Good job by our columnist Rick Carpiniello today. Carp dug into the pride of this all-Rockland Class A final matchup between No. 1 Spring Valley and No. 7 Tappan Zee and guess what? It is the first all-Rockland championship game in Section 1 boys basketball history.
For these teams, it’s even more. Their third meeting. The first Rockland Section 1 champ (it’s locked up, we just don’t know who will win!) since Nyack in 2001. The first Rockland team in a final since 2006. A chance for TZee’s first championship. A chance for Spring Valley’s first championship since 1996.
But trust me, Westchester/Putnam/Dutchess fans: You have your Mount Vernon-New Rochelle or Woodlands-Pleasantville games, but to just about every person in Rockland County this is the game of Championship Week. The rest pale in comparison.
Rockland boys hoops have taken a lot of shots in recent years, so this Class A final will bring an overwhelming sense of pride. People in Rockland root for all of Rockland to succeed. For them, there is no bigger game than this.
28 Comments
can’t wait! GO DUTCHMEN! you can do it!
Good luck to both squads. Should be a great game-gotta love Spring Valley’s kids, they are unflappable and play togetherand are totally unselfish. TZ is a great team too, those kids have heart and are tough.Go Rockland hoops!
Screw rockland their basketball still stinks. class a westchester pretty weak this year.
Tappan Zee is the best Cinderella story in years. Really want them to win and I’m from Pearl River. BTW: Last year’s Pearl River team was better than this TZ team. Just a fact.
MSG Varsity has highlights from all the games: http://msgvarsity.com/connecticut-westchester?p=
You need to have an acct with cablevision to watch them. I stole my neighbors. Works fine.
Well TZ does have a PR connection. Didn’t their head coach go to PR?
Rockland Hoops Fan,
Can you share the optimum account?
Congrats to the Tappan Zee Dutchmen and the Spring Valley Tigers in making it to the Class A Finals. Both teams are very well coached. It should be a great championship game. So since 2 rockland teams have reached the championship, all of a sudden Class A was weak this year. I find it funny though. Keep bringing on the negative comments. Rockland Basketball feeds on it. LOL
Vally to take the championship…
Tappan Zee wants this championship more than anyone right now. They are going to come out hungry after last wednesday, with their great fanbase behind them.
Rockland fan, think about it statistically. This has NEVER happened before. So are we to assume that Rockland is now awesome or that Westchester was down?
For the next few years in the A, Rockland will have a shot to get to the CC again, but then it maybe back to Westchester domination.
Peeps are wrong to trash Rockland, but in reality this is not the norm, so take it easy with the feeding on it.
If PR and AM girls win Sat. WOW: Double the fun in Rockland!
just a quick note pr split with both these teams and nanuet split with tz so these are just two out of a very deep rockland county
congrats to tz and spring valley btw
great logic pv,,,,,briarcliff is the only team to beat plaeasntville and pleasantville beat naniet 2 times , so i guess briarcliff couls easilt beat pr and tz?
I agree Tappan Zee is the best Cinderella story in years at the County Center. I think this would be Tappan Zee’s first section 1 championship in basketball.
I remember Spring Valley won one Sectional Championship in the mid-90’s, maybe ‘96. I think I remember a very talented short PG named Blair. If I’m not mistaken, that was in the A (now AA) – very impressive. Do any Spring Valley fans remember anything about that team or any of the other players?
Deez Nuts, I understand what your saying. But in the defense of rockland bball. We lose a lot of talented kids to the local prep schools. But that’s no excuse but just an observation. I understand it has never happened before but it’s happening now. All i’m saying is give us an opportunity to enjoy this moment. We know about the mount vernon’s, new rochelle’s, pleasantville’s of westchester. We respect the westchester basketball community. But I don’t feel we get that respect in return. At the end of the day these kids work hard for their opportunity to play in the county center. Whether your from rockland or westchester.
Hoops Fan, Spring Valley did win it all i 1996. They beat Mount Vernon by one point to take the gold ball. Kevin Blair was the pg your talking about. Very good team back then. It took them a while to get back to the county center. So I’m happy for them. That Tappan Zee vs Spring Valley is going to be a great game. Tappan Zee is a very good basketball team. Their coach has done an excellent job this season. We’re all in for a treat.
Rockland BBall Fan,
Thanks. Thats right, Kevin Blair. I kept thinking it was John Blair. Tough, scrappy PG. Wasn’t there another standout on that Spring Valley team? A 6’3”-6’4” swingman. That was a pretty good MV team that SV upset that year led by Collin Watson and Joe McCurdy.
Since you were discussing Rockland basketball, I think Rockland gets a bad rap. Obviously there is no comparing Westchester to Rockland in terms of size, but if you look back. Nyack was a powerhouse program for years and won several sectional titles. Before Rockland became part of Section 1 there were several stars in Rockland like Roger Brown, Endy Basquiat, etc. North Rockland which is the biggest school in Rockland has a long football history, it seems like their basketball program had been an afterthought before the last couple years. Spring Valley and Ramapo used to be very small AA schools that would struggle vs. the larger Westchester AA schools like New Ro, WP and MV. The smaller Rockland schools – AM, TZ, Nanuet, Pearl River – have rabid fans and definitely take their basketball as seriously as anyone. Some Westchester fans forget that Magnus had a few championship teams in the early 90’s and I think Ramapo won the A (now AA) championship the year after Spring Valley did. We also sometimes forget that we in Westchester are fortunate to have three outstanding AA programs – MV is one of the best public school programs in the country; WP has won a couple state titles in the last 20 years and had numerous stars; New Ro has been very strong the last 5-6 years and has always been tough – I don’t think any other NYPHSAA section in the state has three AA programs as consistently good as Section 1 does.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ve traveled to go see mount vernon vs white plains. That gym is always electric. I’m looking forward in watching mount vernon vs new ro. Never had the opportunity to watch them in the regular season. Some of those westchester schools can play against anyone in the country. The 6’3 swingman was either Joe Paraleno or Bryan Hogg. Great basketball team. I wish i had the opportunity to watch that game.
