6— Rebuilding

Coach Harry DeFrank had been there before. Not often, mind you, but often enough to know in the Fall of 2003 that this new season would be a work in progress…a long, long work in progress.


His Lady Shamrocks, state championship contenders the previous three years, had been dismantled that fateful March night eight months earlier when they were summarily dismissed in the first round of the state tournament. Gone was the core of that starting cast…Jill Glessner (second in Trinity career scoring with 1,464 points); Kara Stetler (a quick-as-a-blink point guard); Samatha Ramus, (the pesky combination forward/guard); and Lauren Nelson (a pivotal force inside). These young ladies, after a modest 18-12 debut their freshman year in 1999, had taken Trinity on a marvelous 81-16 run over the next three years. Now, they were among the departed, lost through graduation in the inevitable progression of high school athletics. They would not be easily replaced.


DeFrank neither minimized what was confronting this successor squad, nor did he shrink from the task at hand. He liked his poker (once a month with his old Steelton buddies) and the poker player in him told him that at the table or on the court, you played with the cards you were dealt. He knew, for this next edition of the Lady Shamrocks, this would be far from a pat hand.



Four times before in the DeFrank tenure at Trinity were the Lady Shamrocks forced to replace the heart of a unit that had competed for a state championship. But with an abundant supply of replacement talent on hand, they were able to do so without missing a detectable beat…or dribble, if you will.

 

▪In 1987, Trinity lost four of its five starters (Rita Balaban, Meghan Finnegan, Gail Beatty and Treanne Burch) from its first state championship team. Up stepped 6-l sophomore Robyne Bostick and 6-0 freshman Michelle Verotsky (two future Division I collegiate recruits) to fill the void  and run off a 25-5 rebound season. With a considerable assist from point guard Kristi Dunleavy, this group went on to a 60-5 record over the next two seasons (1989-90 and 1990-91) and reached the state championship final each time.


▪When Bostick, Verotsky and Dunleavy departed through graduation, sophomore Amy Walker and junior Lisa Cicak carried the ‘91-92           team to a 22-6 record. The very next year, the team jumped to 28-5 and another state championship appearance.


▪Four years later, another superlative class came on the scene. Led by Chrissy Walker (Amy’s sister) Maria Wall and Tara Twomey, this edition would compile still another outstanding career record of 106-19 and take the Shamrocks to one Eastern state final (‘96-97) and one state championship final (‘97-98).


▪Enter Glessner, Stetler, Ramus et al in ‘99-2000.


That’s what talent can do for a coach. On the talent meter, Trinity and DeFrank had been amply blessed through the years. No DeFrank coached team won fewer than 20 games in his first nine seasons at the Trinity helm. His 10th squad, in 1994-95, finished with a still creditable 19-9 record. To this point in DeFrank’s tenure, it was less a case of the Lady Shamrocks rebuilding and more of a case of regrouping and reloading. But 2003 would be different. 2003, pure and simple, would be a serious case of serious rebuilding.




Coach DeFrank would enter that season, his 20th with the Shamrocks, only 11 victories short of 500 at the Trinity helm. But to reach that pinnacle, he first had to contend with a lot of problems and unknowns to build a competitive squad. It would be, perhaps, the most demanding challenge of his storied run at the high school.


Going into the pre-season, he knew that size and playing experience were his two most pressing problems. This class, particularly among the freshmen, had height (in the 5-11 range) but as young as they were, they didn’t have bulk. “They’re thin,” he reflected. “They don’t have the physical strength to match a team like Harrisburg or Central Dauphin (the cream of the AAAA Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division heading into 2003-04).” As for experience…well the most he could say, if it needed to be said at all, was that “it’s a heck of a jump from varsity ball in grade school to varsity ball in high school.” For this team, there was a lot of learning and, most likely, a lot of lumps ahead. And DeFrank knew it.


DeFrank said he would attack both problems the only way he could. He would experiment a lot, for as long as it took, in search of the right combinations. “I’ll be using different fives every night in practice,” he pronounced. “I’m going to have to try more girls out and find the right girls for the right position.”



