Welcome to the fifth issue of volume six of Swish, a weekly periodical with recaps and photos of Santa Monica YMCA youth basketball games, and other pertinent info such as announcements and updates from the program.
Registration for the Spring Santa Monica YMCA youth basketball season will begin on Monday, February 24th, in other words, on 2/24 to honor Gigi and Kobe Bryant.
February is Black History Month, and I will continue in this issue of Swish, with part three of the series of articles, now through February, from the Black Fives Foundation. Please visit their website www.BlackFives.org
This is an amazing organization that helps to educate all young players and fans of basketball about the early pioneers of the game that have influenced following generations, and will continue to influence the game of basketball for future generations to come.
Ora Washington
Black women’s basketball pioneer Ora Mae Washington was born on January 23, 1898. Washington was perhaps the greatest female athlete of all time, black or white. To help celebrate, let’s focus on a basketball team she led—the Philadelphia Tribune Girls, an all-black team that played during the 1930s and 1940s.
There are few teams in any sport, any place, that dominated so completely and for so long. The Tribune Girls won eleven straight Women’s Colored Basketball World’s Championships. The Tribune Girls were formed in 1930 with players from the Philadelphia Quick Steppers and the Germantown Hornets, two exceptional local all-black female basketball teams. The Quick Steppers featured Inez Patterson, a phenomenal sports star who also managed and coached the team.
The Hornets’ lineup included two amazing athletes who were already nationally renowned as tennis players, Ora Washington and Lula Ballard. Both teams played at the Young Women’s Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) Colored Branch in Germantown, a racially diverse suburban community in the northern section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Patterson, a record-setting Temple University athlete who was an All-Collegiate selection in many sports including basketball, was the Quick Steppers’ most talented player. A West Philadelphia native and the team’s captain, Patterson had led the Quick Steppers to a 15-1 record and the Eastern Colored Women’s Basketball Championship title during the previous season, in 1929.
More than a great athlete, Patterson, who also managed the team, was far ahead of her time as a black female sports promoter and entrepreneur. In 1930 she approached the powerful Philadelphia Tribune, a leading Negro newspaper, to propose a team sponsorship arrangement between the paper and the Quick Steppers. Patterson went to Otto Briggs, the newspaper’s circulation manager. He was also a part owner of the publication, and the husband of the president of the paper. The Tribune newspaper sponsored and promoted her basketball team, bringing free advertising, exposure, and financial stability to her club during a time of great uncertainty at the start of the Great Depression.
In return, Patterson renamed her team, which increased the paper’s popularity as well as its local and national circulation. Thus, the Tribune Girls were born. Nicknamed the “newsgirls,” the Tribune women played most of their home games in the Wissahickon Boys Club gym in Germantown.
With the backing of the Philadelphia Tribune as her calling card, Patterson easily persuaded Ora Washington and Lula Ballard, the stars of the Germantown Hornets, to join the newly named Tribune Girls team. The acquisition of these two players paved the way for the Tribunes to dominate black women’s basketball for nearly two decades to come. Washington was a national headliner. She had just won her third of seven straight American Tennis Association women’s singles titles.
With these stars, the Tribune Girls reigned immediately. Their trademark was “snappy playing and sharp shooting.” By the end of December, Ora Washington was already being hailed as “the best Colored player in the world.” Despite a growing list of independent female African American basketball teams, the Tribune Girls had no rivals. So they looked to black colleges for competition.
During the Depression Era, while most black colleges were discontinuing their women’s basketball programs in favor of “refinement and respectability,” Bennett College for Women, a historically black school in Greensboro, North Carolina, did the opposite.
Bennett enthusiastically focused on basketball, recruiting top players nationwide to become the best African American women’s collegiate team – and perhaps the best overall black female squad – in the country, by the mid-1930s. Between 1933 and 1937, the Bennett girls lost only one college game. Naturally, people wanted to know which team was better. A showdown between the Tribune Girls and the Bennett College Five was scheduled in 1934 — a weeklong 3-game series in Greensboro to decide the national black women’s basketball championship.
One can imagine the atmosphere. For their first game the Tribune Girls showed up in new red and white uniforms with script “Tribune” lettering sewn onto sleeveless tops, and matching socks. At halftime they changed into fresh purple and gold outfits. Maybe their hot looks set the tone, because the Tribunes swept the series. The newsgirls’ scoring in the series was well balanced, while the team’s shooting was described as “almost supernatural.” “They just had it all together,” Bennett player Ruth Glover explained in a modern day interview. “They could dribble and keep the ball and make fast moves in to the basket which you couldn’t stop.”
