It's official—Kayleigh Heckel has transferred to LuHi to play elite national hoops schedule for L.I. power

It's official, sad but true--Port Chester's junior basketball wunderkind Kayleigh Heckel has transferred to national basketball prep school powerhouse Long Island Lutheran, an elite hoops school that plays a Division 1-caliber schedule that includes far flung games in places ranging from Florida to South Carolina to Hawaii, competes in pressure-packed tournaments like the Hoop Hall Classic in Massachusetts and virtually guarantees its All-Star players major collegiate exposure with trips to all-expenses-paid experiences at showcases such as the upcoming Texas scouting combine Oct. 1.

The chance to attend LuHi–as it is called in sporting circles—was an offer too good for Special K to refuse.

Especially since the offer included free $21,400 annual tuition, a chance to stay with a host family throughout the school year, eliminating any need for a commute, the opportunity to work with a pro-caliber personal trainer year-round and play as part of a team revolving around top tier Nike three-star recruits from as far away as the Ukraine and Canada and as near as Christ the King, the perennial New York State Catholic school juggernaut.

Point guard fits in

The fact that LuHi has graduated its point guard, Kayleigh's position, means Heckel will almost certainly be guaranteed a starting position now that former Lutheran ace Sydney Rosenhoff will move on to play highly competitive Division 1 college scholarship basketball at Adelphi.

LuHi doesn't just graduate its players, it reloads because its winning tradition never graduates, the portal transfer offering entre to a magical hoops world of possibility.

It helps that Heckel will be part of a loaded, talent-filled incoming LuHi team that includes most of her teammates from the Nike Exodus Elite High School Travel Team she has been playing with since school was out.

And yet it wasn't an easy decision for Heckel to make.

Last minute decision

Because her heart bleeds Port Chester blue and white. As does her family's.

So her decision to transfer came down to the last minute.

As recently as last Friday (9/9), Kayleigh was still undecided.

And that was the last day before she had to commit to LuHi because the school year started there Monday (9/12).

'Are you sure?'

That was when Special K decided LuHi was a go, the best next step for her if she wanted to play big time college basketball after her high school graduation.

"Are you sure?" Donna Heckel, Kayleigh's mom, asked one last time.

And Kayleigh was sure.

"I wanted to make sure there would never be any what ifs down the line," Donna told Westmore News, explaining why she hadn't responded to the paper's attempts to confirm Kayleigh's decision to transfer as first reported on portchesterathletics.org earlier last week.

That account said: " Best of luck to @ Kayleigh Heckel as she continues her journey at Long Island Lutheran! A fantastic athlete and individual who we are going to miss so much but know she will achieve greatness in the next chapter. Keep it up, we'll all be watching."

The exit process

"Nothing had been finally decided at that time," Donna said. "But we had had preliminary conversations with school officials (including Port Chester athletic director James Ryan and Lady Rams basketball coach Danny Davis) about the possible exit process."

But first Donna and Kayleigh wanted to make sure LuHi was the right fit.

So they made daily round trips to the school in Brookville , L.I., last week, rising at 6 a.m. to be there at LuHi for the student orientations by 8 a.m., meeting with the coach and potential teammates, checking out the schedule and academic curriculum (interested Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton require at least two Advance Placement (AP) courses), the potential host family and the pro-caliber personal trainer she would be working with, weighing the need to live away from home like she was already away at college, away from her Port Chester friends and teammates for the first time.

Kayleigh loves Port Chester. Her two super athlete brothers (Corey and Tyler) graduated from the high school after making the All-League teams in basketball and baseball and are both away at college now (New Jersey Institute of Technology and Villanova respectively). Donna grew up something like eight houses away from the high school. And had played Division One softball at St. John's University where she met her husband Wally, who became a Major League Baseball Player as had his father before him. So they know what it takes to compete on the highest levels of sports as well as academics. And that means going up against the best of the best, players with the same skill levels who would help you up your game.

