Central Girls Hope Back-to-Back Titles are Just the Start

“See, right there,” John Truhan said, “you should have made that cut.”

The Central Regional basketball coach was breaking down film of his team’s recent game against Lacey, the game that earned the Golden Eagles’ girls team a share of the 2012 Shore Conference Class B South championship.

The team, seated on the floor of the gym, listened attentively, at times anticipating what their coach would say before he pointed it out.

You have to wonder how he suppressed the urge to chuckle, however, addressing a group wearing tiny crowns … and curled mustaches.

Make no mistake: Truhan is very serious about how his team plays basketball.

“I want them to have respect for the game,” he said. But he sees the value in having fun.

How else to you explain allowing the team to cover him with Silly String?

Then again, Truhan would be quick to say the team earned it, after the Golden Eagles clinched their second consecutive Shore Conference Class B South championship with a victory over Manchester on Tuesday. It’s the first back-to-back titles for the girls team in the school’s existence.

“These kids are rewriting history,” Truhan said, as the players continued to watch the replay and discuss their performance. They know it, too, and are relishing the experience.

“We all got together and went out to lunch today to celebrate,” said senior Ashley Bernath. “We basically spent the whole day just hanging out together.”

The family they’ve become – a family that includes Truhan’s own children – has created a unity that Truhan says is an important piece of taking a team from middle-of-the-road to championship caliber.

He has done this before – with Toms River South, which he took to the Group III title game in his third year at the helm, and with Colts Neck, which he took to the Tournament of Champions title game.

“Toms River South was special,” he said, “because I didn’t have a single kid over 5-foot-8,” he said. “And Colts Neck had never been ranked in the top 10 at the Shore before” he took them over.

One of the key elements that has led to that success is creating unity through a mutual respect. And it is respect that has created harmony and unity at Central.

“Every coach needs to have the respect of his players,” Truhan said, “but I don’t ask them to respect me without showing them respect as well.”

That means that even when he’s chewing them out after a game, the talk might be tough, but it will never be disrespectful, because his daughter and son are in the lockerroom.

“It gives them the comfort of knowing I would never say anything to them that I wouldn’t say in front of my own kids,” Truhan said.

It all works, however, because the players buy into what Truhan is trying to build.

“We went from a team that wasn’t structured to one where we were doing the same things every day,” Bernath said. “Now we know what he wants out of us.”

What Truhan wants, said Rachel Iozzia, is “no careless mistakes.

“He knows our potential and wants us to play to it,” she said.

Nowhere was that more evident that the opening game of the season against Brick. Central took a significant lead early in that game as Brick struggled to score even one basket. But as the game went on, Truhan became upset with the team, going so far as to take a seat at the end of the bench, his back to the game.

“I was mad at them,” he said. “I wanted them to have respect for their opponent and not be concerned with individual glory.”

It was part of the bigger message: that team is everything.

“He brought us together as a team,” said Tiffany Williams, who is a team captain along with Bernath and Iozzia. “There are teams where the girls fight and there are cliques. We don’t’ have that.

On the floor, “we know our personnel,” Williams said.

“Rachel knows how Tiffany plays, and Tiffany knows how I play,” Bernath said.

Knowing how their teammates play has put them in their current position: Class B South champion for the second straight year, in the Shore Conference Tournament and what Truhan believes will be a home game in the opening round of the NJSIAA tournament.

“It’s a lot easier to play at home, especially in South Jersey where you have to travel so far,” Truhan said. “(Playing at home) builds confidence.”

He has also put the team to the test, taking on difficult opponents to challenge his team to grow and improve, like the Eagles are doing today, when they head to Cherry Hill for an 8 p.m. matchup with Cherry Hill West.

“If we want to be an upper echelon team, we have to compete with teams on that level,” he said.

That next echelon is the state sectional semifinals. Central has never gotten that far into the tournament, but it’s a goal the girls would like to reach.

 “Last year we went further than any team in school history,” Bernath said. “This year we want to go even further.”

For a few days, though, they have enjoyed the achievement of back-to-back division championships, spraying their coach with Silly String and generally having some fun -- which has long been an element of the team’s practices.

“We played kickball one time,” Iozzia said. “I think if we were serious (all the time) we wouldn’t want to be here.”

“At least they haven’t asked about dyeing my hair,” Truhan said. “Last year I promised them if we won the division they could dye my hair pink, but I think they forgot. I suspect they’ll remember now, after reading this article.”

But Truhan understands the importance of the lighthearted moments.

“As long as the kids keep buying in to what we’re doing, they will keep succeeding,” he said.

And for a coach who’s shown a knack for teaching kids how to succeed, having them exceed their own expectations and dreams will be a nice reward.