September 27, 2000
by Aaron Saperstein

Venturing into unfamiliar territory this summer, the Lions were forced to go from game to game unaware of which players would be on the roster. However, unlike in past summer league seasons, the Lions were able to find a way to fight through untimely vacations and injuries.

At times, the Lions found themselves undersized, as with the departure of senior center Andrew Hirsch, which only worsened the already difficult rebounding situation.

“Rebounding sometimes presented itself as a problem when the opposition is so much bigger, but we overcame it just with hustle and playing with heart,” said junior Adam Herschthal.

Through great hustle and hard play, the Lions were able to win their first five games. However, the Lions perfect record would not last forever, as they fell to St. Anselm’s 57-50 on July 11.

Junior Gaby Dymond attributed the loss to poor shooting and a lack of hustle.

“Everybody shot badly. They had more fire than us. They came out more aggressive, and they came right to us, and we were kind of sleeping,” said Dymond.

Yet the Lions recovered and won their next two regular season games, earning them a bye for the first round of the playoffs.

In the semifinal round, the Lions capitalized on the opportunity to avenge a previous loss to St. Anselm’s, beating them 55-50.

It was as though the teams had reversed roles from their previous meeting just eight days earlier, for the Lions came out fired up and ready to go.

“We got pumped and our field goal percentage was amazing. We totally turned it around. We came out much more aggressive than them, and once we got up by a little bit, they just gave up,” said Dymond.

The win over St. Anselm’s advanced the team to the summer league finals, held on July 20. In the championship game, the Lions faced the Potomac School, a team which had suffered its only loss of the summer season at the hands of the Lions.

However, this time the Lions played without senior Nathan Bortnick and could not reproduce the 59-43 victory they had put together just a month before.

The emotional drain of playing without Bortnick combined with the Potomac school’s size and strength were too much for the Lions, as they fell 47-35.

“In the finals, we were missing Nathan Bortnick, a very key player for our team. I think we sort of gave up after we knew that he wasn’t going to be there,” said Dymond.

One aspect of the season that stood out was the surprisingly aggressive play of some of the younger players when older, more experienced players were unable to attend games.

“A bright spot in this year’s summer league was that underclassmen like Herschthal and [sophomore] Jesse Dymond stepped up and filled really big roles when some of the older players didn’t show up,” said Gaby Dymond.

However, despite the Lions’ loss in the finals they had one of the most successful summer leagues ever and hope to carry their winning ways into the current 2000 fall league season.

The Lions are currently 1-1 in the Chuck Costolo league, the fall league in which they participate along with 11 area public schools. The season runs from Sept. 14 to Oct. 31 and includes an 11 game regular season schedule for each team. The Lions lost their season opener to Walter Johnson High School but then evened up their record with a victory against Seneca Valley High School.