Stahn And Company Return To Ferris Ave. For Hoops Tourney
by Zach Smart
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Their schedule is barely halfway through, but Sean Stahn already has a pretty thorough method of attack for his White Plains summer basketball league team. Stahn acknowledges that there’s a mindset his team must approach in order to compete for a championship this year. A berth in the championship game eluded their grasp last season, and the league’s “Red” team feels it’s a matter of unfinished business this summer.
“We before me.” It’s a selfless brand of basketball that the Ardsley product and Ithaca graduate has subscribed to the past two summers in the ultra-competitive outdoor league. Last summer, Stahn recruited and pieced together a 12-man, ego-free team that went deep into the playoffs before being bounced in a one-point heartbreaker. This season the squad returns a firm foundation while adding a pair of fresh faces.
The Westchester County-based league, which eliminates the squads who finished in the bottom half of the standings from last season, is once again home to one of the toughest summer programs outside of the city this summer.
“It’s going to be a little more wide-open this season,” opined Stahn, who added that defending champion White Plains has lost a bit of its luster from last summer. This is particularly due to the loss of Torey Thomas. Thomas, a high-octane combo guard who wrapped up a storied stay at Holy Cross this winter and recently took part in a tryout with the Knicks, is currently pursuing overseas opportunities. Summer after summer, the White Plains “Orange” team is front-loaded with lightning-quick guards, glossy-smooth swingmen and super-sized bigs who set up shop in the paint.
It’s not the same this season.
The Orange, however, will still be spearheaded by Devon Austin, a wiry 6-foot-6 guard/swingman who averaged 12.4 points for Manhattan this past season. The White Plains-bred Austin is a streak-shooter, but he can score in clusters when he’s got the hot hand. A 38-point eruption against Rider this season is indicative of this.
In the 12-team organization, coaches (as well as non-player coaches) are a minority and all teams, just like the concrete-hard criminals in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 classic Reservoir Dogs, are known via color alias. Busloads of Division-I talents use it as means to stay in shape and hopefully a springboard to success come winter time.
“The league is pretty competitive every year because the teams (that finish near the bottom) don’t get invited back,” explained Stahn, a 6-foot-5 small forward who surpassed the 1,000-point milestone as the go-to-guy at Ardsley High. “It’s a wide-open race.”
Stahn’s club once again features an inside/outside tandem with 6-foot-6 sharpshooter Ryan Schneider (Marist) and interior banger Jason Boone. Boone, a 6-foot-6 mountain of a man who played at N.Y.U., is the former DIIIHoops.com East Region Player of the Year. Both Schneider and Boone play alongside Stahn on the Empire States circuit. The team copped some hardware in 2006 and is hoping to repeat the glory this July.
Team “Red” is off to a 3-2 start, with their most recent game a five-point victory over the league’s Croton-based team. Boone was an inexorable force on “D” that Croton simply couldn’t get around. He altered many shots near the cup and finished with a game-high nine blocks, a few of which were eye-popping. The Red suffered their last loss on a game-winner at the buzzer.
Stahn says the problem that’s surfaced is scheduling conflicts, as it’s been difficult for everyone to make the game. With a bevy of collegiate players on the team, Stahn feels his team’s capable of ripping off a win streak and catapulting to the top once their all playing together.
“In a league like this, you need to have at least ten guys every game,” said Stahn.
He’s right. Through time it’s been evident that long bench always pays dividends in these outdoor full court runs, especially in sweltering summer heat.
Stahn said the one aspect his team needs to improve on is their turnover-to-assist ratio.
“We’ve been trying to make too many ESPN top-ten play passes,” he admitted, adding that the outdoor street ball element gets some players carried away. “When we’re all together, however, I think we can be a very dangerous team.”
Playing mindful and harmoniously, surrendering the “me” for “we,” and not buying into a big ego will likely prove this.