What was he looking for? “I’m looking for decent shooters,” he answered. “I’m looking for kids who can pass the ball. I’m a stickler for passing.” Not that you hadn’t heard that before (remember? ”The more you hit the open man closer to the basket the better your chances of scoring!”) Some things in coaching never change, and with Harry DeFrank, the importance of a good pass was one of them. Freshman Allison Daly would learn that lesson very early in her fledgling varsity career. “She will not make a bounce pass,” he lamented as the season opened. “I told her one night, I said, ‘The next time you make a pass and throw it into their hands, you’re coming out of the game. I just want you to know that.’” It must have worked. “She finally made a couple of bounce passes the other night,” he said a game or two later. He was smiling when he did.



That’s another constant about Coach DeFrank. He coaches the same whether he has a young team or a veteran team, a talented team or a learning team. Asked if he had to change his style or his tone with a young team, he responded: “Well, I can’t, that’s my problem. I’m very blunt about that. If you don’t tell them what you expect…if you don’t tell them you’re going to take them out, they’re going to do it continuously.


“You have to stay with your word. You’ve got to be a little tough on them, but it’s a tough situation (for players and coaches) when they’re so young.” It can also be “tough” on some parents for DeFrank to be “tough” on their daughters. “Now some people, some parents take it the wrong way,” he explained. “But the majority don’t. I could be wrong, but it’s a decision you’ve gotta make. You gotta make the decision.”


The players seem to handle it well enough, however. “Sometimes it’s hard because you get frustrated when you’re playing bad,” sophomore Rachel Holt admitted after her first season under DeFrank’s coaching. “But you just have to listen to the things he’s telling you and try to do it. In the end, it’s only to make you better.”



The Lady Shamrocks, with seasoned Katelyn Murray and Kristin Daly doing the heavy lifting as expected, jumped off to a quicker start than even DeFrank had reason to anticipate. They were 9-3 at the turn of the calendar year, and in the process, won the Gettysburg Holiday Tournament and moved their coach to within two wins of his 500th career victory at Trinity.


DeFrank’s 500th win came in early January, 2004, with a 54-23 victory over undermanned Central Dauphin East. It was just one month after he had lost only his 100th game in his 20-year Trinity career. His wife, Jean, their three sons and his brother, Ernie, were in the stands.


For one of the few times in that span, DeFrank allowed himself to talk about what the achievement meant to him personally. “I still have the ball from my very first (Trinity) win to this day at my house,” he told Harrisburg Patriot-News sportswriter Andrew Shay. “The score is written on the ball, I’m almost positive it was 53-28 and we played at Reading Holy Name. I still remember it like it was yesterday.”


Usually, that’s about all DeFrank would have to say when he’s the subject of the conversation. This night, however, he understandably was moved to reflect some more. “For the first time in a long time this afternoon, I sat down at home and started thinking about all the girls who came through those doors and walked these halls,” he admitted to Shay somewhat sheepishly. “We’ve had a lot of good kids. Not just good players, good kids. A lot of them or their families were here tonight, and that means something. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be at this. I know I still love it. I’ll still have to think about it for a while and talk to the family.” Wife Jean had heard that before.


The CD East win put the Lady Shamrocks at 11-4 midway through the 2003-04 season. As it developed, that would be the high point of their campaign. Reality and the shallow experience factor set in very quickly after that. They went only 7-7 for the remainder of the year.


Still the season was far from a failure. The Lady Shamrocks, at 18-11, earned a spot in the state tournament. One year later, with Katelyn Murray at the helm, the 6-foot (Gina) Nazarro in the middle, freshman Holt at point guard and (Chrissy) Forster working hard in that blue-collar way of hers, the Lady Shamrocks fell just five points shy of another appearance in a state championship game. They lost, 43-39, to two-time defending AA state champion, DeLone Catholic, in the eastern PIAA final. DeLone went on to its third consecutive state title. But for Trinity, this was one rebuilding project that was pretty much complete.


   
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