Sorry for the delay. This is Rick Carpiniello filling in for the vacationing Josh today. I went to the screening of “Knighthood” the other day in Pelham, and I wrote a column about it in today’s Journal News and on LoHud.com.
It’s a pretty cool look inside the dominant boys basketball program in the area, shot mostly during the team’s last state championship season, 2006-07, when it went on and lost to Rice in the Federation semifinals.
Co-producers/directors Michael Variano of Peekskill (a former football/baseball player at Ossining, whose dad was the football coach there) and Cliff Charles of Brooklyn don’t know yet how or if the film will be available for public viewing or for DVD sales. We’ll keep you posted if we find out anything. Variano said it’s possible it will be shown at the school at some point.
The documentary begins with the grueling tryout process, and goes behind the scenes for Bob Cimmino’s huddle, pregame, halftime and postgame talks with his team, which included Michael Coburn, Final Four-bound Kevin Jones, Sherrod Wright, Ketema Brooks and many others, one of them a shy eighth-grader named Jabarie Hinds.
The current team viewed the film at the premiere Saturday.
By the way, back when we were just launching sports videos here, Kevin Devaney did a piece on the Mount Vernon tryouts … and that was part of Variano’s inspiration for the documentary. The headline on Devaney’s video was “Knighthood” and he remembered thinking that was a perfect word for the tryouts, not because the team’s nickname is Knights, but because it’s almost as if Bob Cimmino knighted the select few who earned spots on the team.
29 Comments
so is there going to be any way to watch this movie?
Someone should submit this to ESPN, or even some of the local sports channels. Tomorrow on PBS they are playing the Documentary on Bobby Hurley’s St. Anthony program, and although I haven’t seen this documentary, just living in this area I know it will be just as good and just as relevant. I’d love to see this documentary and the look it takes into the most successful program in Section 1 athletics. I and I’m sure everyone in this are would agree that they would watch this documentary if it was aired on TV. ESPN is a lofty goal but they have showed documentaries on High Schools in the past, I’m sure SNY, MSG, or MSG Varsity would jump on the opportunity to air this, and if it was on DVD I bet many would purchase it.
Put it on Youtube. Or do what the kids from fordham did and create a website to air it on.
Here you go.
http://hoopknight.com/
Carp and Josh,
I would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the local coaching changes and how they’ll impact local players.
St Johns – I think Lavin was a great hire. I think he can bring back some of the big time atmosphere that St John has lacked and has as good a shot as almost any to keep bluechip players local. It will be interesting to see if Lavin going to St Johns gets them in the mix for Jabarie Hinds. I’d thought Hinds would end up at WVU with Jones doing so well down there. I also think Lowes Moore may have played at WVU with Huggins which can’t hurt WVU with MV kids.
Seton Hall – Willard seems like a good hire, but he doesn’t have a winning record at Iona. I would’ve liked to see him have a couple winning seasons or at least get into the tournament before a Big East job. He clearly benefits from the Pitino connection. I think he’ll do well recruiting the NJ hs teams. Hasn’t been a local player go to Seton Hall since Gordon Winchester (Mount) and Rickey Burton (MV) in the late and early 80’s, respectively.
Hofstra – not a lot of local players go to Hofstra that I remember. It seems they may hire the longtime assistant to Pecora, Van Macon.
Iona is still open and I’ve read two Stepinac guys are among those up for the job – Fred Quartlebaum who has been an asst at St Johns and a Fordham grad; and Steve Masiello who is an asst under Pitino at Louisville. If either Quartlebaum or Masiello got the Iona job I’d expect them both to be heavily involved with local players.
Fordham is a place that has and should attract local players. Pecora never had any Westchester players at Hofstra that I know of, but I’d expect he got involved with the better local players. Next year’s senior class besides Hinds may not have any A-10 level players, maybe more in the MAAC/NEC range (Baltimore, Torres, Aguilar, Henry, etc).
Wagner is also open and has had a few local players over the years.
