — The Player of the Decade scored 1,848 career points, the third-most points for a girl at Central Catholic, while leading the Vikings to the first two of four straight PIAA Class AAA championships. Central also won three District 11 and conference titles in her career. She scored 1,372 points and snared 703 rebounds in a successful career at Villanova University. She is a member of the Lehigh Valley Hall of Fame.
Caitlin Flood, North Warren, 2004 — Flood led North Warren to the 2004 NSJIAA North 1 Group 1 sectional final in her senior season. She finished No. 2 on the Patriots’ and Warren County’s all-time girls scoring list with 1,845 points behind only 1990 North Warren all-decade selection Desire Almind. Her 1,399 career points were the fifth most at Manhattan University when she graduated. Flood played professionally in England.
Sara Antolick, Bethlehem Catholic and Central Catholic, 2004 — Antolick scored 271 points in two seasons at Bethlehem Catholic before transferring to Central Catholic where she helped the Vikings to the final two of four straight PIAA Class AAA state titles in 2003 and 2004. She scored 889 points at Central to finish with 1,160 career points. She was named PIAA Class AAA Player of the Year as a senior before going on to play for Syracuse University. She is a member of the Lehigh Valley Hall of Fame.
Mary Lisicky, Whitehall, 2001 — Lisicky led Whitehall to its last championship, the 2000 Mountain Valley Conference title, as a junior and finished with a girls school-record 1,517 points. She played four seasons at Georgetown University where she compiled 1,293 points, 249 3-point field goals and 417 assists. She is a member of the Lehigh Valley Hall of Fame.
Courtney Molinaro, Central Catholic, 2005 — Molinaro scored 1,543 points at Central Catholic, the fourth most for a Vikings girl, in a career that saw Central win three PIAA Class AAA titles, four District 11 championships and four conference titles. She played at Penn State and Lehigh.
Erin Anthony, Parkland, 2007 — Anthony was the inside presence when Parkland won its only PIAA Class AAAA state championship as well as its only conference title in 2005-06. Anthony was also a member of the Trojans’ only two District 11 championship teams in her sophomore and senior seasons as Parkland went 87-10 in her final three seasons. She scored 1,073 at Parkland before going onto a fine career at Army where she scored 1,429 points and grabbed 1,036 rebounds.
Ashley Zuber, Parkland, 2006 — The floor general was a senior point guard on Parkland’s 2006 PIAA Class AAAA state championship team and a three-year starter on the Trojans’ first three teams that reached a District 11 title game in school history. Parkland won its first district title in her junior season. She went on to lead the University of Buffalo to its first postseason tournament berth while leading the Mid-American Conference in assists one season and setting single game and season assist records for the Bulls while finishing fifth all-time in assists.
Liz Hayes, Easton, 2003 — Hayes scored more than 600 more points than any other girl at Easton and finished with an overall school-record 1,827 points while helping the Red Rovers to three straight conference playoff bids and two title game appearances. Easton also reached just its third District 11 championship game in her injury-plagued senior season. She played at Delaware and American.
Steph Merlo, Pius X and Pocono Mountain East, 2003 — Merlo was one of the best pure shooters in The Express-times region. She made a still standing single-season record 98 3-point field goals as a freshman at Pius X and 80 more her sophomore season, which still stands as tied for the second most by a region player. After becoming the fastest region girl to reach 1,000 career points (46 games) she finished her scholastic career playing two seasons for Pocono Mountain East. She finished with 1,812 points and a region-record 319 career 3-pointers. Merlo played at St. Bonaventure and Virginia Commonwealth.
Dana Wieller, Liberty, 2009 — Wieller scored a Liberty girls record 1.334 career points while helping the Hurricanes to a school-best 19-3 start as a junior in 2007-08 when Liberty reached its first conference playoff tournament. Her 149 career 3-point field goals are a school record. She went on to become Bloomsburg University’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,883 points and set a Huskies’ career record with more than 300 3-pointers.
Coach
Mike Kopp, Central Catholic — In 34 seasons at Central Catholic, Kopp’s teams have won five PIAA titles in eight championship game appearances, 21 District 11 titles and 18 league championships since he arrived from his alma mater, Notre Dame, for the 1980-81 season. He has coached 12 Vikings who have scored 1,000 or more career points, including three this decade with Jackie Adamshick and Courtney Molinaro reaching the milestone as juniors. Earlier this week, Kopp was named the National High School Coaches Association Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
Honorable mention
Becky Guman, 2009, Central Catholic (Lehigh); Lindsey Geosits, 2002, Emmaus (Bucknell); Jill Furstenburg, 2003, Hunterdon Central (Providence); Ashley Yencho, 2007, Parkland (American); Erin Owens, 2005, Southern Lehigh (Binghamton); Kelsey Gallagher, 2008, East Stroudsburg South (Bloomsburg); Carly Gallagher, 2010, East Stroudsburg South (Millersville); Alyssa Fleming, 2010, Delaware Valley (Johns Hopkins); Kristin Scheitrum, 2007, Emmaus (Mount St. Mary's); DeAnna Rayam, 2006, Freedom (East Stroudsburg); Jackie Yandrisevits, 2005, Nazareth (East Stroudsburg); Alex Berlin, 2007, Freedom (Loyola Md., Muhlenberg); Colleen Nosovitch, 2010, Central Catholic (Greensboro), Tara Gemmel, 2001, Catasauqua (Scranton); Melissa Rich, 2005, Parkland (Lehigh); Katie Kokolus, 2002, Notre Dame GP (Lafayette); Brittany Lacey, 2004, Catasauqua (East Stroudsburg); Emily Geosits, 2003, Emmaus (Lehigh); Lyndsay Myers, 2001, Dieruff (Lafayette); Emily Cerankowski, 2005, Notre Dame GP (FDU-Florham); Megan Bowen, 2009, Northampton (Princeton); Amanda Tewksbury, 2006, North Hunterdon (Maine); Alyssa Bonenberger, 2010, Northampton (Kutztown); Alita Zabrecky, 2009, Southern Lehigh (Muhlenberg); Alissa Burkholder, 2001, Salisbury (Johns Hopkins); Sondrine Glovas, 2010, Wilson (DeSales); Sarah Colton, 2009, Bangor (Lebanon Valley); Dana Stellar, 2006, Northwestern (Lehigh); Kelly Applegate, 2003, Wilson (Moravian).
DECADE’S LEADING SCORERS
(Games, total points, scoring average)
2008-09 — Alyssa Fleming, Delaware Valley, 25-484-19.4
2007-08 — Marielle Thorson, Belvidere, 25-459-18.4
2006-07 — Alex Berlin, Freedom 26-510-19.6
2005-06 — Breanna Fulper, South Hunterdon 25-526-21.0
2004-05 — Erin Owens, Southern Lehigh 30-756-26.5
2003-04 — Erin Owens, Southern Lehigh (Jr.) 28-575-20.5
2002-03 — Caitlin Flood, North Warren (Jr.) 25-492-19.7
2001-02 — Liz Hayes, Easton (Jr.), 26-566-21.8
2000-01 — Stephanie Merlo, Pius X (So.), 23-496-21.6
1999-00 — Desire Almind, North Warren 29-736-25.4
(Senior unless otherwise noted)