Photo courtesy of Dave’s Joint.
By David Cordova
The first installment of our series, “Suburban Stories,” talks about Archbishop Stepinac, the defending CHSAA “AA” champions who have established themselves as a national powerhouse throughout the last six years and is currently rated in the SportsCenter Next top-25 national rankings.
The city of White Plains, New York is a nice beautiful place. A city of nearly 60,000 people, it is a nice suburban town known for places to shop and also for their public transportation, as there’s the Westchester Bee-Line bus, the Metro-North Railroad trains and the CT Transit express bus that takes you all the way to Stamford, Connecticut. Also in town is the Westchester County Center, is the home of the Westchester Knicks, the NBA G-League affiliate team of the NBA’s New York Knicks.
When you take the Bee-Line 60 bus from the White Plains Bus Terminal, it’ll be an 18-minute bus ride through the town and then you’ll hear the announcement from the pre-recorded voice on the bus that says, “Archbishop Stepinac High School.” Then you’ll know that you’re at one of the finest institutions in Westchester County.
At 950 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, you will see a campus around houses that resembles a nice academy, typical of what you would see in a normal, suburban high school.
Since 1948, this Catholic all-boys high school has been giving young scholars a fine education and has had a graduation rate of 100% and sends all of their students to college. Its most famous alums are professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano and actor Jon Voight and there are many of their graduates that have gone on to be successful in the sports world.
Although they have a powerhouse football program, which is arguably one of the best in the state of New York, there is one other program that has attained plenty of attention as of late. It’s the boys varsity basketball program.
When you go inside of the gym, you see plenty of banners of championships from various sports teams dating back to the 1950s. And then you see jerseys of all of the alums that have gone on to play college basketball and a couple that have gone on to play Major League Baseball or in the NBA. And even those that played for the USA Basketball junior national team or the Dominican Republic national team.
As you can see, the best of the best have come through Archbishop Stepinac.
One of their NBA alums is Marty Conlon (class of 1986), who was a part of the 1986-87 Providence Friars squad that went on to play in the NCAA Final Four under current St. John’s University head coach, Rick Pitino. Conlon played four years in the Big East before transitioning to the professional level, where he played for 15 years, with nine seasons in the NBA with eight teams.
On the subject of championships, the Crusaders have been winning plenty over the years. On the walls in the gym hang the banners from the championship teams of 1951, 1960, 1991, 1993 and 2010. Titles from a past time that had some gems, many that went on to play Division I basketball and also professionally. There are also those that went on to coach on the college basketball scene, such as Fred Quartlebaum (Class of 1985), who is now the Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Kansas and Tim O’Toole (Class of 1983), who is now the associate head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. There was also Chris Watson (Class of 1993), who led the Crusaders to a CHSAA “B” division title as a senior and then went on to play four years of collegiate basketball at Niagara University, where he graduated in 1997. Following his collegiate graduation, he would go on to play professionally overseas, including in Israel.
In the 2000’s and early 2010’s, the Crusaders would have some talented players such as Melquan Bolding (Class of 2007), Tony Taylor (Class of 2008), Conroy Baltimore (Class of 2010) and Josh James (Class of 2013), that would go on to play on the Division I level at schools such as FDU, George Washington, Lehigh and Monmouth, respectively.
In the spring of 2011, after the closure of the now-defunct powerhouse Rice High School in Harlem, the CHSAA would make a shift for the CHSAA “AA” Archdiocesan division, which had schools such as St. Raymond and All Hallows and St. Peter’s. Now, Stepinac would be one of the four schools that would become a part of the realignment, alongside Cardinal Hayes, Mount St. Michael and their rivals, Iona Prep.
As the competition got better, so did the players. It would take several years before the 2017-18 season came into play and the Crusaders would emerge into champions, as they would go on to finish with a 27-5 record, the CHSAA “AA” division championship and the New York State Federation championship. It was then that the world would know the Crusaders.
On that team would be Alan Griffin (Class of 2019), who would go on to play collegiate basketball at Syracuse University, R.J. Davis, who is now as senior at the University of North Carolina and Adrian “A.J.” Griffin, Jr., who is currently in his second season in the NBA with the Atlanta Hawks.
Both Davis and the younger Griffin would grow into top-flight national prospects and would be selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game, in 2020 and 2021, respectively, although they would never play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, there are several former Crusaders that are playing collegiate basketball on the Division I level, such as Joel Soriano (St. John’s), Malcolm Chimezie (Boston University), Sam Gibbs (Loyola-Maryland), Isaiah Alexander (Loyola-Maryland) and the aforementioned Davis.
Last season was a spectacular season for the Crusaders, as they went 22-10 and avenged the previous year’s loss to Cardinal Hayes in the city championship, by winning this time around. Despite losing in the New York State Federation championship game to another powerhouse in Long Island Lutheran, it was definitely a successful season. However, it’s important to note where the story of the Crusaders starts. It starts with one key person that makes the engine go. This person isn’t one of the five players on the court, but rather on the sidelines.
The man in question is none other than head coach Patrick Massaroni, one of the Catholic League’s finest coaches, not only in terms of winning games, but also in terms of how he carries himself off the court. One phrase in which to describe him is: class act. The reason he is a class act is because he is a true professional and also shows plenty of showmanship on & off the court.
A native of White Plains, Massaroni himself was once a student at Stepinac, as he graduated in 2006. He went on to be a student manager at Marist College, which is located in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is also in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Association. He graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and would then go on to spend two seasons at James Madison University in Virginia as a graduate assistant.
Years later, he would come back to his alma mater, Stepinac, and would be the varsity B head coach for the Crusaders, before being named head coach of the main team during the 2015-16 season.
