Former Bishop Kearney coach Cathy Crockett remembers meeting Janelle McManus as an eighth grader in girls’ basketball camp. The 5-foot-1, 100-pound guard held her own, but Crockett had no idea of the lasting impact McManus would have on the Tigers’ program.
“If someone told me that week that this pint-sized guard would bring so much excitement to the Kearney basketball program and the CHSAA the next four years, I would have looked at them like they had rocks in their head,” Crockett said.
She and the rest of the league quickly learned the type of legacy McManus would leave behind. McManus scored 22 points in her first high school game as a freshman. Later that season, she gave Christ the King star Sue Bird, one of top women’s basketball players ever, all she could handle. Bird picked up two quick fouls trying to guard her.
“I was like, ‘this is going to be running for four years,’ ” Crockett said. “I am going to be able to go into Christ the King the next four years and I have a weapon that they are going to have to prepare for.”
McManus, who grew up in Rockaway, went on to become the best player in Bishop Kearney history. The 2000 graduate is the Catholic High School League’s all-time leading scorer with 2,274 points and she led the Tigers to three Catholic state championships and the school’s first state Federation title. She was also a multiple-time New York City Player-of-the-Year winner.
McManus’ accomplishments and accolades earned her induction into the Girls Catholic High School League Hall of Fame, along with 10 others at a ceremony on April 30 at Russo’s on the Bay. Those years were as memorable for her as those who watched her.
“You start looking back and get to reflect, and high school was definitely the best four years of my life so far as basketball,” said McManus, who played her collegiate ball at Boston College and Fairfied. “Now it all gets a culmination.”
She admitted to being intimated before that first game against Christ the King, but the feeling quickly subsided. McManus, who didn’t play with another Division-I player during her career, gave Kearney the ability to compete with any team in the country. The Tigers’ games against Christ the King became standing room only at Kearney during her final three seasons because of the rivalry between the school — and the one between the two stars. Clare Droesch, the Royals best player, is one of McManus’ best friends from Rockaway. The Tigers never beat the Royals, but the games rarely disappointed.
“You couldn’t get in the gym because people from our community to everyone else in the world who wanted to see us play,” Drosch said. “It was great for the sport.”
Royals coach Bob Mackey remembers how fierce a competitor McManus was. She could flat-out score, knew how to draw a foul, and would suffocate the players she was guarding. McManus scored in double figures in 96 of her 103 high school games and had a string of 40 consecutive games of 20 points or more.
“I just remember her hair on fire going 100 miles an hour, loving it,” Mackey said. “That’s Janelle.”
She played the game with a never-say-die attitude, always thinking there was a play she could make to help win the game. That was evident in a thrilling 77–76 victory over Bishop Loughlin in the final of the Monsignor King tournament as a senior. Kearney trailed by six points with 10 seconds left to play and McManus scored seven points in 5.8 seconds to earn the Tigers the win.
The spurt included her rebounding and putting in her own missed free throw, and a four-point play with five seconds remaining to secure the victory and give her 42 points for the game. Crockett called it an out-of-body experience watching it take place. McManus, however, always knew it was possible.
“Saying it sounds a little silly, but I never felt we would really lose that game,” she said. “It was one of this literally surreal moments.”
Crockett said McManus’s passion rubbed off on her teammates and made them better, and the star guard gave Crockett plenty of credit for her success. The two had a strong bond where not much had to be said — they both understood each other’s desire to compete and win. McManus said being pushed at practice was something she needed.
“She believed in me from the start,” she said. “Without that belief, I wouldn’t have gotten to the level that I’ve gotten. It really started with her.”
St. Saviour and Fontbonne coaches gets Hall nod: Jim Gregson’s career as a softball and basketball coach isn’t filled with championship accolades, but that wasn’t why he began coaching at the Park Slope school in 1999. He is a teacher of the games who sees his teams improve and continue to compete as a season goes on. Gregson did lead the Pandas varsity hoops team to the 2011 Brooklyn-Queens Division II girls’ basketball diocesan title.
“As a season progresses, as a coach what happens is they start getting it,” Gregson said. “They start understanding and they start seeing what it takes. That’s the best satisfaction.”
It’s a similar passion that Allen James brought to Fontbonne Hall as an assistant softball coach from 1994-2011 before dying of lung cancer at the age of 64. James got into coaching to be with his daughters before falling in love with the sport. His work with the outfielders helped develop dozens of All-City-caliber players.
“He had an incredible knack in seeing the positive in anything and never let negativity get in the way,” his daughter Jennifer James-Favato said. “His genuine love for the game and life, that was truly contagious.”
