Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

By ALISON HISCHAK; Times Leader Sports Correspondent
Monday, January 27, 1997     Page: 1B

NANTICOKE — Welcome to the biggest secret in area college basketball.
   
Call it the cure for a dreary day.
    Or a pleasant surprise.
   
Members of the Luzerne County Community College women’s basketball team
have called the rebirth of their program both, while laying the foundation for
a successful future.
   
Now, if only it became the talk of the town.
   
“Basically, everyone that I speak to in the area doesn’t know that LCCC has
a women’s basketball team,” said Minutemaids head coach Michelle Testaguzza,
now in her second season of trying to give women’s basketball a name at the
school.
   
Despite offering free admission, most LCCC home games attract only a few
handfuls of fans, mostly parents and grandparents of the players.
   
There are nine girls on this season’s squad, which is an increase by two
from 1995-96. Often last season, the Minutemaids were going to games with only
five players, the minimum number required for competition.
   
“It was tough having only five or six girls,” said Jen Rinkevich, a
second-year player who helped women’s basketball return to LCCC last season
after a three-year absence. “We had to be up to the challenge. We had to stick
together and help one another.”
   
The program, which has been running off and on during the last 10 years,
came to life again through the girls’ participation in a summer league two
years ago, which sparked their interest in forming a team to play in the
Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference.
   
Once the team was formed, the next task was to find a head coach.
   
Testaguzza was originally supposed to be the assistant coach of the
Minutemaids, but when expected head coach Joan Bush decided not to take the
job, Testaguzza stepped up.
   
“A friend of mine who was supposed to coach couldn’t do it,” said
Testaguzza, whose team is 1-6 this season. “She asked if I would do it and
give it a shot to see if I like it. Now here I am back for another year.”
   
Despite having only a handful of players, LCCC finished the 1995-96 season
with a 4-7 record. It ended that season on a positive note by beating the
first-place team by a basket in overtime.
   
The few girls who played in the opening season came out for a variety of
reasons, ranging from love of basketball to keeping in shape to staying busy.
   
“Basketball was something to do. All my friends went away to school, and I
was bored,” Rinkevich said.
   
One of the tri-captains of the Minutemaids, Connie Ward, said she came out
for the team “to make myself a better person and to improve my physical
fitness.”
   
The players know there still is a long road ahead to establish a winning,
popular program.
   
“Even after two years of being established, it’s like, `They have a women’s
team?’ ” Testaguzza said.
   
TIMES LEADER/CHRIS ABRAHAM
   
Karen Faust (34) and her LCCC teammates have turned to each other for
support of the program.
   
Women’s college roundup
   
— Page 6B