More than 30 Blue Waves alumnae are ready to hit the court on March 17 for the first-ever Riverhead High School girls basketball alumni day game.
The event, organized by the Riverhead High School Girls Basketball Booster Club and girls JV basketball head coach Jalyn Brown, is a fundraiser for a girls youth basketball program.
“We always wanted an alumni game,” said Brown, star point guard on the 2012 L.I. champion Blue Waves team. Brown averaged 16.4 points per game in the Waves’ magical 2011-2012 season, took them to the state final four. They posted a 23-1 record before losing to the undefeated Penfield Patriots in the state semifinals in Troy.
Members of Brown’s L.I. championship team, members of the Blue Waves 1984 team, which won the county title, and other alumnae will be on hand to play, she said.
Building a youth basketball program is important for developing a pipeline of talent in middle school and high school, Brown said.
“We haven’t had the best numbers coming to try out,” she said. “We need to start the girls young, with clinics and camps, to encourage girls to keep playing.”
Brown, in her first year as JV head coach, was a five-year varsity player, a two-time all-county player who became the first Riverhead girls basketball player to accept a basketball scholarship in more than a decade. She won a full ride to LIU-Post, where she helped the team win the East Coast Conference title.
Brown is one of several 1,000-point scorer Blue Wave alumna who will be sinking baskets March 17. The event begins at 2 p.m. in the Riverhead High School gym. There will also be a Chinese auction that day. Tickets, at $5 apiece, go on sale this week.
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