Few teams across all classes in Section 1 had as much aesthetic basketball value as the 2020 Section 1 champions, Hastings High School.
Coached by veteran Bob Delle Bovi, the youth-laden Yellow Jackets thrived with fluid ball movement, ball handler-congesting wall to wall defensive pressure, a knack for kicking in that extra pass, and spacing.
The result? Slaying an arduous Westchester County Center ghost of the past (Hastings came up short in all four Section 1 Final Four berths since the championship season of 1999) and finally getting that elusive title and Gold Ball back to the spirited, tight-knit village on the Hudson River.
“They learned how to win, that is the best thing about this group,” said Delle Bovi, who adds a Section 1 shiny souvenir title to a decades long coaching pedigree.
“They know how to win close games.”
Don’t Argue With History
Twenty one years ago and five months to be exact, a senior laden and ultra-deep Hastings HS team won a Section 1 championship.
Led by the interior game, consistent high scoring and rim protecting tactics of Farid Johnson (Manhattanville) and a 6-foot-4 bulldozer in then senior strongman Kern Mojica (who wound up playing Division 1 football at New Hampshire), the Yellow Jackets boasted a formidable two-way post game.
The Yellow Jackets were quarterbacked by a well built, cerebral 5-foot-10 dish-first point guard in then senior Nicky Battista. They rode the hot hand of then-junior Chris Testa, a 3-point ace capable of getting red hot and reeling off points in a hurry.
Following an irregular and quiet performance during the Section 1 semifinal, Testa erupted in the championship. A 6-foot off-guard, Testa fired in three consecutive 3-pointers during the first half and injected a rush of momentum which Hastings never relinquished, en route to a pulsating 54-49 victory over cross-village rival, Ardsley HS.
Then-junior Tom Braig, an athletic guard/forward who scored 21 points off the bench during the semi-final victory against Edgemont, helped preserve the victory with calming fourth quarter free throws.
Johnson scored a game-best 18 points. He tore down 11 boards, and ultimately helped seal the net shut alongside Mojica. The shot-blocking and shot-manipulating tandem of Johnson and Mojica neutralized Ardsley’s frontline.
Johnson was named the Class C Tournament Most Valuable Player.
This was a selfless, fun loving and memorable Hastings team.
They bought into a disciplined culture of winning under then head coach Joe DeGennaro, posting a 19-4 overall record.
These Yellow Jackets were a spirited group with tight bonds on and off the court. They were also a New York State all academic team.
The Yellow Jackets had another immeasurable advantage with the immensely hostile crowd behind them.
With a maniacally rowdy student section backing them, Hastings’ home Cochrane gymnasium was a place where an opponent would really dread shooting an airball or putting forth a lackluster performance. They would hear from the crowd early and often. That much was guarantees.
The ’99 Hastings team’s depth—they played 11 guys comfortably in a Class C synonymous with star power and razor-thin rosters– differentiated them.
They overwhelmed foes in waves and waves and waves.
The 1999 Section Champa honored the tradition of a true, heated rivalry game with next door foe Dobbs Ferry.
In a game filled with animosity between the two towns, with several unique pre-game subplots to it, Johnson exploded for 40 points to propel Hastings to a pulsating win in a jam-packed, bandbox Dobbs gym.
And though the two schools did combine for a joint Hastings-Dobbs football team back then, the rivalry was akin to bloodsport.
Johnson took that particular game personally, citing it as a true test of who he is.
The then senior said he reminded his Dobbs Ferry friends and former football teammates that on the court, THEY ARE NOT FRIENDS.
Fast forward to 2020.
The Yellow Jackets finally ended an agonizing 21-year Section 1 playoff drought, defeating a talented Valhalla team during a long awaited return to the Westchester County Center for the title game.
This Hastings team, however, was an entirely different beast than the aforementioned ’99 team. They were less seasoned. The roster was filled with less larger than life personalities.
And, the roster was considerably younger, as underclassmen played prominent roles.
