Huskies' and Saints' stars accept scholarships

SPORTS > FEATURES

Six athletes continued their schools’ traditions of producing collegiate signees.

By Joseph Myers

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Dec. 1, 2011

Kahleah Copper, from left, coach Paul Rieser and Michael Borelli have made the Huskies heavy contenders for league titles.

Photo by Greg Bezanis

When Kahleah Copper revealed her college selection Nov. 14 in the auditorium at Prep Charter High School, 1928 Point Breeze Ave., she did more than make the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights happy. The 17-year-old also delighted her mother, Leticia Copper, who is fighting breast cancer and will require only a short trip to watch her youngest daughter’s basketball games.

“Family was definitely an important factor,” the standout, whom ESPN’s HoopGurlz recruiting rankings have named the nation’s 17th-best prospect, said of choosing the Big East power and making it the envy of conference foes DePaul, St. John’s and Syracuse universities, her other finalists.

T-shirts of her foursome lay on a table as the senior entered to classmates’ cheers. Beaming, the North Philadelphia resident sat with her matriarch and coach Paul Rieser.

“I am thrilled Kahleah has the opportunity to continue to grow as a player,” Rieser said of Copper, who last year earned First-Team All-Public and All-State honors after averaging 17.5 points and 14.3 rebounds a contest for the 25-3 Huskies.

He has helped 13 players to acquire scholarships to Division I, II and III institutions and reveled in tabbing Copper his 14th. He lauded the 6-foot-1 figure as a role model, with the assembled students wondering for whom she will next year serve as an exemplar of maturity and skill.

After a speech, Copper asked her peers to predict her pick. Hearing every site, the coveted teenager, whose stock skyrocketed courtesy of assisting her team to the 2011 Public League Championship — the West Passyunk squad’s first — rose to unzip her jacket. Applause signaled the learners’ approval of Rutgers. Her mother smiled as her child’s signature adorned the National Letter of Intent and put the New Jersey school in line to add to its ’00 and ’07 Final Four runs under Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

“I decided Oct. 22,” Copper said of having her multiple visits to North Jersey bear fruit.

Exploring the campus bred feelings of contentment, which she shared with family and friends.

“They told me I had to go with my gut,” she said of putting an end to pondering.

In love with becoming a college student, the National Honor Society member will major in either criminal justice or psychology. On the hardwood, she expects immediate results and will receive motivation from two of her teammates on the Amateur Athletic Union’s New York Gauchos who compete for Rutgers.

In the Public League title game, she scored 19 points and claimed 17 rebounds, tallies that garnered her MVP honors. The Lady Huskies fell in the District 12 Class AAA championship and the PIAA State quarterfinals to Warminster-based Archbishop Wood. The losses have motivated her to make this year a monster one.

“This year’s goal is simple,” Copper said. “I want the state championship.”

Michael Borelli gives the school another senior who craves Pennsylvania prowess. A threat as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher, the resident of the 2700 block of South Colorado Street signed with University City’s University of the Sciences. The school’s first baseball player to land a scholarship, the NHS member desires to become a pharmacist and chose the facility to bring his ambition closer to fruition.

The reigning Division B MVP selected the University of the Sciences from four schools. It recruited him as a pitcher and an outfielder, meaning Borelli will maintain his status as a menace to hitters and hurlers. He has earned 24 mound triumphs and a staggering .508 batting average, leading his unit to the ’09 Class AA Final and last year’s semifinals.

“I decided in October after an overnight stay,” he said of becoming a Devil.

He scribbled his name with as much poise as he has when hurling fastballs and deliberated on what next year will yield on the field and in the classroom.

“We want to go undefeated and have a shot at a state championship,” he said. “In college, I am expecting to become more of a man than a child. It’s about time I face the real world.”

Four students from Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., joined Borelli in inking future destinations later that day. A jubilant after-school crowd flocked to the East Passyunk Crossing site’s conference room to honor basketball bigwigs Omowumi “Ki-ke” Rafiu and Derrick Stewart and baseball bashers Joey Gorman and Jimmy Kerrigan.

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