Brick Township H.S. basketball standout looks to the future

Kat Connelly, the point guard whose poise and leadership helped the Brick Township High School girls basketball team to its best season in five years with berths in the Shore Conference and NJSIAA tournaments, is taking her talents to the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Kat Connelly The school, an NCAA Division II program in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, has qualified for the postseason for the last 11 years.

"I hope when I get there, I can show them what I'm made of," Connelly said. "I have to just get strong physically and run the floor better, a lot of things."

The University of the Sciences finished its season 15-12, highlighted by a late-season 53-49 victory over the University of Philadelphia, and lost in the opening round of the conference playoffs. In the backcourt, ball-handling guard Allison Weiss completed her senior eligibility, while junior Kaitlin Duross returns. Erin Chesnavich, a junior NCAA Division II All-East region team, led the team in scoring and rebounding.

Connelly said she plans on majoring in physical therapy.

"It's a six-year doctoral program," she said. "I wanted to do something that can keep me close to sports, where I can make some good money in something that's interesting to me as well as fun. And Philadelphia is exciting with a lot to do with all of the colleges that are in that area."

Her sister, Lauren, is a former swimmer at Brick Township High School, who graduated from the University of Connecticut and is in a graduate program in special education at Simmons College in Boston.

Connelly, who broke into the starting lineup during her junior year, and her teammates adjusted well to new coach Kristi McCullough, who was an assistant under former head coach Christi DeMarco.

"We had four seniors, three of them starters, and we all worked together with the changes and with the new coach," Connelly said. "We all worked together and learned together, although there were not many changes because she [McCullough] was an assistant coach who had some similar ideas [to DeMarco's]."

And Connelly said she likes the disposition of her next coach, who balances success in athletics with academics.

"I'm looking for what also happens in my life after college, and when I met the coach, I learned he likes to build his team around girls who are looking to their careers, and he works the time around the academic schedules," Connelly said. "He understands there are studies before athletics. But there's great [athletic] talent there, and I'm excited to be a part of it."

Connelly's steady play helped the Green Dragons to victories in both games over Brick Memorial and to an opening-round victory over Wall Township High School in the Shore Conference tournament before a second-round loss to powerhouse Colts Neck High School.

"I've always had a sense of early ideas, how to analyze the floor and guiding people, an understanding of how to run the offense," said Connelly, whose playing earned the praise of her teammates for raising their level and praise from her coach after many wins.

It is Connelly's intangible qualities on both ends of the floor as well as her statistical contributions that helped her become an integral part of Brick Township High's team and a valued recruit for the University of the Sciences.