The mission of the Warriors Basketball Club is to develop, nurture, and prepare the youth of Comsewogue and its neighboring communities for the next level of basketball; to teach accountability, honesty, integrity, responsibility, sportsmanship; to build character, camaraderie, discipline, respect, trust; to help each individual realize his/her full potential for the benefit of the team; to challenge each player to continually become better each and every day – to be better today than s/he was yesterday.
The Warriors Basketball Club’s ultimate goal is to keep the area youth “home” as they advance in skills and experience on and off the court; to see the players come up through middle school and high school under the guidance of experienced directors and coaches, who are committed to making the basketball program at Comsewogue a success for years to come.
The Warriors Basketball Club was founded on the premise of this very goal. In January 2017, Steve Stancil, Brian Strohm and Rudy Gray wanted to keep their three boys playing together rather than sending them individually to various AAU teams. They wanted their boys to keep playing with the same teammates on their then-undefeated CYO team, coached by Comsewogue High School Varsity Boys Basketball Player, Dylan Morris-Gray. They wanted to keep a good thing going. The CYO team went on to finish 15-1, with the only loss being in the CYO Long Island Championship Game against Elmont. They felt very positive that this team was good enough as-is to take on the spring tournament circuit.
So, a quick plan was put together. They formed as the Warriors Basketball Club, and took the 6th grade CYO boys out on the road to Delaware to the Premier 1 Mid-Atlantic Super Showcase!
But when they left that first tournament in Delaware with a 0-3 record and the boys’ confidence shattered, they knew they had to find help for these promising young players. They knew they had a good core of boys, but that they needed direction. At that point, they were offered help by other trainers, but they couldn’t quite connect with their style. After two more lopsided losses in Rockland County, while at one of their practices at the high school gym, Comsewogue Varsity Boys Basketball Coach Sutherland and Varsity Assistant Coach Krischer, suggested that they take the whole team to Our Savior to be trained by Coach Kelly Martin. So they did.
Coach Kelly put the boys through a rigorous training program that not only taught the boys the proper fundamentals, skills and other physical aspects of basketball they needed, but he also prepared them to be mentally ready for the higher levels of competition they will be facing. He instilled in them a sense of accountability for everything they did on and off the court. Coach Kelly was able to get every one of the boys to fully understand what teamwork is, and how they each had to bring out the very best not only from within themselves, but from within their teammates as well, in order to succeed as a team.
With Coach Kelly’s coaching, training and guidance three times a week for almost three months, the team succeeded.
After a 0-5 start, the very first Warriors Basketball Club team finished their first spring tournament season with one Tournament Championship win and a 15-10 overall record, including 2 championship game appearances.
The team then went on to complete a 10-0 championship winning season at St. Patrick Youth Spring/Summer League.
Considering that this was a CYO team, with a bunch of Comsewogue boys and 1 Middle Country boy with no prior travel team experience (especially keeping in mind that most AAU clubs recruit the best they can find at each position from towns all over), it can be said that this team achieved great success in its very first season!
________
Club Management
Co-Founders / Club Directors
Steve Stancil
Rudy Gray
Director of Business Affairs
Janet Bernzott
Directors of Fundraising
Michele Guzman
Dara Morris-Gray
Director of Player Training
Kelly Martin, Our Savior Basketball Family
