Inside Look: SJ Girls HS Basketball

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 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

Coach J Senft is the Head Coach for Highland High School Girls Basketball. He grew up in Mt. Ephraim, NJ and attended Audubon High School. He played football and basketball in high school. He fell in love with History and decided that he wanted to be a teacher.  

Coach Senft attended Rowan University. He focused on his studies and found time to play intramural sports. He studied History and earned his teaching degree.  

Coach Senft got his start coaching as a volunteer while he was student teaching. After graduation, he met with his parents neighbor who offered him a position as an assistant football coach at Triton. An opening as a History Teacher opened up at Highland a few weeks in to the school year He realized that he had a passion to coach basketball and got his start coaching freshan girls. Eventually he was offered the JV Girls position and he decided to take it. In 2008 he became Head Coach and has remained at that position ever since.  

Coach Senft has experienced the highs and lows of coaching but is dedicated to working with his players and preparing them for life. Despite having a young team, Coach Senft has his team playing well and in the hunt for a division title. 

https://twitter.com/HoopPhiBBall 

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

Coach John Considine loved the game of basketball growing up. Surprisingly, it was not his best sport. Not many people know this but he played tennis in college while studying kinesiology and becoming a teacher.  

Coach Considine got his start coaching middle school boys in Moorestown where he worked. He coached Bob Falconiero's son in middle school. Falconiero was the Boys Head Coach at Eustace at the time. He invited Considine to coach with him at Eustace. After coaching at Eustace for a few years as an assistant the Girls job opened up. After thinking it over he decided to take the job and as they say the rest is history.  

Coach Considine has enjoyed success at Eustace. He gets his team to compete at a high level despite having a 10 year old son and 7 month old daughter. Coach Considine enjoys the relationships that he builds with his players and it shows. We are looking for more great things to come.  

https://twitter.com/rollcrusaders

https://twitter.com/CoachCons11 

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

Coach Jackie Mulligan was born and raised in South Jersey. She grew up living in Stratford, NJ. Like most kids, she grew up playing sports with the neighborhood kids. She realy enjoyed softball and basketball. She attended school in town and eventually went to Sterling High School. She enjoyed a successful high school basketball career playing for coaching legend, Bill Ulrich. Mulligan is very humble and doesn't mention it but she scored 2,515 points and was Gatorade's New Jersey Player of the Year. Her team won state titles during her junior and senior years.

After high school, Mulligan went on to play at Penn State, who was the number one team in the country at the time. She eventually earned her degree in teaching and returned home to teach. She got her start coaching middle school. Eventually, Coach Mulligan was brought on staff at her alma mater as an assistant coach where she learned a lot from Coach Ulrich. She became interm coach midseason when Coach Ulrich had bypass surgery. She took over the head coaching position once Coach Ulrich stepped down. She continued to guide the team to success but eventually stepped down when her middle daughter was born.

Coach Mulligan and her husband John have 3 girls and moved to Haddonfield when they were in elementary school. In 2014, she returned to coaching and was named Head Coach at Haddonfield Memorial High School. She loved the idea that she would eventuallu get the opportunity to coach her daughters. She has built a strong program at HMHS and has the ready to compete at a high level each year. We look forward to seeing Coach Mulligan lead this team for years to come.

https://twitter.com/HMHSgirlsbball

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

Coach Mike Brunswick was born in Michigan. His family moved to a small town in upstate New York called Windsor. He grew up playing a variety of sports. He attended Windsor High School where he played football basketball and golf.  

After graduating from high school, he attended Springfield College to become a teacher. While at college, Coach Brunswick joined the Intermural Golf Team and had the opportunity to play at some of the best golf courses in the Northeast. He eventually earned his teaching degree focusing on PE and Health.   

Almost immediately after graduating, Coach Brunswick was invited to interview at Moorestown Friends School. He was hired and has been teaching there for the last 28 years. Like many coaches, he started as an assistant coaching boys basketball. When the position opened up in 2001, he made the switch and became Head Coach of the Girls Basketball Team.  Coach Brunswick has enjoyed great success during his tenure as head coach. The last 4 years was the most successful in school history. 81 wins, SJIBT Champs, 2 finals appearances, 2 FSL Reg season #1 seeds, Top rankings in the state and SJ polls.  

This year things are much different for Coach Brunswick and his team. The  school made the tough decision to not allow the team to play this year, only practice. They are making the most of their time together and will celebrate the caree of 4 seniors. They are focusing on fundamentals and will be ready to compete when the time comes next year.  

https://twitter.com/mfsbrunswick 

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