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Girls’ basketball became a Suburban Lakes League varsity sport beginning with the 1974-75 season, three years after the formation of the new league, and Woodmore competed for SLL titles almost from the get-go.
Cheryl Hayward was the Wildcats' coach for one season, in 1974-75, before Melissa Scalzo took the coaching reigns for the next three years. Her Woodmore squads tied Gibsonburg for second place in 1976 and also took second in 1977 and '78.
The 'Cats, under coach Bob Netz, tied Eastwood for the SLL championship in 1981 and finished second behind the Eagles in '82. Woodmore finished in a three-way tie for second place in 1987, but it would be eight years before Woodmore sniffed another first- or second-place league finish.
The team that broke that streak was coach Mike DeStazio's 1994-95 squad, which featured Angie Fegley, Rupa Narra and Nicole Camper. The Wildcats held off a frenetic push from Eastwood, Genoa and Lakota, each of whom tied for second place that season, to earn the first outright SLL title in school history.
Two years later, in 1996-97, DeStazio started three sophomores and Woodmore claimed another SLL title. Camper, Amy Perkins, Tammy DeStazio and Alicia Gerwin were four standouts from that squad.
Woodmore hasn't won an SLL title since then.
DeStazio, who is in his first season coaching Genoa's girls basketball team, led Woodmore for nine years (1994-2003) and compiled a 149-52 career record with one district title (2002). That district championship team – which finished behind champion Eastwood and runner-up Elmwood in the league race – featured Ashley Perkins, Katie Lavigne and Amanda Weidner.
DeStazio, whose Comets fell to 11-1 with a last-second loss to two-time defending SLL champion Lake on Jan. 14, said the league was stronger from top to bottom back in the 1990s.
“When I look back at those years, there were a lot more teams at the top than there are now,” DeStazio said. “Back then you had Eastwood, Lakota, Gibsonburg, Elmwood. Now, we don't seem to have as many at the top. The best teams back then, who were in the top three, were probably as good as the top one now. The coaching is still very good but in the SLL, as far as girls’ basketball and girls athletes, we don't seem to have as many as we had back then.”
DeStazio said he attributes that to the fact that girls today are spreading themselves thin by playing multiple sports.
“Girls do a lot more today,” he said. “They don't specialize like they did back in those days. The good athletes are playing three or four sports. Back then, they specialized in one sport. I think the girls were more talented back then because they could specialize.”
The trend to play multiple sports hasn't affected Lake the past few years. Coach Denny Meyer's fourth-ranked (Division III) squad, which improved to 11-0 and secured its 54th straight regular-season victory with its 36-33 win over Genoa, has gone 20-0 during the last two regular seasons.
Lake left the Northern Lakes League and joined the SLL in 1996.
The second-most successful SLL program over the last few years has been Genoa, under former coach Tom Kontak. The Comets tied Woodmore for second place in 2006 and shared the 2007 and 2008 titles with Eastwood and Elmwood, respectively. Genoa was the runner-up to Lake the last two seasons.
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