Sports Recap: Sleepy Hollow Girls Basketball

For Nick Romeo's first four years as coach of the Sleepy Hollow girls basketball team, he has enjoyed the solid inside-outside combination of seniors, all-league forward Tauress Campbell and all-league honorable mention guard Brionna Gamble.

He's gotten so used to watching those two play, he admits he doesn't know what it will be like next year with them both gone.

"Next year is going to be the first year that I will be without Tauress and Brionna," Romeo said. "You have the girls there every year, you don't have to reteach what you've done. It's going to be difficult to have those girls replaced."

The production of Campbell and Gamble helped lead the Lady Horsemen to a 10-9 record and a berth in the Section 1 Class A playoffs as the No. 13 seed, where they lost at No. 4 Peekskill 62-33 in the opening round. That doesn't look as bad as it sounds when you consider the Red Devils were the Class A finalist and are considered the favorite to win it all in Class A next winter.

Romeo thought one big reason his team enjoyed a winning record was because it had been playing together for awhile.

"This was our most successful year in a long time at Sleepy Hollow," Romeo said. "I was fortunate to have a good assistant coach like Ed Stapleton. Tauress had a really nice year and with her and Brionna leading the way, they were captains for us for two years, they knew what to expect. We only lost one senior from our team so it was basically the same team for the last two years."

Campbell is a hard worker who also played AAU. Romeo said that made a big difference in her game which was scoring inside. Gamble was the team's outside threat, who hit the big three when Romeo's club needed it.

Campbell and Gamble came up together, playing JV as eighth graders before joining the varsity as freshmen.

"Brionna was hurt her freshman year but she was still with Tauress that year," Romeo said. "You play games together and you start developing chemistry. Tauress knew that when she got the rebound, Brionna was breaking on the outside. She was always able to hit her in stride with a nice pass and Brionna was able to beat the defense down the court for a layup."

Leading the team next year will be all-league honorable mention players,  junior forward Kerry Olivera and sophomore guard Jamie Bucci. Both will be co-captains and playing in their fourth year of varsity basketball.

"We are hoping that they can lead the way and keep everything going in the right direction," Romeo said.

Romeo felt the best win of the season came against Woodlands 57-50 on Sleepy Hollow's senior night.

"They beat us twice earlier in the year and we came in senior night and beat them, which was terrific, especially to do that on what was senior night for Tauress,  Brionna, Kelly Bender and Charlotte Frank," Romeo said.