By Andy Loigu

This is the 25th anniversary of a most extraordinary achievement in North Warren High School girls basketball history. It was the season of “Almind Joy.”

In Blairstown, late in the 2000 season, against a Voorhees team that was almost totally invincible in those days, Desire Almind became the first Warren County girl to score 2,000 points in a high school basketball career. She reached the milestone despite the fact that Voorhees played a box-and-one defense against her all night.

The Y2K edition of the North Warren Patriots went on to win a sectional title and then lost a thrilling state final against a magnificent Wildwood squad, finishing as the state runner up.

Just two years earlier, North Warren struggled through a humbling 7-17 season. As new coach Sandy Toronzi assembled the 1998-99 squad, she asked the girls to look around the gym and pick out the spot where they would like to display the sectional championship banner they were going to win. “Huh,” thought the girls, “she’s talking about us?”

Instilling confidence in her team along with solid fundamentals and masterful Xs and Os game plans, Toronzi led the team on an astounding charge which got them to a sectional final and a runner-up finish. For the jobs they did, Toronzi was named Coach of the Year and Almind was honored as Female Athlete of the Year by the Warren Reporter.

With most of the players coming back for 1999-2000, they returned to that sectional final and won it this time, with Almind dropping 30-plus points on opponent after opponent. Nobody could block her jump shots, which usually found their mark. Although Desi’s scoring numbers were prolific, Toronzi always told the media that Desi was an unselfish player who made her teammates better. “Desi always tried to get everyone involved in the offense, but I told her, time after time, for us to win, you’ve got to score,” Toronzi said in looking back on that special season.

Once again, Toronzi and Almind were honored as Coach of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year.

Almind went on to play Division 1 college basketball with Bucknell University in the Patriot League. She now is in the Bucknell Bisons’ Sports Hall of Fame.

She is a three-time Patriot League All-Star. She graduated with 1,581 points and 873 rebounds, both totals putting her into third place in the all-time Bucknell women’s basketball ledger. Her 13.1 rebounds per game in her senior season were second in the entire nation: that’s over 300 D-1 programs, sports fans.

Nagging, persistent injuries and health problems hindered Desi through her college years, but she only missed seven of Bucknell;s 116 games while she was on the team.

She played professionally with Birmingham in the USA and also in Germany and Hungary in European leagues. That round ball and hoop took her all over the world.

***

In local scholastic ice hockey, the MOHOHA Marauders, made up of players from Mount Olive, Hopatcong and Hackettstown, stood at 5-5-1 after a 1-0 shutout win over Montville on January 8.

MOHOHA, skating aggressively, outshot Montville 40-16. Andrew Scelfo scored with assists by Kyle Ensinger and Ryan Puco.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.