Spearheaded by a smooth high-scoring 6-foot-3 sophomore guard in Josh Thigpen and a tough, traditional point guard in battle tested junior Chris Rotiroti, the Yellow Jackets prospered with a youth movement.
Both Thigpen and Rotiroti enter their junior and senior seasons, which may or may not happen given the coronavirus pandemic, as two of Section 1/Class B’s top-tier and decorated guards.
Thigpen is known for his all around scoring ability.
Rotiroti is a surgical passer, suffocating defender, and high IQ old school game manager.
“Josh is just a player,” Delle Bovi said.
“He can do so much off natural ability and instinct. Chris makes everyone around him better. He’s too unselfish. I have to get him to shoot the ball more (his senior year).”
The now graduated Liam Hopwood shouldered the burden of savior in hitting the game-winner.
In catapulting Hastings to this memorable title, Hopwood converted the walk off shot via a high low dish from Rotiroti, with all the pressure in the world weighing down on the County Center.
“We’re going to miss him,” Delle Bovi said of Hopwood. “We are really going to miss our two big guys more than anything.”
Hastings will look to repeat with the core returning. They will also need major production out of a promising youth movement, one which grew up so fast during the sectional playoff.
This younger crew includes freshman outside shooter Rob Kennedy and a prodigious talent in eighth grader Keith Capuano, a physical 6-foot-2 forward.
Capuano is active on the glass and has shown a consistency in scoring hustle points and scoring at point blank, as well as between a defender and the rim.
It took a dreadful and mentally taxing 21 years, albeit the Yellow Jackets were finally able to expunge this County Center demon.
“I put (Rob) Kennedy in as a freshman and he had a tremendous year for us,” Delle Bovi said.
“I had an eighth grader off the bench playing quality minutes for a team that went 23-2. His brother Chris Capuano, we are going to have big expectations for him. We’re going to have to work on our depth.”
Hastings lost close games to North Salem in 2002, a game which came down to a final possession after both teams traded massive scoring runs in the second half. At the County Center floor in 2003, then-No.1 Hastings suffered an upset at the hands of 6-foot-5 Jamal Webb (who played briefly at Division-I Wagner in the Northeast Conference).
Hastings didn’t have it in a 2011 loss against Dobbs, bucking and crumbling under a late second half run and putting forth a listless second half performance.
“We should have won that game against North Salem (in 2002),” said Delle Bovi, who left that summer to take the Pleasantville head coaching job and then returned to the helm at Hastings 12 years later.
“I remember (the 2002 game against North Salem in the Section 1 Class C semifinals) so clearly. We did everything right except put the ball in the basket.”
Intriguing post script to that aforementioned 2011 semifinal loss to Dobbs…
On that County Center court was Hastings’ 6-foot-5 behemoth Ali Marpet (currently playing for the Tampa Bay Bucs of the NFL on a lucrative contract), a then senior forward-center.
Playing for Dobbs was Eric Paschall, who starred at Villanova and currently plays for the Golden State Warriors. Pascall was a seldom-used freshman on that Dobbs Sectional runner up team. The high flying 6-foot-7 guard eventually led the Eagles back to the County Center before culminating his career at Connecticut prep power St. Thomas More.
Back to 2020.
Delle Bovi is known for constantly downplaying any hype or emotions surrounding his team or a game, regardless of the stage or what’s at stake.
He has long had a steadfast, one game at a time approach.
And so the charismatic and high strung Delle Bovi did not entertain program history or pay any mind to the task of ending a 21-year championship drought.
Not before and after bringing the Gold Ball back to Hastings, as the bus that came chugging into Mount Hope Blvd. in Hastings was met with a standing ovation from fans and parents.
The revered veteran coach did say, however, that just how hard this 2020 team played is what makes this banner season so special.
“I have been doing this long enough to know that sometimes when you win, you have to get a little lucky,” Delle Bovi said.
“But these kids put in so much effort to everything we do. I’ll put it this way, “God gave everyone the ability to hustle. And hustle never had a bad day.”
