It’s been 10 years since the magical season when the Riverhead Blue Waves girls basketball team was crowned Southeast Regional Champion and Riverhead is celebrating by reuniting Lady Waves alumnae for a special game next month.
The Lady Blue Waves alumnae will host the Bellport Lady Clippers Alumnae at Riverhead High School on Friday, April 1, starting at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Riverhead Girls Basketball Booster Club.
Former team captain Jalyn Brown is organizing the event, a suggestion of Blue Waves girls varsity head coach Cherese Hickson.
“She contacted me at the beginning of the season. She wanted to do this so current players know about the history of the Riverhead girls basketball program and what we’ve accomplished as a team over the years. It was her idea to put this all together,” Brown said. “We’re hoping the community will turn out for the game.”
Admission is just $2 for spectators.
The regional championship Lady Waves had enormous community support for the history-making 2011-2012 season that took the team to the state semifinals a decade ago. Fans turned out to cheer the team on at home and on the road, drawing a bigger crowd than the Nassau County champs — and defending regional champions — Baldwin when the teams met for the regional title at Farmingdale State on March 9, 2012. The Waves (23-1) defeated Baldwin 56-50 to claim the title and move on to the state semifinals.
“It was a really special season,” Brown recalled in an interview today. “We had a great bond,” she said.
Brown recalled how determined the team was to win. “I remember us losing to Sachem East in the Suffolk quarter-finals the year before,” she said. “We all hated losing. We were very competitive.”
The team entered a spring league and then worked with a strength and conditioning coach that summer. When the season got underway, they were prepared.
“We had a chip on our shoulder,” Brown said. “They never said anything about Riverhead. It was all about Sachem East, Lindenhurst and Hauppauge.”
Though the Waves lost their first game to John Glenn that season, they never looked back, and went on a 23-game winning streak. Still, people around the league counted them out, Brown said, even as they defeated their higher-seeded opponents.
But Riverhead knew better and the community came together and stood by the team as it tore up the league. Signs of support were posted all over town. The Suffolk Theater’s marquee lit up in Blue and White congratulating the Waves on their Long Island regional title. Supporters traveled by the busload to upstate Troy for the state final four.
“We couldn’t have done it without the community support,” Riverhead Coach Dave Spinella said before the trip upstate.
The team was fêted with a celebratory post-season parade on Main Street that April and the community turned out in force.
“People are still talking about us around town,” Brown said. “I still hear it, 10 years later.”
Brown said she expects most of the 2011-2012 championship team to participate in the April 1 alumnae game. All but one of the team’s starters have already confirmed, she said: Melodee Riley, Shanice Allen, Marta Czaplak, Naysha Trent and Alyssa Meyer.
Coach Spinella will be there too, Brown said. Spinella was named Suffolk Coach of the Year in 2012.
“We’re all looking forward to it,” she said.
Player registration is $25. To register email RiverheadGBBBoosterClub@gmail.com. Cash App: $waves2022. Roster space is limited.
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