Former CJ stars show what hoops program is about

As Mike Raiff watched the teeming activity on the Chaminade Julienne gym floor, here’s some of what he saw:

In the middle of some five dozen young girls — who were dribbling and laughing and occasionally looking at their mentors with a bit of awe — stood Megan Duffy.

The former CJ star — who went from Notre Dame Academic All-American to the WNBA to playing in Slovakia and Romania this past year — was the animated conductor of the affair, sort of like Arthur Fielder of the Boston Pops had he been able to dribble between his legs and bury the 3.

A few feet away Brandie Hoskins — another CJ hoops legend, who went on to Ohio State, the WNBA and most recently played pro in Greece and Israel — was kibitzing with a current Eagles player.

At the far end of the gym, Lindsey Goldsberry, another celebrated Eagle and Bowling Green star — had a comforting arm around a beaming girl who had started the week shy and intimidated.

This was the scene Wednesday, June 10, at the CJ girls summer basketball camp, a four-day affair that ends today at noon.

After six tough weeks around the school’s hoops program, it was dynamic affirmation of what CJ really is about.

“You don’t want to have a negative situation to remind you how wonderful CJ is, but that’s how it worked out,” Raiff said quietly. “The community and even some of us needed a reminder and right here we have it.”

The negative was the recent ouster of Marc Greenberg, the former head coach of the girls basketball team and the guy who had run this camp.

Fifteen days ago — following a May 4 arrest — Greenberg was indicted on 12 counts of using the Internet to transmit obscene materials to minors, none of whom are said to be his players or girls from his camp.

His alleged misdeeds unfairly cast a shadow over a good school and since then everybody has tried to work past it.

“No matter how you tried to say it was not, it was like the 800-pound gorilla sitting out there,” Raiff admitted.

Eventually Raiff consulted with Jim Place, the former longtime AD and coach at CJ, who’s now the football coach at Hamilton High School. Though neither had any experience in dealing with such a situation, they both had the best interests of the kids at heart and worked from there.

Soon Duffy, Hoskins and Goldsberry offered to do whatever they could to help assistant CJ coach and longtime camp backbone, Mandy Meyers, get things set for this week.

As for hiring a new coach for the nationally acclaimed program, Raiff said some 20 people — from as far away as Texas — have gone through the first of three rounds of interviews, but a decision is still a month away:

“At first we wanted to hire someone right off and put a new face on the program, but we soon realized it was more important to be prudent and make the right choice.”

In the meantime it’s been the current and former players who are, as he put it, “leading the healing process. ... They remind us what great kids we have.”

And no one is doing it more this week than the 24-year-old Duffy.

“Right away, along with Brandie and some other alums, we tried to figure out what we could do to keep the kids positive and focused,” Duffy said.

“I felt that was my responsibly. CJ gave so much to me, I wanted to give something back and refocus the attention on what it means to be a CJ Eagle,” she added.

She and the others have done that — and one thing more.

They took that 800-pound gorilla and turned it into a monkey they lifted off the back of the program. And because of that, anyone who looked Wednesday had a clear view of just what CJ was all about.

It was a wonderful sight.