DeStaso Joins North's Elite Athletes with 1,000th Career Point

Though the Rams had fallen to John Jay-East Fishkill in their second game of the post-season Friday, there was still much to celebrate. 

Besides for finishing with a strong 12-7 season overall, the Rams’ star senior, Danielle DeStaso, had scored her 1,000^th career point midway through the game.

DeStaso finished her varsity career with 1,011 points, however, with that 1,000^th, she accomplished what only four other athletes had in the history of the Clarkstown North basketball program

“Danielle scoring her 1,000th point was a tremendous feat,” said the Rams’ head coach Kerry Sullivan.  “Being one of only four athletes in all of Clarkstown North athletics to achieve 1,000 points says a lot about her athletic ability as well as her motivation to be a stand out basketball player. Not every four year varsity player can achieve this — it comes along very infrequently and I can't think of a young lady more deserving than Danielle."

She added, “Danielle is just a great kid and I'm so happy that we were able to get her to her 1000th point this season. The whole team was excited for her and really pushed for her to get it. Danielle is not the type of kid to seek out accolades but I can't think of an athlete more deserving of them.”

For DeStaso, sports have always been a part of her life and her dedication to that is how she was able to attain this landmark achievement.  She began playing basketball in first grade, then travel ball in fifth grade and has played competitively ever since, only taking breaks when her rigorous softball schedule made it necessary to do so.

With a mother who is an accomplished basketball player having scored 1,000 points in high school and more than 2,000 in college, and a father who was a pitcher in high school, sports are in her blood.  With her parents, Margaret and Bruce, as role models, DeStaso has always dedicated herself to becoming an accomplished athlete.

“I was into all different sports when I was younger, but as you get older, the seasons conflict,” said DeStaso.  “It was always something I grew up with and was able to follow through with.”

In pursuing both basketball and softball, DeStaso has received a plethora of support from her parents.  Though basketball has now become her secondary sport, both mother and daughter have always and continue to share the same love of the game.

“My mom coached my travel teams in fifth, sixth and eighth grade,” said DeStaso.  “She helped with every team that I was on.  She helped with my CYO teams, she helped with my sister’s team, so in my family, my mom’s the basketball person and she’s very into it and wants us to be like her.  She scored 1000 in high school and over 2000 in college, so she always told me that she was better than me and all that stuff and I told her that I would get my 1,000^th like she did and prove that she wasn’t better than me.”

DeStaso began her bid for 1,000 points early in her career and as she improved over her four years on varsity, that goal became realizable.

“I started all four years, I didn’t start in the beginning of freshman year, but it was around the fourth or fifth game I started starting," said DeStaso.  "I was always one of the leading scorers, but my freshman/sophomore year, it was more quiet you could say.  I wasn’t known because I was an underclassman and new to the program.  As the team went, they definitely accepted me.  I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all and there weren’t people that didn’t talk to me.  The junior whose spot I took starting is still one of my closer friends on the team, even though I took her spot, and they were all very nice and accepting to being a freshman on the team.”

Sullivan also shared her perspective on DeStaso as her coach during her time on the team.

“Having coached Danielle in the last four years, I've seen her grow tremendously as a player,” said Sullivan.  “Her game has changed and the levels that she has reached are incredibly impressive. Danielle has the ability to take over a game and that's exactly what she has done in the last two years. She averaged close to 15 points a game as a junior and in her senior year she is just under 20 points per game. Danielle has been a leader both on and off the floor for us this year. As one of our captains, the girls seek her out for advice and friendship off the court and on the court she is a physical leader.”

Though made somewhat nervous the day of the game by anxious friends and teammates, once she got into game mode, she was calm and confident.  Then, at last, in her final game of her senior year, she had reached that landmark.

“When I got it, I knew I had fourteen points to go and almost all of the JV team was there and they were holding numbers for how many I had left, so every time I scored a basket, they would put two numbers down,” recalled DeStaso.  “I didn’t really look at them during the game, so I wasn’t sure how many I had left, but once I got the last basket, they stopped the game for a couple minutes and gave me a plaque, flowers and took a couple pictures and then we started the game again.”

“It’s definitely a big accomplishment,” DeStaso reflected.  “There’s only been four people in Clarkstown North that have ever gotten it, so I definitely feel accomplished in our school.  When [my mom] was in college and scored her 2000, they gave her a gold ball and after the game my mom had a gold ball and it had her name and the date that she reached her 2000 on it and she put a plaque with my name on the other side of hers on the base, so now it’s both of our gold ball.  That’s meaningful, because, at first, I didn’t know that she had gotten the plaque on the other side, so I was like, why are you giving me your ball, I thought she was kind of rubbing it in my face, but then she turned it around and just I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

Though there season had ended, DeStaso and her team still celebrated.  They had accomplished one of their goals for the game, getting her to 1,000, while creating an excellent season for themselves as a team.  For DeStaso and the other graduating seniors, these are memories which they all can bring with them as they move out into the world.

“It was definitely emotional after the game,” said DeStaso.  “A lot of us were crying and Ms. Sullivan started crying, but if you look back at it, we all have a lot of really good memories, between practice and going out to dinner after games.

During her time at Clarkstown North, DeStaso has built a name for herself in basketball and softball.  Even after high school, the question was never whether she would continue with sports in college, only what sport would she play.  In the end, it came down to which sport she could take the farthest.

“Even though I’m a bigger person in high school, in college I would be considered a small player,” said DeStaso.  “So, I knew I could go further in softball in college than I could in basketball.”  She added, “My mom played basketball in college, so she wanted me to play basketball in college, but I guess my dad won with the softball.”

Next year, DeStaso will be playing Divison 1 softball for Seton Hall.  She plans to study to become a math teacher.  Though basketball will have to be put on the back-burner as she begins her college softball career, the sport that she has accomplished so much in will surely continue to be a part of her life.

“Well, I know in college that basketball won’t really be a part of my life, just because in a D1 school like Seton Hall, you can’t play two sports," said DeStaso.  "The seasons overlap and it’s too much.  But I do want to eventually start coaching and getting into it and I know, in the next four years, while I’m in college, during my winter breaks and that stuff, I’ll definitely be getting back at North, practicing and shooting around with them.  I don’t want to lose it out of my life, because I do love it.”

Her high school basketball career may be over, however she, will be playing in a Rams’ uniform one last time come Spring and softball season.