While the Heckels would never say that, nor did they, Kayleigh was already at the level where big time colleges like Michigan were interested, but her junior year development would be critical, and the prevalent feeling was that a school like LuHi would be the best next stage for her athletic and academic development.

Tears with Uncle Danny

"We all want what is best for Kayleigh," said her longtime Lady Rams coach Danny Davis. "And if living away from home in a college-type environment with strong academics and a strong level of play is her best next step, that's what we want for her. We had a lot to offer her at Port Chester. But maybe it is best for her to get beyond her comfort level and rise to her next challenge. She has risen to meet every challenge. And leaving is her next developmental step. Now, whatever happens, I just hope she doesn't get hurt."

"We were all in tears, me, Kayleigh, Uncle Danny (which is what Special K called Davis, a coach she loved playing for)," Donna said in recalling what happened when she and her daughter told Davis they had decided to leave the high school."

But the simple truth was that Kayleigh was being double and triple-teamed because she was the only Lady Rams’ player the rivals came in gunning for. And that meant she was getting hit hard time and time again. She was 70% of the Port Chester offense. And that meant she was getting fouled consistently, so consistently that her drives and three-pointers were always closely contested, her excellence so taken for granted that officials didn't always give her the calls, the zebras often overlooking the way rivals mauled her to the point where it was sometimes hard to watch Kayleigh get up off the floor, that's how much she was hurting from the pounding she took, her pigtails flying, her finger rolls and long-range precision her answer to anyone trying to stop her from averaging close to 30 points per game throughout her career.

Apology for delay

But whatever happened, no matter how hard her star shined, she was always a team player, passed first, wanted to be a Lady Ram, did everything she was asked, and always praised her teammates.

All of which made the decision to leave playing with the kids she grew up with all the harder. But deep down she knew if she wanted to grow, if she wanted to get better, she had to continually play alongside players who would extend her to be the best she could possibly be. And that was no cliche. That would be the hard reality. And those players would be the kinds of players she would go up against at LuHi. She might not be number one, the number she wore for the Lady Rams. But she would definitely be in the running.

The decision to enroll officially came last Friday (9/9). Donna called us that night.

"I apologize for the delay in getting back to you," she said. "Things have been a little hectic here. We made the sudden decision to have Kayleigh explore the opportunity to attend Long Island Lutheran. I've been on the road since Wednesday from morning until night taking her back and forth from Port Chester for school and training. I'm exhausted for sure."

So much so that she had lain down for a nap late that afternoon and woke up at 7:15 p.m. so exhausted she thought she had slept through the night and believed it was morning.

It wasn't. But it dawned on her how much she and Kayleigh had been through in the past week, from following the GPS wherever it took them on their way from Port Chester to Brookville to meeting the host family to huddles with the coach and academic advisors to ordering the new school uniforms (LuHi provides the shirts, the Heckels had to order the khaki slacks and skirts)

Next step begins

And now the next step begins.

The transfer portal is in full swing. The University of Southern California (USC), for example, has once again become a collegiate football power with 26 transfer players. And that transfer portal also swings on the high school level.

Special K started at her new school this week. Her first practices are already underway. And she is anxious to see what happens next. She has already accomplished so much—making the All-League and Westchester-Lower Hudson Valley All-Section Basketball Teams as a freshman and sophomore (and doing the same thing in softball as well), becoming one of the area's leaders in scoring and assists and playing one of the most memorable games in school history—scoring 53 points in a 68-67 tournament comeback upset of Kennedy Catholic, including seven points in the final minute, an outburst that ended with her sinking three consecutive foul shots in the final 1.4 seconds and blocking the final shot at the buzzer on her way to racking up 11 rebounds, six assists while scoring the 1,000th point of her high school career off a foul shot early in the first quarter in just the 33rd game of her high school playing days, a sophomore feat that may never happen again in Port Chester's storied history.

And the feeling is that the best is yet to come.