Danielle Santucci had a lot of question marks over the summer when she heard about the coaching shakeup at Curtis.
Gone would be assistant coach John Curatolo, who guided the team to the PSAL Class A title game last year after Meghan McNamara went on maternity leave in the winter. And joining head coach Lorna Gilly’s staff would be Staten Island legend Bob Daggett following the closure of St. Peter’s. Then she found out later that some the St. Peter’s junior varsity players were going to follow Daggett to Curtis.
“I was a little worried,” said the junior forward, who played an important role on the team last season. “I didn’t know what was gonna come, who was gonna come, if I was gonna play, if I was even gonna make [the team]. I didn’t know how the girls would react to us. I didn’t know how the season would work out.
“I went in with that attitude, but the first day of practice that attitude completely went away. Now I love these girls and I can’t wait to play with them.”
The transition period has really been a brief one for all involved. That isn’t to say Curtis is ready to take over New York City or even take over where St. Peter’s left off.
The Warriors are young, inexperienced and still learning how to play together. Just two regulars from last year’s Curtis team return: Santucci and fellow rugged forward Karisa Crawford, who will be the team’s only senior getting significant minutes.
Those two and Kristen Olsen are the only ones with any varsity games under their belt – and Olsen’s time at that level was sparse. Daggett called her up from the JV the final week of the season last year and she ended up making a huge impact to lead St. Peter’s to a 16th straight CHSAA Staten Island title in a tiebreaker game with Moore Catholic.
“We’ll need her to score for us and actually need her to give some leadership,” Daggett said.
Sharpshooting junior guard Shannon McGill, a transfer from Notre Dame Academy, will expect to do the same. Gina Rosalbo and Gabby Daddario, both from the St. Peter’s JV, will see time and Curtis JV callups Zuniette Adeniji and Samaria Newkirk have potential, but are raw. Adeniji, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, is an intriguing prospect.
Getting Santucci and Crawford back this week from their fall sports – volleyball and bowling, respectively – was a help, but the two haven’t practiced as much as Daggett would have liked.
“I’m sure we’ll be better when they’ll be able to be in the gym regularly,” he said.
Daggett, himself, called the change of scenery “refreshing” and lauded the players and administration for allowing for the best possible outcome at this early stage. At St. Peter’s, Daggett scheduled all the top PSAL teams – just last year the Eagles played the entire ‘AA’ final four of Murry Bergtraum, South Shore, John F. Kennedy and Francis Lewis – so none of that is new to him.
At has been awhile since the PSAL Staten Island schools have been on his schedule, though, and now he’ll be competing with them for the Island title and the borough’s one solitary spot in the Class AA playoffs.
“It’s a goal of ours and it should be our primary goal, especially with our inexperience,” Daggett said of winning PSAL Staten Island A. “If we could ever do that, that would be wonderful.”
Olsen, though, has much loftier hopes for this amalgamation of a team. The junior had no idea where the PSAL Class AA city championship game was held. But when told it was Madison Square Garden, she smiled and said “really?”
“Alright,” Olsen added. “We’ll be there.”