Ora Washington was intense. “I didn’t believe in long warm-ups; I’d rather play from scratch and warm up as I went along,” she once told a reporter. “She wasn’t a huge person, or very tall,” recalled Glover. “But she was fast.” Washington was the core of the lineup. “The team was built up around her,” said Glover. The Tribunes-Bennett series of 1934 was a landmark in building interest and enthusiasm for black women’s collegiate and interscholastic sports programs.
By 1936 the Tribunes had achieved “a string of victories that have overshadowed anything done by any other bunch of girls in either race.” During the 1937-38 season the team reportedly traveled over 5,000 miles to fill their schedule, which included a tour of Southern states.
But in the summer of 1941, as the newsgirls were set to start their 12th season, a shakeup at the Philadelphia Tribune newspaper headquarters caused the departure of Otto Briggs. Then in December, America’s entry into World War II stalled the momentum of all major sports, particularly women’s basketball.
Ora Washington led the team.
Without Briggs, the Tribune Girls soon fell apart and disbanded. Briggs, an ailing World War I veteran, died in 1943. Following the war, support of women’s participation in sports never quite reestablished itself and neither did the Tribune Girls basketball team.
However, by then, many of the barriers to African American female involvement in sports had already begun to collapse thanks to the pioneering efforts of Ora Washington and Tribune Girls. Despite her accomplishments, little had been written about her until Sky Kings and more recently, Shattering the Glass.
Rookies
SUPER BEES GET CRASHED INTO BY THE COMETS — February 15th. Our team loves basketball, and all 11 show up pretty much for every practice and game. We always try hard, but for the second game in a row we had the lead into the 4th quarter then became overcome by the other team in some manner. This week it was the Comets’ Luca Samson, and his (league record?) 12 steals in one game to go with 4 points that he finally accomplished in the final stanza. Notables on our side include Theo DeCordoba with 2 points, 1 rebound, and 2 steals. James Haro had 2 points. Oliver Harris with an assist and a steal. Our Luca, Luca Palmer had a good game with 4 rebounds and 1 steal. Rex Stone also amassed 4 rebounds. The Super Bees need to attack the basket more to avoid getting our passes intercepted and eventually outscored. Final Score, Mr. Samson’s D helped the Comets prevail over our Bees, 8-5. Submitted by Coach Pete Harris
Sat. 2/15/2020, 10:30am Comets vs. Super Bees: The Comets faced off against the sensational Super Bees on Saturday. Despite numerous hard fought scoring attempts and relentless rebounding, the Comets found themselves scoreless at the halfway mark down by 4 points. When the shots wouldn’t fall, the Comets doubled down on the defensive end. Leading the charge was Julian Zambrano and Brandon Tae-Soo Kim in the front court. Liam Broihier kept up the perimeter pressure as well, recording 2 steals and 2 rebounds. August Fenderson had 1 rebound and contributed to multiple defensive stops. Down below, Oliver Nabel stepped up big and pulled down a season high 5 rebounds. Sydney Summers also had 5 rebounds along with 1 steal and showed excellent poise pushing the ball up the court. Calvin Reardon played steady Comets ball, finishing with 3 rebounds. In addition to 3 steals and 2 rebounds, Dylan Geary took control on offense in the second half, tying up the game by scoring the Comets’ first 4 points of the game. Luca Samson was everywhere on defense with a season high 12 steals and 6 rebounds. Luca sank 2 huge buckets in the 4th quarter, earning him Player of the Game accolades and sealing the come from behind win for the Comets. Final score: Comets 8, Super Bees 5. Submitted by Coach Kevin Geary
Saturday, 2/15/29, 11:40 AM Falcons vs. Rebels: Unfortunately, the Falcons were not able to field a full squad for Saturday’s game and were forced to forfeit. However, two Falcon’s players showed up ready to play so the team signed two Bantum players to one game contracts and rotated in a different Rebel player in order to go 5 on 5. This meant everyone got A LOT of playing time in what turned out to be an exciting game. Since this was not an official match, complete stats were not available, but here are few highlights. Roman Sweeney got hot early and scored 10 points to earn Player of the Game. Theo Franklin and Weston Brea provided the rest of the offense with 4 points and 2 points, respectively. The entire Rebels squad played phenomenal defense to keep the game close and fuel a come from behind win late in the 4th quarter. Daniel Batra and Zeke Sarr each had shot blocks. Mariella Belew, Jason Gaines Jr., Xavier Bramlette and Daniel Gruft each contributed with steals. Submitted by Coach Jeff Brea
Bantams
This past Saturday, the Laker’s sponsored Santa Monica YMCA pieced together their weekly group of available U8 kids to play the Clippers sponsored Culver’s YMCA U8 team. While Culver Clippers had some hustlers including both boy and girls who showed grit and talent, the SM Lakers, all boys this week, were too much to be stopped. Somewhere near the end of the 3rd quarter the scorekeepers went ahead and zero’d out the score board when it became 30-8 Lakers. The game ended approximately 40-12 with Santa Monica Lakers commanding the win this week.
