If you think the success of the Red Hook boys basketball team is a coincidence, then you don't know about all the hard work that the players on the Raiders hoop squad have put in to their games to get to the point where they are today, the New York State Final Four.Most of the players on this edition of the Red Hook boys basketball team, much like their predecessors from the 1996 state team, got their start in organized basketball in the St. Christopher's CYO basketball program.
Much like Father Carroll Field has been to young boys and girls playing Little League baseball over the years, the cozy confines of the St. Christopher's school gym has been the birthplace of many fantastic Red Hook basketball players.
Much like a newborn thoroughbred, the fledgling hoopsters take those first awkward steps on a floor that has seen many blossoming basketball players start out on their hoop career. Not all of them end up being Red Hook Raiders and even fewer become members of a team that makes it to the New York State Final Four.
Some of the Raiders players have given back to the program by becoming coaches and officiating some CYO games at the in-house level. Some of the current Raiders coaching in the league this season are John Boland, Spencer Dalzell, Danny Totten and Sean Michitsch. Red Hook's Cody Mauch has also coached CYO hoops in the past.
In an article I did a few years ago, many of these coaches admitted that coaching was a lot tougher than they thought but it was very rewarding to give back and see the looks on the kids faces when they coached them. I'm sure that it is no different today.
These young men graduate from being players on in-house CYO teams to the CYO travel teams and recently a coach told me a story about how he cut one of the members of this year's Red Hook boys basketball team but the player kept coming back year after year and finally made the team. This same player is now a key member of the Raiders unbeaten squad this season.
Many of these players go on to compete on AAU teams and play for a Red Hook team that plays in a summer league comprised of other teams in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League. Throw in countless of hours of practice during the season and you see that this year's edition of the Raiders put in plenty of hard work to become better players.
That's the thing about Red Hook basketball. Most youngsters grow up watching their heroes perform on the hardwood and aspire to be just like them when they grow up. Red Hook's gym might be small but its a big stage for local high school basketball players who aspire to wear the scarlet and white. Its just about the only game in town during the dead of winter and, with the brand of play that coach Rod Chando's teams display, you will always be entertained.
Success doesn't hurt either. Chando has never had a losing season in his 36 seasons at the helm of Red Hook. He has taken the Raiders to the Final Four once before back in 1996 and his teams are perennial league, section and state title contenders.
So as you sit in your seat at the Glens Falls Civic Center this Saturday morning watching these young men warm up before the biggest game of their lives, remember and appreciate what it takes to get there. It doesn't happen very often and it doesn't happen by accident.
Photos from Top to Bottom- Top-Spencer Dalzell.
Bottom (left to Right)- Cody Mauch and Drew White.
