Wantagh Girls Basketball Aiming for Postseason Success this Winter

The girls basketball was not satisfied with just making the playoffs in 2010. With a in the first round of the Class A playoffs, the Lady Warriors watched on as Conference A-I foe Garden City ran all the way to the Long Island title.

For this season, the Lady Warriors are aiming for a chance for that team to be their own. Finishing with a 10-8 overall record and a 7-5 mark in its conference schedule, Wantagh has the parts in place this year under 19^th-year head coach Stanley Bujacich and assistant coach Glenn Poveromo.

“We are well balanced and very tenacious on defense and I think we have a nice balance of experience and youth,” Bujacich said. “You can’t key in on one player because then somebody else could beat you, and that is what I like about this team.”

The Lady Warriors graduated just two seniors from last year’s team, All-County guard April Ainetta and All-Conference forward Paula Schmidt. Stepping up to lead the team this season will be a group of experienced captains, including fourth-year varsity player Tara Basile, third-year varsity player Brenna Smith, Shannon McDonald and Michelle Buccheri.

“Everyone works together as a team and work really hard," Basile said. "We are all really excited for our season and we think we are going to be really good this year." 

The experience on this team, as Bujacich noted, will be essential to overall success, as the Lady Warriors welcome some new, but talented, faces to the roster.

“We are all really good athletes on this team,” Smith said. “We definitely have some strong players coming up, so we are going to have a really good chance this year.”

Some of those key players include a pair of freshmen in 6’ 3” center Alexandra Parlato and point guard Christina Peden. Junior Demi Valenti figures to play a large role for the Lady Warriors as well. Overall, the team returns nine members of the 2010-11 team.

“In the long run, we all know each others strengths and can rely on each other in every single way," Buccheri said. "We use each others strengths to come together as a team." 

Wantagh will tip off its season by hosting a tournament on Dec. 6, playing Sewanhaka first, with the winner playing against either North Shore or Lynbrook. Non-league games against Division and Plainedge will be played before the Lady Warriors head to a second tournament on Dec. 28 at Freeport, where they will play Malverne in the first round of an eight-team field.

Garden City is the favorite in the conference, but Wantagh hopes to have what it takes to end up near the top. South Side should be another challenge, along with Jericho, Roslyn and New Hyde Park to round out the league games.

“Of course Garden City is the team to beat because they are the defending champion," Bujacich said. "We need take one game at a time." 

The opening game of the season against Sewanhaka will take place on Tuesday with a start time of 7 p.m. For complete schedule information for the 2011-12 Wantagh Lady Warriors, visit the Nassau Boces Athletics page.