While player stats weren’t recorded, Jackson Harper was his usual star studded self getting at least 11+ points including a 3 pointer, many rebounds, snagging his share of steals, passing for assists, and displaying his ability to basically stop anyone the Clippers could bring at him including a block or two while he was at it. Playing right w/ him was team’s co-leader Nico Rangel who also put up big numbers with 10+ points, multiple steal fast breaks, and using his size, speed, and skillsets to display sheer domination on both ends of the floor. Tristan Hayes, small but mighty, was able to drop a couple of jump shots, w/ at least one off a Harper assist, plus play off Rangel by trailing his fast break steals a couple times and cleaning up the rebound to convert for a couple more baskets, and did his job job on defense as well.
Ibrahim Ally was better late than never arriving in the 2nd quarter, and his size and talent helped Lakers right away with his ability to defend, rebound, and putting up at least a couple baskets. Bryson Ning was extra active on defense, got after loose balls, and helped confuse the Clippers flow for sure. Austin Bernier (aka “junior Bird” for his similar Larry Bird shooting style and tendency to hit jumpers), positioned himself beautifully off the ball, and got some good looks while using his size on defense on the other end all game. Hunter Ma, which could have been confused for Hayes’ little brother with similar energy and playing style, and yet even a bit smaller and clearly mighty, impressively attacked the ball, got off multiple shots around bigger defenders, converting for one, and proved big things can also come in small packages. Diego Gonzalez was a bit like “The Worm” Dennis Rodman by consistently doing important things all game like boxing out for rebounds, pestering Culver with his tough D, and kept movement off the ball to help the flow for Lakers. Adrien Yen completed the 9-man Laker team and used his energy and defense to help add extra power to this team’s dominant win. Submitted by Coach Holden Hayes
Minors
Mustangs fight hard fought battle against Novas: The Mustangs lost a hard fought battle with the Novas Sunday evening, 28 – 20. Playing shorthanded, two Bantam siblings, Colson Moore, and Sienna Shickler stepped up to fill in for their team brother and sister’s team! Sienna scored a free throw and had a couple boards in her first ever Minors game and Colson had two rebounds and two steals, also playing for the first time in Minors! They both played hard and helped their team come back and keep the Novas from breaking away during the game.
Archer Aguilar lead the scoring with six points and a FT from the line. Jaxton Moore had his first field goal in Minors scoring 2 points. Marina Shickler scored four points and had a great game on steals and the boards. Jacapo Stabilini also had a great game with 2 free throws and 2 points. Submitted by Jason Moore
Majors
Cougars vs Roadrunners: Despite being extremely short handed and not exactly the tallest team in the league, the Cougars managed to pull out their first win of the season. Guards Clark Elliott, Jace O’Brien, Amiel Doustan, and Jonathan Shu played as if they were veteran guards in the NBA. They controlled the pace of the game and limited turnovers. Big man Luke Kholsa held down the paint on defense and provided a spark on offense by being aggressive and attacking the rim. Wing Evan Daghighian played incredible. He was aggressive all game and when it came to pivotal game moments, he stepped up and did what had to be done. He hit a huge 3 pointer with a little over 2 seconds left to give us a great chance to win the game with free throws. It was a great first win and not one that will be forgotten easily. Submitted by Coach Ian Roper
This Week’s Profile
Each week, Swish has a profile of a coach, player, or someone in the program who inspires all of us involved in Santa Monica YMCA basketball.
This week’s profile is the father/son combo of Craig and Cam Pariser. Craig has been a coach for the past few seasons, and Cam is a longtime veteran player of our program. Craig and Cam bring positive reinforcement to their players and their teammates. Both believe in hard work and good sportsmanship which has earned the respect of other parents and players in the youth basketball program.
DocDrew: What do you enjoy most about playing basketball at the Santa Monica YMCA?
Cam: Having fun playing with my friends, making new friends and getting better at basketball.
DocDrew: Which are your favorite memories or moments during your playing career at the Santa Monica YMCA
Cam: My favorite memories are a game where I scored 12 points, my last season of Bantam when we won the championship and in Minors when we won the b-tournament.
DocDrew: Who are your favorite players and why?
Cam: My favorite player is Kobe Bryant because no matter who we was up against he always found a way to get past them. My second reason is that when he retired, he helped kids get better at basketball
DocDrew: What do you enjoy most about coaching youth basketball at the Santa Monica YMCA?