Since his early days as the head coach, Massaroni took what he learned during his undergrad days at Marist and during his grad school days at James Madison and applied it to building his program. Now in his ninth season with the Crusaders, he’s built a successful program that has been rated in the top 25 nationally by publications such as ESPN and Max Preps.
Another thing about Massaroni that is unique is how adept he is at organizing events, such as the Crusader Classic, which is the official event for Stepinac, in which they play the rivalry game against Iona Prep every year during the month of January at the Westchester County Center. As many as 3,000 spectators come out to support their schools and it has become a massive success each year. His ability to run his program as if it were a college-like program is second to none.
Aside from Coach Massaroni, there are definitely some talented notable players on the Crusaders squad. On this year’s squad are seniors such as Johnuel “Boogie” Fland, Jordan Gabriel, Braylan Ritvo, Aamyr Sullivan and Howard Eisley, Jr., who provide great leadership and are the keys to why the Crusaders have been successful thus far this season.
But with a good senior group also comes some good underclassmen behind them, as there is junior Danny Carbuccia, and the sophomore group of players such as Hassan Kouriessi, Jasiah Jervis, Dylan Perry and twins Adonis and Darius Ratliff. And lastly, there is freshman Josh Rivera, who continues to show plenty of promise on the court.
Fland, one of the premier players in the nation, is a Bronx native that is a force to be reckoned with on the court. He is a floor general and a player that can score in bunches. Rated as the No. 15 player in the Class of 2024, he is averaging 18.2 points per game and is signed to play for the University of Kentucky next season. He is now the third player in school history to be selected to the McDonald’s All-American Game, after Davis and Griffin, and will also play in the Nike Hoop Summit. At the present moment, he’s one of the best players to play from the city and when all is said and done, his legacy in the CHSAA will be one to be remembered.
Ritvo, one of the CHSAA’s best players this season, has been a surprise to many on the national scene. Just recently, he has been garnering some offers from schools such as Eastern Michigan and Manhattan and has been hearing from plenty of mid-major colleges across the nation. As a forward, he has plenty of length and size, and is a very athletic player that has a penchant for going to the basket and also making great defensive plays. Whichever school that lands him will definitely getting a steal.
In players like Carbuccia, Jervis and Kouriessi, they are all guards that can have a big performance on any given night. The trio are all Division I caliber players that have plenty of time to grow, as they are all underclassmen, but the potential to do great things is there for them all.
This season has been a great ride for the Crusaders. Throughout their first six games of the season, they amassed wins over high-level competition, as the first five were on the road. On Dec. 2-3, they went to Hoophall Classic West in Chaparral, Arizona and were successful in wins over Arizona’s own Perry High School and California’s own Centennial High School. On Dec. 8th, they went down to Baltimore to play a game against St. Frances Academy, whom they played last year and defeated once again.
In their first home game of the season on Dec. 18th, they played in front of a sold-out crowd, against Scarsdale, one of the best teams in the Section 1 League, which is the league for the public school teams in Westchester. Rated as the top two teams by the Journal News, both the Raiders and Crusaders played a close game throughout the first half, but Stepinac took advantage in the second half, as they cruised to an 80-54 win.
So far this season has been a great journey, as the Crusaders are currently 15-3 overall and are 10-0 in the CHSAA “AA” division. In the state of New York, they are currently 11-0 on the season, which is an amazing feat. Their only three losses on the season, came in December at the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Florida, to the No. 1 team in the nation in Montverde Academy from Montverde, Florida, and also IMG Academy, which is from Bradenton, Florida. They also lost to St. Rose of Belmar, New Jersey a week later at the Jordan Holiday Classic at Baruch College in Midtown Manhattan. Aside from those three losses, everything has been a breeze for the Crusaders.
However, the road to another championship will continue to be a tough one. The Crusaders now have six games left in the regular season, such as this Friday, Feb. 2nd, at home against Christ the King, this Saturday, Feb. 3rd, at the Westchester County Center against Eagle Academy II out of Brooklyn, which will set up a rematch of last year’s New York State Federation semifinals, in which the Crusaders knocked off the Eagles. Also, there will be one more matchup with their rivals, the Iona Prep Gaels, next Saturday, Feb. 10th, at the Hynes Athletic Center on the campus of Iona University in New Rochelle. And then Senior Day will be on Tuesday, Feb. 13th against another tough opponent in the Brooklyn/Queens “AA” division, St. Francis Prep, out of Fresh Meadows, Queens.
At the present time, the Stepinac Crusaders are the favorites to win it once again the CHSAA “AA” division. But make no mistake, they don’t plan on getting complacent anytime soon. It’s just more fuel to their fire. Every game that they play moving forward will be a big game. Especially since they will be everyone’s Super Bowl game.
Plus, many people make the mistake of trying to associate the Crusaders as the best team in New York City. But that’s false. Right now, they’re the best team in the Catholic League. But the fact is, they’re from White Plains, New York, not White Plains Road. And at the present moment, the team from 950 Mamaroneck Avenue with the 914 area code is making their presence felt not just in their city, their county, New York City, New York State, but also the nation with their play. Publication like ESPN didn’t rank them at No. 11 in the nation for no reason. Chances are, if they continue to play they’re playing, there’s no reason why they won’t be able to hoist another trophy on March 10th in the CHSAA championship game. The sky is the limit for the Archbishop Stepinac Crusaders.
Look out for the next installment of “Suburban Stories,” as we will be talking about the Scarsdale Raiders, who have been making their presence felt in Section 1 throughout the last couple of years and are coming off of a groundbreaking win in last year’s Section 1 Tournament semifinals Westchester County powerhouse against Mount Vernon.
davesjoint.net 