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Sports in RI: CCRI Lady Knights in post-season tournament for 4th year – John Cardullo
The CCRI Women’s basketball team make the post season tournament for the 4th year in a row
It was only a few years ago that the CCRI Lady Knights were in a rebuilding mode. In 2018 before the world heard of Covid, the Lady Knights basketball program was in free fall. Unable to attract high impact girls’ basketball players to come and play for the team. Most games there were barely enough players to field a team. The team played as hard as it could but found victories hard to come by. The team needed an infusion of players, of coaching, and of a perspective. To say at the time the future looked bleak would be an understatement. However, little did anyone know that there were events in motion that would have a ripple effect on the course of CCRI Women’s Basketball to this day.
Doug Haynes who was wrapping up another successful as the Head Coach of the girls high school powerhouse, Bayview Academy, winning multiple State Championships at Bayview, was stepping down as the head coach after developing a program at the high school level. He was soon named the head coach of the CCRI Lady Knights. Going into the first season, he knew that he had a lot of work ahead of him. What Haynes did was to begin rebuilding the Lady Knights from the ground up. As a college coach, he was able to seek out talent and recruit players to the CCRI Field House.
“My first three years we made progress, we began to get players who wanted to work hard to come to CCRI, the team began to play better.” Haynes said, “but the pandemic didn’t help matters. Me and my coaching staff buckled down and worked even harder!” Some of Rhode Island’s finest high school basketball players was seriously giving CCRI a hard look. The draw could have been the facility, convincing girls to stay local while still getting a college degree or even playing for one of the area’s best basketball coaches the state had to offer. It could have been any single reason or all of the above reasons, but the players began to come to CCRI.
So, in the season of 2021-22 the CCRI Lady Knights qualified to go and play in the NJCAA Division 3 Women’s National Championship tournament. They made the trip again in the 2022-23, 2023-24 and to make it four years in a row they will be heading back to the tournament again. They will be playing in the 4th Region XXI Championship tournament where they will take will be the #7 seed and play on the Jefferson Community College Cannoneers on Wednesday, March 12th at 5 pm local time. The Lady Knights will travel to Rochester, Minnesota where the tournament will be held.
Haynes is confident in this season’s team. The veterans are true team leaders, and the freshman came to the team with a lot of high school experience. In addition of Head Coach Haynes, his assistant coaching staff includes Victoria Wilkenson, Derrick Campbell and Katherine Raposo. The team is except for one player, all from Rhode Island. There are 4 sophomores and 8 freshmen on this year’s team. The players include #0 – Jav’Viona Smith Littlejohn (Charette HS, Prov); #1 – Jayanah Rollins (Johnston HS); #2 – Pamela Galva (Central Falls HS); #4 – Ri’hanna Tavares (Tollgate, Warwick); #10 – Kellylyn Kozlin (W. Warwick HS); #11- Kelsey Hatch (Mt. Pleasant, Prov); #14- Sydney Waitekus (Norwood HS, MA); #15 – Trinity Burk (Tolman HS, Pawt); #21 – Nadine Ogni (Pilgrim HS, Warwick); #22 – Stephanie Walker (Classical HS, Prov); #23 – Angelisse Melendez (St. Ray’s, Pawt) and #24 – Tatiana Pereira (St. Ray’s, Prov).
Since the team has qualified for the tournament they have received well wishes from all over the state and we would like to wish them good luck as well, GO LADY KNIGHTS!
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Photos: J. Cardullo and CCRI Athletics
John Cardullo, sportswriter. John is a lifelong Rhode Islander. His sports experience is extensive, as a player, coach and sponsor of youth and high school sports. He has been the Public Address Announcer for the CCRI Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams. Both the Cranston East and Cranston West football, Cranston East Boys and Girls basketball for 12 years before moving onto the Central, Juanita Sanchez and Mt. Pleasant football teams. Also, Central HS Boys and Girls Basketball, Scituate High School Boys and Girls Basketball, Johnston High School Girls Basketball, Boys Volleyball, Girls Softball, Boys and Girls Soccer teams, and CLCF football.
John has been involved in Men’s softball for 61 years, starting as a batboy for his father’s team in 1964. He moved to the teams scorekeeper then became a player in 1975, and created the men’s team, Players Corner Pub, that went on to win 20 State Championships in their 35 year history. In the 1990’s he published the statewide softball magazine “The Fielders Choice” which was dedicated to all topics related to adult softball. As a feature writer, John and the publication won several media awards. In 2019 he was elected and inducted into the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame which he also helped create. John is a softball umpire in Warwick, Rhode Island.
In his spare time John golfs with his life long friends in season. After retiring from the printing Industry after a 45-year career, he now writes specialty sports columns for RINewsToday.com, is still actively engaged in the high school sports scene, and will soon launch a radio show/podcast on high school sports.