Spring valley is gonna take the championship its gonna be a good game but that kid niko perez number 4 is gonna be too much for tz to handle in both games this year against tz he had 26 and in the county center he averaging 23 looks bad for tz if u ask me
Should be a exciting boys class A final. Enjoy rockland county, it will be fun
Time to get the Rockland AA team in the mix! North Rockland will beat those bums.
Poughkeepsie are definately not bums but N rockland also can pull it off
Poughkeepsie basketball team are not bums. But I do feel that North Rockland will have the upper hand. The Mount Vernon vs New Rochelle game is going to be a great game. I can’t wait.
Our 1995-96 SV Tiger team was led by Co-captains Joe Parrienello and David Williams. David was our center at 6’1”. Joe played guard and forward and at about 5”9” always played much bigger. David led our league and in my mind the world in getting the most important rebounds in every game. David boxed out as well as any player at SV before or since. Both young men were true leaders as Captains that year and today they both are fine young men, responsible family men as fathers and husbands. Kevin Blair at 5” 6” was one of our guards, as was Othineil Alphonse 5”6” and Shaun Lauderdale at 5’7” in a 3 guard offense. Bryan Hogg about 5’11’’ saw plenty of action, as did Rodney Bell our 6’3” lefty. Jason Reid 6’1” and Jayson Joubert 6”5” played valuable minutes coming off of the bench. Jason was a shut down defensive player who could score and Jayson was just starting to learn how to block and/or change other players shots.
We had lost to Mt. Vernon earlier in the year (December) by 12 points, at their place, but it wasn’t that close. We actually played the Knights in the semi-finals, not the finals. When Mt. vernon took the court at the County Center in their matching sneakers and fancy expensive warm-up tops, we looked like we were on the wrong court. Our budget would not permit us to have warmup tops or pants. We decided to wear our SV Holiday Classic T Shirts from our Christmas Tournament, as our warmup tops. I do not think any of our sneakers matched. It did not matter to us. We were matched in the quest to beat the two teams left that had beaten us earlier in the year. We had one heart and we had no stars, just a group of young men that were determined, win or lose, to out-work, out-hustle every team that got in our way. Mt. Vernon was 21-0 at that point and we were 16-5. Two hours later they were 21-1 and we were moving to the finals. We took the lead in the first half playing our smaller lineup and out hustling Mt. Vernon. When the Knights finally took the lead in the fourth quarter and seemed to pull away, they thought we would back down. But as I mentioned, you had to know the fabric of that team, the toughness, and grit and character that each player developed over the course of our season. The two leaders were Joe and David and the players responded. Kevin Blair, who got “into the Zone” got hot from 3 point land as well and we kept hustling and retook the lead and refused to give it back and won 77-74. This gave us the right to play Arlington, another large A (now AA) school that had beat us earlier in the year by 12 points at their place. We had hoped to play our arch rival Ramapo, league co-champs with us, but they lost in a heartbreaker to Arlington in the other semi-final. Otherwise that would have been the first all Rockland Class A Championship.
We played Arlington on a Saturday at noon. When the Arlington team arrived at the County Center it was not yet 10:30 AM. What they saw was our team, the Valley Tigers on the court running our full court 3 on 3 drills. I will never forget the expression on their faces, we knew we were going to win. They could not believe how hard we were working and it was before 11 in the morning. Their coach, complained that we were violating a Section One code for practicing too early and using the full court when we shold only use half of the court but the officials such smiled and said get dressed first and let them play, they will tire themselves out. Well, we knew, Coaches Carey and Worsley and Tony Wooten and Fred Michel knew, that we could play 3 on 3 full court all day and would never give up. There was no team that was in better physical shape than us that year and I do no think we played a team that had such a small and quick starting lineup as we did. We did not start a player over 6”1”. Mt. Vernon and Arlington’s guards were taller than our Center, Dave Williams, but not bigger or stronger than our Co-Captain.
So when you talk about a couple of players well, it took our whole squad including Jason Guadagnino, Keshara Pinkson, Rich Gilbert, Rod and Brett Hermann and our secret weapon SuperManager Amy Rothberg, who is now working for the USTA and the NBA and worked for the NC State Basketball Office during her four years with the Wolfpack.
We hoisted the Gold Ball with pride and great deal of respect for all of our opponents that year and we brought home the “”Golden Meatball” as it was dubbed. I see that same toughness and quiet confidence in Tevin Mackey and the rest of the current team. They have what it takes to win it all and they are in terrific shape and Coach Worsley, Roz and Tony have them ready. Tappan Zee is a very good team and quite capable of winning it all. But all I know is two things, that if the 2009-10 Tigers refuse to be out-hustled and out-worked by TZ they will be in position to win and secondly quite a few of the 1995-96 team will be at the County Center rooting for the Tigers to bring home the Golden Meatball!
Good Luck to both teams But we will be cheering for the Spring Valley Tigers
Learn From History, you either played in that game or coached in that game. You remember every detail.
Ramapo in 1997 by far the best Rockland. Jerrome Gales, “toughness”. John Thompson “scorer”. Rasheen Davis “MVP sec 1 1997. All tourny @ Glenn Falls”. Columbus Tyson, and Lenny Rodgers.. Superb defender… Beat every team in Westchester and Rockland
I must say learn from history has quite a grasp on the overall performance of that 96 team. Thanks for your remarkable comment.