Port Chester's Kayleigh Heckel selected to play in the upcoming McDonald's All-American Game

March 28, 2024 at 12:50 a.m.

Port Chester’s Kayleigh Heckel (left), Avery Howell and Kennedy Smith, all committed to play basketball at the University of Southern California, have been selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game Tuesday, Apr. 2. (Courtesy photo of University of Southern California)

She's our own basketball Cinderella, and she's going dancing!

Port Chester point guard Kayleigh Heckel, one of the Lady Rams’ all-time scoring greats, a high school All-American selection and a University of Southern California (USC) athletic scholarship commit, has been selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game Tuesday (4/2) that will be televised on EPNB/ESPN2 from the Toyota Center in downtown Houston, Texas, at 6:30 p.m.

High school's Big Dance

The game featuring the nation's most elite basketball players is the high school version of the collegiate National Championships—the so-called Big Dance—currently underway in various parts of the country.

It is a Darwinian survival of the fittest.

And obviously getting there isn't easy.

Heckel, the highest female scorer in Port Chester history, won't be playing as a Lady Ram. She transferred to prep school powerhouse Long Island Lutheran (LuHi) as a junior so she could play a national schedule that would better showcase her talents—a move that paid off big time with her winning an athletic scholarship to USC after leading LuHi to the number two ranking in the country with a 22-1 record (the lone loss coming by a single point to Archbishop Mitty of San Jose, Calif., by a score of 73-72).

The USC Big 3

Heckel was selected as a Naismith Trophy High School Player of the Year and named a McDonald All-American on Jan. 23.

But that was only the beginning of the process of being named to play in the upcoming McDonald's All-American Game.

Out of a pool of 700 nominees drawn from the nation's top-ranked players, 24 were selected to play in the annual hoops showcase—12 representing the best of the East Coast going up against the West Coast's 12 best players.

Heckel will join two other USC McDonald's All-American commits, the most represented school among the talented roster, including Avery Howell of Boise, Idaho, one of only two Idaho players in history to be chosen as well as a player chosen as the Gatorade Idaho Player of the Year, an invitee to the Canadian National Team's training camp and the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy; and Kennedy Smith of Etiwanda, Calif., an L.A. Times All-Star, a Press Enterprise Inland Empire Girls Basketball Player of the Year and the sixth ranked player in the country.

Brief shining moments

Each of them has had their share of brief shining hoops moments. But Heckel has had one that will go down in Port Chester history because she was the first female to ever score 1,000 points during her career—and she did it in one of the most unforgettable games ever played locally.

Heckel, whose father and grandfather played Major League Baseball, whose mom played softball for St. John's University where she met her future husband, and whose two big brothers, both former All-League Rams, schooled her in the hoops ABCs in the family driveway, had seemingly been training all her life for that moment. Because she scored her 1,000th career point on a foul shot early in the opening round of the first Keith D. Yizar Memorial Tournament in Harrison and then outdid herself by scoring 53 points in that game, a memorable 68-67 upset comeback win against favorite Kennedy Catholic, including 20 points in the fourth quarter that saw Kayleigh hitting Port Chester's last seven points and swishing three clutch free throws with 1.4 seconds left to play and then blocking the last shot.

The historic ball

That historic inscribed ball is now in the Port Chester High School trophy case in the Wall of Fame, just one of two there, the other recently included when Rams senior Guillermo (Memo) Zabala became the first male Port Chester player to ever hit 1,000 career points, a feat that included a school record 60 points against Lincoln followed by 45 points a few days later away against the same team.

That was then. This is now.

Now Heckel is going dancing at another ball as a McDonald All-American and her collegiate career has yet to start. So let the games begin and may there be many more bright shining moments.