Christ the King wasn’t Tina Charles’ first high school choice. That was Archbishop Molloy. CK’s girls basketball legacy was lost on her as a youngster.
“I had no clue,” said Charles, the starting center for top-ranked Connecticut.
But as soon as you enter the Middle Village gymnasium, you can’t help noticing all the trophies, All-American jerseys and newspaper articles about players like Chamique Holdsclaw and Sue Bird.
Charles, whose UConn team beat Stanford win the national title Tuesday night, will follow in their footsteps Thursday when she is likely to be the top overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Connecticut Sun. No high school program has had more than one alum get selected first and Christ the King will probably have three by week’s end.
“There aren’t too many schools that have any No. 1 picks,” said Royals coach Bob Mackey, who guided CK to a record 15th New York State Federation title last weekend. “It’s a great honor for the team and the program. I’m hoping she does.”
Charles, who says she still keeps in touch with Mackey and assistant coach Jill Cook, said there was no better way to get ready for college basketball than being at Christ the King. It wasn’t just the preseason, five-mile runs the CK players do on the beach in Rockaway every year. It’s also the success. Charles, a 6-foot-4 center, won two mythical national championships there to go along as a precursor to two more in Storrs.
“They challenge you and help you prepare for the future,” Charles said.
And CK, which was one of the first schools to get a sponsorship with Nike for girls basketball, seems to develop some of the best players in the history of the women’s game. Bird, who plays for the Seattle Storm and graduated from UConn, and Holdsclaw of the Atlanta Dream were both named to the WNBA All-Decade Team in 2006. They both played for legendary Christ the King coach Vinny Cannizzaro, who retired and gave way to longtime assistant Mackey 10 years ago.
“Christ the King was unlike any other high school team,” Bird said via email from Russia, where she is playing with international powerhouse Spartak Moscow. “We had the expectations of a college team and were treated and coached that way. We had study hall, we traveled far distances and even on some occasions we had shootaround. Those are things that college teams do. It helped instill a mindset that I’ve taken with me to college and into the professional ranks – both on and off the court.”
Holdsclaw had similar memories. Cannizzaro was the good cop then and Mackey, who was coming off guiding the St. Nicholas of Tolentine boys to a mythical national title, was the bad cop – “straight bananas, kicking trash cans and stuff.” Cook, the lone female on the staff, was someone the girls could lean on and who had been there before – she played at Georgetown. Holdsclaw, who went on to Tennessee, said it was like a college staff in a high school setting.
“Coach [Pat] Summitt runs a tight ship, but it’s nothing I wasn’t ready for,” she said. “It wasn’t just basketball wise, but academically they put their time in, too.”
Bird said if she had to give Charles any advice it would just to be enjoy every moment. There are plenty of those she can savor. On March 1, she became UConn’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder on the same night. Charles was selected Big East Player of the Year and last weekend she was honored with the AP National Player of the Year award. The Huskies went 78-0 the last two seasons with two titles.
None of her vast accomplishments have really surprised Mackey, who said Charles had the look of a pro very early on.
“We thought that her first year playing here on the JV,” he said. “She was that good.”
Charles only got better, making her the latest in a long line of greats from the women’s basketball factory that is Christ the King.
“I think Tina is WNBA-ready,” said Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who probably hopes Charles slips to her team with the second pick. “Her game is so suited for our level, whether it is her ability to score in post-up situations or her offensive rebounding. I think it is a great story if you followed her throughout her career. Watching her maximizing her talents her senior year was really fun. [She’s] a player who is going to be able to step in and be immediately helpful.”
Additional reporting by Joseph Staszewski