Rye Country Day’s boys basketball team won the NYSAISS Championship last year against Packer and lost the Fairchester Athletic Association championship by just one point. Since then, the entire starting team graduated and they have a new coach. Coach Torsie Judkins hails from North Carolina where he was the head coach at Durham Academy for ten years. Assistant coach Brandon Brailsford will be helping the Wildcats as well.

 

 

By Melanie Cane

 

Rye Country Day’s boys basketball team won the NYSAISS Championship last year against Packer and lost the Fairchester Athletic Association championship by just one point. Since then, the entire starting team graduated and they have a new coach. Coach Torsie Judkins hails from North Carolina where he was the head coach at Durham Academy for ten years. Assistant coach Brandon Brailsford will be helping the Wildcats as well.

 

The 2012-13 starting lineup is comprised of senior co-captains Ignacio De Lera and Andrew Waite, shooting guard Tyler Fernandez, forward James McPhail and point guard Salim Green. Jack Zenkel, who is recovering from a broken nose, will be an alternate starter.

 

The team got off to a rocky start, losing their first three games, but they rallied to win the Peg Dugan Memorial Tournament at Horace Mann last the weekend. In the first round, the Wildcats beat Loyola 55-48 in overtime. In the championship game, they beat Horace Mann, 52-51. Tyler Fernandez was the high scorer with 25 points against Loyola and 32 against Horace Mann. He was named tournament MVP.

 

Coach Judkins is pleased with the way the boys are starting to gel as a team and says that the absence of senior Raishaun McGhee, who is will be out the entire season with a back injury, is a tough break. However, he is confident that the team will carry the tournament momentum into the rest of the season and is hoping to defend their NYAISS championship status as well as win the FAA championship.