Hoops fan… Willard and Iona had a winning season this year, he also has an above .500 career record and took over a program that was a mess after an all-time low 2 win season. Willard will be a good hire for Seton Hall, he’s a young energetic guy, he knows the game very well and has built up Iona back to being relevent in the MAAC. Hopefully that success and something to build on continues at Seton Hall, he has a few guys at Iona from the North Jersey area (Benedicts and St. Pats) and that is key at turning Seton Hall into a contender.
Iona has a good core of young players there to work with but you need a coach that can come in and connect with the AAU coaches and high school coaches in the area. Masiello was an Assitant under Bobby Gonzalez at Manhattan I believe too, he’s coached under some big name guys and is from that Pitino coaching tree that also produced Willard. Another name I heard was Fran Fraschilla was a candidate for the job, he’s coached in the area and has been working for ESPN for years now, he also just said during the game that “coaching never leaves you” so you never know, that would be a great hire.
Hofstra, should look at Tom Perrotta to replace Pecora, he was there as an assitant for year, he is a Yonkers Native and knows the area. He served as associate Head Coach at Hofstra earlier in this decade before taking over at Canisius, a program that was nothing at the time of his hire.
St. Johns hiring Lavin will also be a good hire they need a guy who can deal with the Media(which he was been a part of for the last 6 years) and deal with the boosters, AAU coaches, and work the area and players and get them to go to Jamaica. I heard he’s looking at Barry Rohrsen the Manhattan coach who is known was a great recruiter in this area, to add as an assitant.
Hopefully these hires offer competitive college basketball for the New York schools, keep these players at home playing for successful programs.
post,
Iona was 21-9 this year, very nice season. They were 12-20 and 12-19 the last two years, so his three year record is a bit below .500. Nonetheless, I agree he’s a good hire. I just would’ve like to see him win a little more at Iona.
Fraschilla would be an interesting name at Iona. I’m surprised he hasn’t been back into coaching in awhile. I always thought he was very good at St Johns. I guess he had some issues at New Mexico. I think Masiello or Quartlebaum would be very good at Iona as well. I think either of the three would be a great job recruiting at Iona.
Parrotta is another Stepinac guy. This is the first I’ve heard his name mentioned with Hofstra, but it sounds like a good fit if they don’t go with the assistant Macon.
Several media reports have mentioned Rohrsen as a possible assistant to Lavin. There must be a reason for it, but as long as Rohrsen’s job is safe at Manhattan, I’m not sure why he’d want to go back to being an assistant. Patsos from Loyola, MD is also mentioned as a possible asst, but again, why would a head guy go be an asst again. We shall see.
jmoose, that’s not it.
The producers didn’t know how or if it would be distributed. But if it ever is, we will put up the details here at Varsity Insider.
say what you want about ruland but he has 3 maac championships under his belt and an overall convincing winning record at his time at iona. you cant just judge him on 1 terrible season (especially when key players were hurt that year)
post:
willards 3 year record is 45-49 at iona and vever a true threat in the play-offs (this year lost in 1st round). not sure if seton hall can justify the salary? despite that i think willard can do a good job but it will not be easy. it’s somewhat similar to st. john’s in that you have to convince the blue chip players to stay in “newark” or “queens”
(both very undesirable areas) and not got to carolina / kansas / texas / florida / arizona / california / kentucky /.....etc…should be some interesting years of bigeast/ncaa basketball years ahead of us!!!
Dillon –
I agree with you 100% and i don’t think ESPN is shootin’ too high. I know the team, and even without seeing this particular film yet, I know the story is ESPN worthy. Hell, I’m sure it is “60 Minutes” worthy.
Hoops and all,
Tim Welsh is going to get the Hofstra job. Negotiations are supposedly taking place. Very good hire for them. I was hoping that would take a look at Tim Cluess(former St. Marys coach and now CW Post coach) but they want a bigger name. Cluess would have been a great fit. He is a winner and he has shown interest in our area by snatching up a few Westchester stars last year.
