It’s been a long time since Ed Grezinsky has given his players rings for winning the PSAL city title. Normally at Murry Bergtraum, the goal every year is to win the city and the New York State Federation – the Lady Blazers have five championships upstate in Grezinsky’s 19-year tenure to go along with those 13 straight PSAL crowns.
But the legendary coach changed things up a bit this season. He told his girls at the Garden that he would get them rings just for winning the PSAL Class AA city title over South Shore. This group, he said, more than earned it with all the hard work they put in as underdogs to get to this point all season.
“Me, Cori [Coleman], Monae [Abrams] and [Kassandra] Flowers have been waiting for this forever,” Canisius-bound senior leader Ashley Gomez said. “Mr. G said that when we won freshman year that we would get rings and that never happened, so he owes us. But this time we are really getting a ring and we are all very excited.”
Grezinsky will be the first to admit that expectations have been scaled back for this year’s state Federation tournament in Albany. Bergtraum meets NYPHSAA champion Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals 2 p.m. Saturday at the Times Union Center and the winner takes on nationally ranked Nazareth at noon Sunday.
“This is like icing on the cake,” Grezinsky said. “Previous years, it was you had to go up and win the state championship.”
That’s not to say Bergtraum thinks losing is an option. No way. Grezinsky drove up to Hudson Valley Community College for the NYPHSAA Class AA semifinals last weekend to scout all four teams. The coach expects Cicero-North Syracuse to be a handful. The squad is led by 6-foot-3 UConn-bound forward Breanna Stewart, an inside-outside threat and someone many places have ranked as the top junior in the United States.
“She’s very, very good,” Grezinsky said. “She’s lethal inside and she can also shoot the jumper. She handles the ball. She sees the court very well. When she gets her hands up she’s like 6-11. She really gets off the ground and grabs a lot of rebounds.”
Size is not one of Bergtraum’s biggest assets. But the Lady Blazers have been behind the eight-ball in many aspects of the game all year, including at the Garden against South Shore. This team is a bunch of fighters. It has grown accustomed to having the odds stacked against it.
“Having more doubters, no one believing in us should motivate us even more,” Coleman said. “Any team can be beaten. It’s just who wants it more. We want it more.”
If the Lady Blazers can get by Stewart and company, they’ll have to deal with Nazareth, the same coach and players that beat Bergtraum two years ago in Glens Falls when they were at St. Michael Academy.
Against a team like that, Bergtraum will really be counted out. That’s what they’re counting on.
“Our main focus this season was to go hard and prove everyone wrong, which we did once so why not try and do it again?” Gomez said. “Who wouldn’t wanna take it all?”
Those rings Grezinsky promised have not been ordered yet. The coach is waiting until next week for a reason.
“Is it going to say city champion or state champion?” he said. “That’s up to them.”
