Riverhead coach puts together first all-county girls basketball showcase game

For the first time in history, the Suffolk County Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, lead by president and Riverhead girls basketball coach Dave Spinella, created the Future Stars, Rising Stars and Exceptional Seniors basketball showcase.

The event, hosted by Northport High School March 29, brought together the best of the best on Long Island, with an exception of a few girls that have already committed to big Division I schools. It was a chance for some exposure as more than a handful of college coaches came down to watch.

Tryouts were held to determine the teams. The future stars consisted of 7th, 8th and 9th graders. The rising stars were made up of 10th and 11th graders. Lacrosse has been doing the a rising stars event for prospective colleges for years now so Spinella used that as a guide to create a version for girls basketball.

“I’d gotten the idea from lacrosse,” Spinella said. “But we always did the exceptional senior game so why not try to showcase some of the younger talent as well.”

Traditionally, the exceptional senior game was for the seniors who may have been overlooked during the season and given a last ditch effort for colleges to get a final look.

“One of the biggest discussions we have every year is that not a lot of the coaches know many of the kids when it comes down to voting to all-county,” Spinella said. “This is a good way to get them out there.”

Riverhead was well represented in the event with all of their starting five participating. 8th graders Kim Ligon, Kate McCarney, and Faith Johnson-DeSilvia played in the future stars challenge and 10th graders Sam Dunn and Dezarae Brown played in the rising stars challenge. Riverhead senior Gabby Green played in the exceptional senior game.

McGann Mercy also had representatives at the showcase. 9th graders Mary Reiter, Megan Kuehhas and Mia Behrens all played in the future stars challenge.

“We sent out a mass email to hundreds of college coaches from all over,” Spinella said. “We had 10-15 local Division I and Division II colleges come down and we had others that couldn’t make it reaching out through emails. They wanted a list of names, they wanted to know how the games went. We had people from all the way from New Hampshire to Brooklyn College.”

Spinella received enough positive feedback from high school and college coaches, families and players, to do it again next year.

“We saw after the game some of the unsigned seniors having conversations with college coaches,” Spinella said. “So if we can help them in that way, it’s totally worth it.”

“This is just the first annual event,” Spinella continued. “We’re going to try to do it again next year and make it bigger and better. My dream would be to have the future stars, rising stars, exceptional seniors and a former stars game where we bring back kids that have gone off and graduated and play in front of their hometown one last time.”