I also saw that good ol Norm is up for the Iona job as well.
hrs:
norm is a class act and ran a clean program. let’s see if that happen at st johns now…hope they have deep pockets if they want to win in the big east.
bball fan, the pockets are going to be very deep. Lavin was like the 50th choice. They are desperate to get to the top again and will do what it takes.
Roberts didn’t change his values, I respect that.
HRs,
Great information about Welsh. I think he’d be great at Hofstra. Roberts to Iona would be interesting. I almost think Iona would be better going with Masiello and Quartlebaum because Iona has always done well hiring young, hungry assistants (Valvano, Welsh, Willard, even Ruland to some degree). Though I think Norm Roberts would do well at Iona if he was hired. Frankly, Roberts has proven a lot more than Willard has so far so it might be a positive move for Iona.
I disagree that Lavin was a last resort or desperate choice. Billy Donovan would’ve been great, but I just didn’t see that happening. After Donovan, I think Lavin would’ve been as good a choice as any. I’m not in love with Hewitt and apparently neither is Georgia Tech. I didn’t see Greenberg at St Johns for a number of reasons. I think Lavin is great because he is immediately one of the most high profile coaches in the Big East. He won big at UCLA – 5 Sweet 16’s in 6 years. and he has the type of charisma and personality to thrive on the big stage. He also showed he could handle the pressure at UCLA, one of the hardest places to coach
st johns might want to take a good look in the mirror and realize new york is not what it use to be and kids just dont want to stick around – there are way to many better options out there.
Carp,
I meant it as an example of how they could let people see it. Thanks. I would def like to see it.
Hoops well said, but he was low man on the totem pole. He was not a top choice. Donovan, Hewitt, Franny Mac, all were wanted ahead of him. He is the only one that wanted it.
What worries me is that he has no roots in NYC and I read that he is going to go the AAU route and look to hire one of the coaches on his staff. Not sure if this is a good thing.
Regardless, I just want this team to compete at a high level once again. I miss the old days!
The reason why St. John’s won’t be what it used to be is because it now has dorms. Back in the day when they didn’t the students couldn’t live on campus so Canasecca would literally be paying them to live at home and play baasketball at the Garden. Now with dorms and the strict recruiting laws that is illegal to do but it once was legal.
Also New York kids dremed of playing at the Garden, and St. Johns were the only ones that offered that to them. Now a days with all the preseason games going on at the Garden and then the Big East tourney being played there you can go elsewhere and still play at the Garden. For example Uconn could have possibly played 10 games at the Garden this year, maybe more (PreSeaon NIT- 2, Post Season NIT if they advanced 2, Big East Tourney if they advanced 5, game against St. Johns 1). UNC played three games, Duke played 4.
A guy like Lavin can convince these kid that its the place to play, there is so much talent in this area going to other Big East schools, if he keeps just some of that here coupled with the guys they are currently bringing in they would be a much more competitive team. Look at URI last night 6 guys from the NY-NJ area, and they’re starting 5 all from the area, and they’re playing at the Garden for the NIT semis, somethin St. Johns wishes they could do.
I agree with hoopsfan on the Iona job, Norm is a great coach and a class act, but I see them hiring a younger guy like Masiello, unless they can lock down a bigger name like Fraschilla.
Welsh is a good hire for Hofstra, almost have all these jobs filled up now and I think they will all benefit NY basketball.
HRs,
Agreed that Lavin wasn’t a first choice, but I think he was a good one. Coaches that succeed in NYC always seem to be the ones with charisma and personality – i.e. Pitino, Riley, Carnesecca, Frank McGuire. Fraschilla and Jarvis had less personality that those four mentioned, but a good amount in general and both did well at SJU. McCaffrey can coach, but can he recruit players to St Johns that Roberts couldn’t – I doubt it. Donovan could’ve brought in big-time players. Not sure about Hewitt.
