Lady Rams Mod Squad up, varsity down
January 31, 2024 at 11:58 p.m.
Port Chester's Mod Squad Lady Rams beat Harrison 35-34 in overtime with the entire Manhattanville College women's team cheering the local team on in a home game last Friday (1/26).
Manhattanville's presence resulted from a program called Team IMPACT that made it a game that went well beyond a game because of the way the Valiants came out to support a Port Chester Middle Schooler—Jamie Franceschini—with a rare kidney disease who they have made an honorary team member.
Beyond the game
That game helped put the Lady Rams sole varsity loss this past week into perspective even though they bowed to Clarkstown North 43-28 at home Monday (1/29) in a game head coach Danny Davis called an "off shooting night" because the team's Big 3—McKayla McLoughlin (an eighth grader) and seniors Samantha (Sam) Munoz and Elise Thomas—scored just nine, six and five points respectively.
To understand the significance of both those games, it helps to focus first on Team IMPACT, Manhattanville, Franceschini and the influence the improved Mod Squad play has on the future of the Lady Rams varsity.
What's Team IMPACT
Team IMPACT is a non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams, creating a long-term, life-changing experience for everyone because, simply put, Team IMPACT believes "no child should have to miss out on being a kid."
That brings up Jamie Franceschini and why Manhattanville's women's basketball team showed up to root on Jamie's Mod Squad and why the Valiants will be honoring Jamie, an honorary team member, at their Senior Night Sunday (2/4) on the school's campus in Purchase.
Jamie's mom, Chrissie Onofrio, a teacher in the Blind Brook School District, a Port Chester Board of Education member and a former CYO hoops coach, explained that link including the back story of how all that happened, starting with Jamie's kidney disease.
"After all these years I could talk about kidney disease in my sleep," Onofrio said.
Jamie's back story
Jamie was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome - Minimal Change Disease right before her fourth birthday in June 2014, she explained. Minimal Change Disease is a rare kidney disease with no known cause and no known cure. The kidneys are meant to act like filters, keeping what your body needs and filtering out the waste. The disease causes the kidneys to spill protein into the urine. Loss of protein in your body allows fluid to leak from blood vessels which causes swelling in the body.
The goal of treatment is to gain remission, but there is not a lot of research or specific drug options to achieve this, she continued. The first line of treatment to gain remission is high dose steroids. Anything that triggers the immune system can trigger a relapse—a cold or virus, allergies, even stress, being overheated or overtired, etc.
Over the past almost 10 years Jamie has had 17 relapses that were all treated with at least six weeks of high dose prednisone. In 2020 when her relapses became more frequent, Jamie took chemotherapy for 90 days. This has helped to lessen her relapses–she had been averaging 3-4 a year but has only had three relapses since she finished the chemo treatment in September 2020. She also had her longest stretch of remission of 19 months from February 2022 until this past September 2023. Every day without needing medicine is a blessing.
NephCure/IMPACT link
“Over the years we've been involved with NephCure Kidney International that helps to bring awareness and raise money for research of rare kidney diseases,” Onofrio continued. "We learned about Team IMPACT through NephCure," she said. "Around that time, we were coming out of COVID and being part of a program that increased Jamie's support system appealed to us, plus she loves basketball. So we went through the process of applying to Team IMPACT that involved a few interviews. And we were very excited when she was matched with the Manhattanville women's basketball team."
The Port Chester Middle School Blue team beat Harrison in overtime 35-34 with the Manhattanville women’s team cheering them on from right behind their bench last Friday (1/26) at home. That's Jamie Franceschini holding the "We love Jamie" sign surrounded by her Mod Squad Blue team with the Manhattanville Valiants team that has been part of Jamie's ongoing recovery from a rare kidney disease as part of a program called Team IMPACT.Chrissie Onofrio
Jamie is now in her second year of a two-year commitment with Team IMPACT and Manhattanville. It has been a wonderful experience for both Jamie and the Manhattanville team that lost in the Skyline Conference Finals last year, so they have their eyes on a championship this year, according to Onofrio. Jamie even signed a letter of commitment that made her an honorary member of the Valiants, has shot layups with the team that includes Blind Brook Trojans former ace Gabby Tucker as one of their standouts and regularly attends games with her family. Jamie has been included in the Valiants pre- and post-game huddles, has gotten together with them for team building activities and has received videos and text messages from them when she needs a boost. And they have become almost like a second family to Jamie.
Bond will continue
"Last year Manhattanville lost in the Skyline Conference Finals, so they have their eyes on the championship this year,” according to Onofrio. "It's been a wonderful experience for both Jamie and the team," she said. "Although her official Team IMPACT connection will end this year, we will maintain relationships with the team on our own."
As for Jamie's health, she had a relapse this past fall but is doing well and continues to persevere and do her best to live a normal life. As for the Mod Squad, turnout was high enough from the Middle School that there could be two girls’ teams. Four of the 8th graders on the Mod Squad Blue team are from the Don Bosco CYO team coached by Onofrio and Kathy Franceschini, a teacher in the Port Chester School District.
Past, present, future
That CYO team won the Westchester championship last year. The girls have been playing together since third grade. The quartet from that team now playing for the Mod Squad includes Jamie, her sister Ryann, Sophia Faraci and Aliyah Salmon. The rest of the Blue team includes Jackie Villa, Keyla Guayllasaca, Marissa Dominguez, Andrea Cortez, Angela Boctor, Navaeh Vega and Rihanna Arpi.
They figure to be part of the Lady Rams varsity in the years to come. But if you want to get a look at them and their team impact in the here and now, the Blue Mod Squad winds down its winter season Thursday (2/1, after press time) against Blind Brook and Valhalla next Thursday (2/8), both at the Port Chester Middle School at 4:30 p.m. And the Lady Rams varsity home finale is Friday (2/2) at 5 p.m. vs Lincoln.
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