Coach Craig: I most enjoy watching the kids continuously develop as players in just the short period of time of a single season. Everyone of them seem to gain new levels of confidence, skills and teamwork. Also, it’s just plain fun!
DocDrew: Who inspires you as a coach?
Coach Craig: I am inspired by all of the coaches at the Y who lead Cam’s prior teams including Charles Ellinwood, Pete Brown, Brian Phelan, Terrell Turner, Karim Mikhail and Tanya Peters. I attended most of Cam’s practices under these coaches and saw their dedication, patience and care for not just their kids, but for all kids on the team. I am also inspired by Coach Josh Wakefield’s knowledge of the game and had he not grabbed a coaches application and showed it to me, I may not have gotten involved. Finally, I am inspired by my son Cam whose very infectious excitement in playing basketball at the Y drew me in.
Craig and Cam demonstrate what the youth basketball program is about: helping others, good sportsmanship, and dedication to making the game fun. We truly appreciate all that they do for the Santa Monica YMCA.
SCORES
SAT 2/15/2020
Rookies
Comets 8, Super Bees 5
Falcons 14, Rebels 16
Cyclones 6, Darts 14
Minors
Judges 39, Novas 16
Majors
Roadrunners 51, Cougars 53
Stingrays 56, Barracudas 57
Firebirds 48, Cobras 37
Culver Middle School
U8 division
Santa Monica YMCA 40, Culver/Palms YMCA 12
SUN 2/16/2020
Bantams
Dusters 23, Sabres 12
Caminos 32, Chevelles 28
Challengers 23, Thunderbolts 12
Minors
Daytonas 12, Camaros 26
Judges 27, Torinos 29
Mustangs 20, Novas 28
Chargers 34, Impalas 30
Standings:
Teams are awarded 5 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, 1 point for a loss, 0 points for a forfeit. Tournament games have greater point value. Teams are listed in their place in the standings with W-L-T and team points.
Rookies:
Comets 4-0-2, 26 points
Wildcats 4-1-1, 24 points
Rebels 4-2-0, 22 points
Super Bees 3-3-0, 18 points *Super Bees beat Coronets head to head
Coronets 3-3-0, 18 points
Darts 2-3-1, 16 points
Cyclones 1-5-0, 10 points *Cyclones beat Falcons head to head
Falcons 1-5-0, 10 points
Bantams:
Challengers 4-1-0, 21 points
Toronados 4-0-0, 20 points
Dusters 3-2-0, 17 points*Dusters beat Caminos head to head
Caminos 3-2-0, 17 points
Fury 2-2-0, 12 points
Thunderbolts 2-3-0, 13 points
Sabres 2-3-0, 13 points
Chevelles 0-5-0, 5 points
Minors:
Torinos 4-1-0, 21 points
Chargers 4-1-0, 21 points
Camaros 4-1-0, 21 points
Impalas 3-1-0, 16 points
Novas 2-4-0, 14 points *Novas beat Daytonas head to head
Daytonas 1-4-0, 9 points
Judges 2-3-0, 13 points
Mustangs 0-5-0, 5 points
Majors:
Firebirds 6-0-0, 30 points
Barracudas 3-2-1, 20 points
Cobras 3-3-0, 18 points
Stingrays 2-3-1, 16 points
Roadrunners 2-4-0, 14 points
Cougars 1-5-0, 10 points
Upcoming Schedule
All games are played in the gymnasium of the Santa Monica YMCA
R=Rookies
B=Bantams
MN=Minors
MJ=Majors
SAT 2/22/2020
84 10:30 AM MN Chargers Mustangs
85 11:40 AM MN Impalas Novas
86 12:50 PM MN Judges Daytonas
87 2:00 PM MN Torinos Camaros
88 3:10 PM B Thunderbolts Sabres
89 4:20 PM B Dusters Chevelles
90 5:30 PM B Challengers Fury
91 6:40 PM B Toronados Caminos
SUN 2/23/2020
92 10:30 AM R Comets Cyclones
93 11:40 AM R Coronets Darts
94 12:50 PM R Falcons Super Bees
95 2:00 PM R Rebels Wildcats
96 3:10 PM MN Torinos Impalas
97 4:20 PM MN Mustangs Daytonas
98 5:30 PM MJ Cobras Cougars
Standings as of 2-17-20/Quarterfinal
99 6:40 PM MJ Stingrays Roadrunners
Standings as of 2-17-20/Quarterfinal
TUES 2/25/2020
76 5:25 PM B Toronados Fury
Thank you very much,
Dr. Paul Drew, youth basketball coordinator at the Santa Monica YMCA, editor and publisher of Swish
