Scoring points for morale

For years, St. Maria Goretti was the game most teams circled on their schedules as an easy victory.

That’s what happens to a girls’ basketball program that hasn’t had a winning season in more than two decades.

When Chip Reitano came on board four years ago, he was determined things would change. He made it his mission to mold the Lambs into a competitive team that could contend for a Catholic League playoff spot with the likes of Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara. Fittingly, in Goretti’s last year before it merges with St. John Neumann, the program tallied a 15-win season — its best record since 1982.

The turnaround is not only impressive, it’s sudden. The Lambs went 0-12 in 2003. And it’s a credit to Reitano, 39, who convinced his team it could succeed despite its small-school status and history. The feat is worthy of special recognition: the Review‘s 2004 Coach of the Year Award.

Reitano said he simply tried to keep a pledge he made to athletic director George Bain while interviewing for the coaching position.

"In four years, I thought we would have a team that is competitive and a playoff contender," he said. "In my heart, I really thought we would contend for that fourth playoff spot [this year]."

Well, close enough. Goretti’s 4-8 record in Catholic League play is a program best under Reitano, of the 1700 block of South 28th Street.

Emotion fueled this final season as the Lambs; just like the boys’ teams, the girls will be known as the Saints next year. The final home game, played in a packed gymnasium, was a thrilling if disappointing contest. Goretti lost 60-59 to Catholic League runner-up O’Hara.

Still, it was an athletic achievement that took the Lambs’ opponents by surprise.

"No one expected us to be at that level," said Reitano, who owns the Center City School of Bartending. "It was a great way to send off Goretti basketball as well as the school."

The ironic thing is, the 1982 Neumann grad only played basketball in his freshman year of high school. At 5-foot-6, he wasn’t quite tall enough to make varsity. Instead, in his junior year he volunteered for the St. Aloysius boys’ basketball team.

He credits Tom Bitto, then St. Al’s basketball coach, and his father Charles Reitano for inspiring him to coach.

"[Coaching CYO basketball] felt like the right thing and what I wanted to do," said Reitano, a father of three — two boys from a previous marriage and a 3-year-old girl with Melissa, his wife of five years.

Before arriving at Goretti, the South Philly native coached the Center City-based Friends Select boys’ basketball team. His current position requires a year-round commitment that includes summer camps, scouting, game planning and conditioning.

Most importantly, it takes the right players. Two of the athletes Reitano chose in his first year as coach have led the Lambs’ climb to respectability. Point guard Natasha Scott and center Janae Ostrowski guided the younger players through practice and games this season.

"I definitely think it was a key for us," Reitano said of the players. "I brought them up through my system. You teach them your system, and by the time they are juniors they go in and perform."

Scott is graduating as the first four-time All-Catholic selection in Goretti basketball history, and will continue playing at Division II Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Del.

Ostrowski served as the Lambs’ defensive force in the middle, setting a Catholic League record with 124 blocks this season, breaking her previous mark of 108. The Catholic League’s Student-Athlete award winner will play for Division III Widener University.

Reitano, who relies on assistant coaches Keith Walker, Jill Henry and John Paris, is enthusiastic about the squad’s prospects next season.

Junior Shonte Skinner, already drawing Division I interest from Towson, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, will be back with her 20-plus points per game. Rookie sensation Amberel Diaz also is returning.

And Reitano — named the assistant athletic director at Neumann-Goretti High — said he is starting to hear a lot of buzz about the program.

The coach anticipates a busy off-season for the athletes that includes playing in a summer league and attending a team camp at Messiah College.

Reitano is confident this year’s momentum will carry over.

"[This season] was a great building stone for this program," the coach said. "It should transcend into a very bright future."

Runners-up

Rick Shields, CAPA volleyball

The 2003 recipient was once again a strong contender for Coach of the Year honors after leading the girls’ volleyball team to the Public League championship game in the fall, and last month orchestrating the boys’ title victory over Central. It’s the squad’s second Public League crown in four years.

Linda Page, Prep Charter girls’ volleyball

The newcomer to the Public League scene developed a second-year program into a serious playoff contender. The Lady Huskies spent the majority of the season sparring with Bodine for the Silver Division title and gave Gold Division squad John Bartram quite a scare in the quarterfinals. Bartram needed an overtime period to narrowly defeat Prep Charter, 53-51.

Steve Smith, Neumann track

It’s been quite a year for Smith, who last month was promoted to Neumann-Goretti football coach after 11 years as an assistant at the all-boy school. He also worked wonders with the Pirates’ track and field program, which gained local and national recognition after years of middling performances. The highlight for Smith was taking some members of the team to Maryland in March to compete in the Nike Indoor Championships, marking a school first.