Inside Look: SJ Girls HS Basketball Mike Recinto

Episode 36  Coach Casey Heitman was born and raised in Mantua, NJ. She went to Clearview High School and played basketball. It was the relationships that she made in high school that stands out the most in her mind. Back then they enjoyed scrapbooking and clipping news articles to documment important basketball achievements.   

After graduating from Clearview, Heitman attended Kings College. She played basketball and worked hard to earn her teaching degree. After graduation she returned back to South Jersey and started working in the West Deptford School District. She got her start by volunteering to coach basketball. Eventually, she earned a position on the coaching staff at West Deptford.  

An opportunity opened up and Coach Heitman decided to take a job working in the school district she grew up attending as a student. She joined the coaching staff at her alma mater and after some time was named Head Coach. After experiencing great success in 2020, Clearview is now a young up and coming team. Look out because they will be a force to deal with in the near future.  

https://twitter.com/ViewGirlsBball 

Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos

Coach Paul Baruffi grew up in Vineland, NJ. He was the youngest of five kids and the Baruffi Family was well known in that area for athletics. Vineland is surrounded by farmland. Coach Baruffi played point guard and enjoyed his playing days very much. He ultimately became a teacher. Coach Baruffi got his start coaching at his alma mater with his high school coach, Ed Harvard.  

Eventually he connected with his college coach who was at Ocean City HS at the time and he went on to become the Head Coach. Coach Baruffi led his team to 8 South Jersey Championships, 1 State and 6 overall Cape Atlantic Championships over the past 20 years. His most successful season to date was 2013, when his team won the Group 3 State Title. He guided his team back to the State Finals in 2020 but the game was never played and the kids missed out on a great experience because of Covid.  

This year Coach Baruffi has made the necessary adjustments to prepare his team but ultimately his team was put in quarantine because kids on the opposing team tested positive for Covid. This in combination with the winter weather made a shortened season even shorter. They were happy to return to thw court and play the final two games of the season and the seniors had the opportunity to play their last game for Ocean City High School. 

https://twitter.com/ocredraiders?lang=en 

Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos

Coach Brandon Lyons is in his fourth year as Head Coach at Woodstown High School. He wass born and raised in South Jersey. He lived in Franklinville and attended Delsea High School. He loved playing sports growing up. He got the opportunity to play a variety of sports. He realized that he enjoyed working with kids, so after graduating high school he went on to study Exercise Science with a focus on earning his teaching degree.  He got his start coaching while he was still in college. One day he had a prep period and asked if he could go to the gym and shoot some hoops. While he was shooting he was approached and asked to coach middle school basketball. Coach Lyons took advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as he could. After years of volunteering and working as an assistant, he got a job working in the Woodstown High School. Immediately, he approached the boys coach to get involved with coaching. Soon after, the girls job opened uo and he was named the Head Coach of the Woodstown High School Girls Basketball Team. And as they say, the rest is history.  

https://twitter.com/whsgirlshoops1 

Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos

Coach Lamont "Bup" Robinson grew up in Salem, NJ. He enjoyed playing basketball and football growing up. When he got to Salem High School, he focused his energy towards following hid dream of playing in the NFL. This led him to decide to continue his playing career at the University of Oklahoma.   After graduating from college he moved home to be closer to his family. He worked at several places before deciding to go back to school to earn his Masters. During this time he coached several sports in different capacities, learning from each one. He ended up at Kingsway High School and named the Girls Head Basketball Coach. He is in his third season and he is extremely proud of his team, who clinched the Tri-County Royal Division Title. They move on to finish out the season playing in the Conference Tournament.   

https://twitter.com/DCoachBupRob 

https://twitter.com/Dragons_AD 

Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos

Coach Sean McAneny is a first year Head Coach at Lenape HS. He grew up in Edgewater Park and moved to Mt. Laurel when he was in 8th Grade. Coach McAneny played soccer and basketball growing up and attended Holy Cross. It was at HC that he set a goal to play soccer in college. One of his coaches told him that he needed to be the fastest kid or gain weight. In his junior year he joined track to get faster and his times caught the attention of colleges.  
Coach McAneny ended up running Track and Cross Country at St. Joe's University. He fell in love with basketball because the St. Joe's Men's Basketball team was nationally ranked at the time and the games were so excited. The atmosphere in that gym was absolutely amazing.  After graduation he went on to earn a Masters Degree in Special Education. He got his start coaching when he applied for the middle school coaching job at Olsen MS in Tabernacle. The principal offered him the boys job but told him he had to coach the girls too. He developed a great relationship with the Seneca coach. When he got hired at Lenape as a teacher the Seneca coach reached out to Coach Hummel at Lenape. He told Hummel that he needed to get McAneny to work with the girls. 
This summer McAneny was named Head Coach after Hummel decided to step down to spend more time with his kids.  Coach McAneny has the added advantage of being an assistant on staff. He knows the players and knows their strengths. This has allowed him to pick up right where they left off last year. Coach McAneny will be here for years to come.  
https://twitter.com/Lenapegirlshoop 
Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos

Coach Lisa Steele is doing her best to keep South Jersey Girls Basketball in the conversation by playing against top team across the state. She grew up in Erial, NJ and played at Highland High School in the early 2000's. She scored 2,203 points in high school. She was a key member of the 2004 team that finished with a record of 28-1 and won the South Jersey Group 3 Title.   

After a successful high school career, she decided to play at George Washington. GW was a top team in the A-10 Conference and made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA's. Unfortunately, Steele dealt with a series of stress fractures that impacted her career and limited her practice and playing time. When she was healthy enough to play, she made it a point to make an impact in key moments of the game.   

Coach Lisa Steele made the transition to coaching. She started by working with AAU teams while she was still a player in college. After college she worked camps at various colleges to gain experience and ended up coaching at Mount Saint Mary's and Wagner. Eventually she decided to return to South Jersey. In 2014, she won the job at PVI and it has been her mission to grow that program to be one of the best in the area, state and country.  

https://twitter.com/LSteele35 

https://twitter.com/gbb_vi Music Credit: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Nicholas_Mackin/A_Journey/04Nicholas_Mackin-Ellinor-A_Journey_II-A_Journey-SLC41_Soisloscerdos