Katonah- Manhattan College men?s basketball coach Steve Masiello, a 1996 alum of The Harvey School, has made several trips back to his high school alma mater in Katonah to address the student body, but Thursday it was Harvey?s turn to visit the second-year coach at his work place on the Riverdale campus.
The entire roster of Harvey?s varsity boys basketball team and their two coaches, along with nine players from the varsity girls team, were treated to a very special evening by the Manhattan College coach and his players.
Prior to Manhattan?s 7 pm game against MAAC rival Rider College, the Harvey basketball players met in the media room for a Q and A with two starters on the Jaspers, junior forward Rhamel Brown, the team?s co-captain from Brooklyn, and sophomore guard Donovan Kates from Kentucky. Sitting in cushioned chairs that media representatives occupy during post-game press conferences, the Harvey players listened attentively as Brown and Kates talked about their college experiences and answered questions from their young visitors.
?The most important thing I?ve learned in college,? said Brown, ?was that hard work equals success.? He said the biggest difference between playing in a college program and his experience as a high school player was that playing basketball for Manhattan has taught him ?so much more about life.? He said he has also learned that he is ?a student first and an athlete second.?
Kates said playing for a college team has taught him about the importance of team bonding. ?Everybody needs to be there for everyone,? he said.? He said, "Everyone has a role to play whether they start or sit on the bench.?? Kates said the biggest difference between playing high school athletics and college is the intensity. ?Everything is more intense,? he said, ?practices, games, and your coaches? expectations.?
When it was Coach Masiello?s turn to address the Harvey players, he spoke on the theme of passion. ?If you?re passionate about what you?re doing,? the coach said, ?you give yourself the best chance for success.?? Masiello said his passion is basketball. He recalled his time as first year player for Harvey as junior after he had transferred to the Katonah independent school. ?The year before I arrived,? he recalled, ?Harvey had only won three games.? I told Headmaster Fenstermacher that we would beat the teams that had beaten us the year before. In fact, we beat a lot of teams and went all the way to become the 1995 New England Prep School champion.? The coach said, ?If you have a passion for what you do, whatever it is, good things will come.? ?
Masiello scored over 1,000 points in his two-years at Harvey. He went on to play four years at the University of Kentucky where he experienced a national championship in 1998 and served as co-captain his senior year. After serving six years as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville, Masiello took on the head coach?s job at Manhattan last year and led his team to a 21-win season and was named 2011-12 Co-Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Writers Association.
When Harvey sophomore Ricky Hicks asked Coach Masiello how a 15-year-old can be more mature, he said, ?Stop hanging with 15-year-olds.? ?He explained, ?Don?t just hang with your peers. Spend some time with older people, including teachers and coaches.? He also advised each player to spend an hour a day watching YouTube videos of a great professional player and try to emulate his style. He said when Kobe Bryant was younger he studied Michael Jordan every chance he could ?which helped him become as great as he is.?
Harvey?s first-year varsity basketball coach Dom Narcisco was grateful for the experience of having his players meet the Manhattan players and their coach. He said, ?I think the kids learned a lot to take home with them.? ?The entire experience will help them both as players and as young people,? he added.
The Harvey players stayed for Manhattan?s game and got a taste of the intensity of Division 1 basketball. Unfortunately, the Jaspers came up short, losing to Rider 69-60.
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