Don’t forget, Jarvis was a guy who had no NY ties, but he brought in an AAU guy, Dermon Player, from Riverside Church which opened up the floodgates for Riverside Church players to SJU – Artest, Erick Barkley, Omar Cook, Anthony Glover, Reggie Jessie, etc, etc, etc. Lavin would be smart to try to bring in Mo Hicks (Rice/Gauchos) or Tiny morton (Lincoln/Juice) or maybe both.
Post,
Good point about the amount of times kids can play at the Garden these days. But there is something different being the home team when the Garden is rocking in your favor!
post,
Of course, you’re right about the dorms/stipend issue at SJU hurting them. However, I think they can work around it. Remember when Mahoney was the coach they were going nowhere fast, but he got Felipe Lopez, who then convinced Zendon Hamilton and next thing you know SJU went on a 6-7 run of relative success – I think they made the Elite 8 once and the Sweet 16 a couple times. I think SJU fans would be thrilled with an Elite 8 or Sweet 16. Lavin just has to get one big fish to get the ball rolling. I guarantee he’s already reached out to Doron Lamb. Kadeem Jack could be a good fit. I don’t know that there are any big time jrs in NYC, but Gilchrist at St Pats sounds like he is already headed to Nova or Kentucky. Should be interesting.
spring youth football is underway in Mount Vernon- ages 5-15
Anybody notice the FOOTBALL schedules are out?
Rye VS. Harrison – 3pm on 10/9/10 at RYe HS.
jmoose,
that link was to last years mount vernon team. not the 06’07 team
PLAYLAND:
NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! – DON’T JUMP THE GUN
As I understand things, the Class A Football Schedule was released in late February, but subsequently John Jay Cross River dissolved its annual merger with South Salem, and petitioned NYS for a Class A placement. Once uncoupled from South Salem, JJCR’s numbers placed them in Class A. NYS agreed and JJCR now drops down from AA to A and the original Class A schedule had to be scrapped and is being recast.
Josh/Carp: Any enlightenment? Timing? Thanks.
Josh takes nearly as many vacation days as Santa Clauss.
The blog has become a ghost town…can you hear the crickets?
garnet10580,
Regarding – “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! – DON’T JUMP THE GUN”
Rye is scheduled to play John Jay Cross River in a non-league game on THURSDAY 9/16 at Rye at 4:30pm (Jewish Holiday Schedule). Looks like it HAS BEEN RECAST.
It appears that the leagues have changed and Rye is grouped with Harrison, Eastchester,Lakeland and Walter Panas. Gone from their group is Roosevelt and Saunders.
About SAUNDERS – why can’t they force this team to merge with someone? Any bets on when they forfeit their first game?
As I understand things, the Class A Football Schedule was released in late February, but subsequently John Jay Cross River dissolved its annual merger with South Salem, and petitioned NYS for a Class A placement. Once uncoupled from South Salem, JJCR’s numbers placed them in Class A. NYS agreed and JJCR now drops down from AA to A and the original Class A schedule had to be scrapped and is being recast.
Josh/Carp: Any enlightenment? Timing? Thanks.
CORRECTED POST:
garnet10580,
Regarding – “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! – DON’T JUMP THE GUN”
Rye is scheduled to play John Jay Cross River in a non-league game on THURSDAY 9/16 at Rye at 4:30pm (Jewish Holiday Schedule). Looks like it HAS BEEN RECAST.
It appears that the leagues have changed and Rye is grouped with Harrison, Eastchester,Lakeland and Walter Panas. Gone from their group is Roosevelt and Saunders.
About SAUNDERS – why can’t they force this team to merge with someone? Any bets on when they forfeit their first game?
PLAYLAND:
Repeating – “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! – DON’T JUMP THE GUN”
Rye was always scheduled to play JJCR as an AA/A cross-over game in the original schedule before JJCR was dropped back into A.
There have been no new/revised schedules released as yet and all league assignments and football schedules in Class A are up-in-the-proverbial-air.