Lady Rams split a deuce near and far while their former star soars on nat’l stage

It was a split case of near and far geographically as well as score-wise that left the Lady Rams basketball head coach wondering what happened in between.

Port Chester's Lady Rams basketball team lost close to Roosevelt 51-48 last Friday (1/27) away in nearby Yonkers on a last second shot despite senior Jenna Provenzano scoring a career high 25 points. But they were blown out by 35 points in a staggering 64-29 loss to John Jay/East Fishkill (JJ/EF) in an up-county game that involved such a long bus ride that the team didn't get home until after 9 p.m.

"Going so far to play a team that is definitely out of our league when it comes to talent doesn't really make any sense," head coach Danny Davis said after that JJ/EF game.

He hopes his team has better luck when they go up against Woodlands Saturday (2/4) at 11 a.m. in a Varsity Invitational against multiple schools at Harrison High School. Win or lose, that's a lot closer to home.

The missing link

But he can't help but think of what could have been if his Lady Rams still had junior wunderkind Kayleigh Heckel who transferred to prep school powerhouse Long Island Lutheran (LUHI) to enhance her chances for an ultra-completive Division 1 college athletic scholarship—and has she ever.

Heckel, who started for the Lady Rams as an eighth grader, made All-Everything and averaged close to 30 points per game during her Port Chester career, was named the MVP of the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Ariz., the nation's biggest high school tournament, with LUHI knocking off the number one team in the country in the semi-finals and beating California's La Jolla Country Day School 63-50 in the finals with Kayleigh, our own Special K, scoring 22 points and racking up seven assists as the point guard in the finals of the game that was televised on ESPNU.

That was the first time since 2004 that a New York team had won that prestigious tournament. And resulted in LUHI being ranked as the number one team in the country.

That championship win resulted in Heckel being named to the Naismith National Girls High School Player of the Year mid-season team and one of the top 10 players in the country on MaxPreps National Player of the Year Watch List.

Numerous college offers

Special K has already received college athletic scholarship offers from a whole alphabet full of Division 1 schools—Power 5 conferences like the AC, PAC 10, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Ivy League and more.

She is a standout on a LUHI team that includes a 6:5 center from the Ukraine Junior National Team, two players from the Canadian Junior National Team, and a couple of hotshots from NYC national power Christ the King. She is doing well academically, athletically and socially while adjusting to life on Long Island, enjoying her new home away from home.

She still thinks of herself as a Port Chester girl who will be forever grateful for learning the basketball ABCs here while playing for Davis, the coach she calls Uncle Danny, playing for elite travel teams off season and scrimmaging continually against her two big brothers, Tyler and Corey, both Ram stars, in the Heckel driveway while they were growing up. But while she doesn't talk about it, it was a recruiting tryout at the high school for a Michigan scout that was a contributing factor to her leaving for LUHI. Her Lady Rams team wasn't competitive enough for Michigan to assess her standards for big time competition. And her big brother Tyler, a Rams senior hoops standout at that time, had to run her through her paces in the gym because Port Chester didn't have the experience to showcase what amounted to a tryout for a national contender like Michigan.

What could have been

LUHI gave her that kind of elite recruiting showcase along with a chance to play a national schedule against top-flight competition alongside top tier players on her team who helped make her better.

Davis certainly misses her here. And can't help but think of what could have been for Port Chester had she stayed. But he is happy for her success. "She is one classy young lady, she works hard, and she deserves all the success she can get," he says. And a lot of local basketball aficionados think she made the right move even as Heckel continues to be proud of the way her former Lady Ram teammates keep battling while playing hard to keep on getting better every day.

Even as Special K keeps on getting more special while playing for New York's best team while also starring for one of the best teams in the country.