St. Jerome Parish’s CYO girls’ basketball team pulled off an upset, defeating Blessed Sacrament on Feb 26 at St. Bartholomew gym to lift the trophy as the 14U Mid-Atlantic CYO championship.
In pulling off their final win, the 14U girls from the Hyattsville parish joined the 14U boys’ squad from St. Jerome’s as Mid-Atlantic champions, who defeated St. Pius X from Bowie on Feb. 21 at DeMatha in the tournament finals, their second straight years as champions. The championship victories made St. Jerome’s the first 14U CYO joint winner since 1990, when St. Jude Parish in Rockville won both varsity boys and girls championships.
In the girls’ game, Aubrey Penn from St. Jerome’s scored 18 points and was named tournament MVP, receiving the Caitlyn O'Bannon Fitzgerald Memorial Award. It had been several years since the St. Jerome’s 14U team had won the Mid-Atlantic championship, according to Joe Sego, CYO athletic director at St. Jerome.
St. Jerome’s boys’ top player, Kaylen Chilton, a guard, was named boys tournament MVP, receiving the Daniel Delante Bell Memorial Award, after scoring 13 points in the final, which St. Jerome won 57-39.
Sego, who also serves as the 14U boys’ coach, described his team as “coachable,” and “a good group of kids,” with Chilton consistently being an outstanding player. While his team entered the tournament as favorites based on their regular season record, the girls’ team had lost a few times during the regular season, so their triumph over Blessed Sacrament, a perennial powerhouse, was not expected.
In the boys’ championship game, St. Jerome jumped out to a quick 10-point lead behind Chilton's aggressive defense and transition baskets. St. Pius hung in and managed to tighten things up behind the play of seventh grade guard Major Jones, who scored 13 points for the game. Toward the end of the second half, St. Jerome began to pull away with the help of some key steals by eighth-grade guard Jovanni Hall, and steady rebounding by O.J. Pearson, an eighth grade forward.
Sego said, "All season long, our team has been led by the outstanding defense of our two guards, Kaylen Chilton and third-year player, Jovanni Hall. Both young men played elite defense that allowed us to wear teams down and create easy transition opportunities."
Chilton is headed to Bishop O'Connell next year, while Jovanni Hall is headed to St. Mary's in Annapolis.
St. Jerome entered their city championship game with a 4-3 conference record and had to play an undefeated St. Elizabeth's team in the semi-finals, upsetting them, 33-23, to stamp their ticket to face Blessed Sacrament in the title game. Penn, the niece of long-time head coach, Alick Dearie, led St. Jerome in the upset, by hitting a three-point shot with under two minutes left, enabling St. Jerome to pull ahead, 29-26. She later connecting on two free throws, as the Jaguars beat the defending champions, BS, 31-26. Penn will attend Elizabeth Seton in the Fall.
Sego has coached at St. Jerome for 18 years, and when he became CYO athletic director seven years ago, he saw a program that was clearly in decline. He approached the then newly-installed pastor, Father Scott Hahn, about St. Jerome’s welcoming boys and girls who were eligible to play for the program because their school or parish did not have a CYO program. Father Hahn agreed with this approach to welcome non-St. Jerome students and parishioners, which Sego calls an “inclusive” one.
A majority of St. Jerome’s CYO participants are St. Jerome Academy students, according to Sego, with about 30 percent of the children being players from other parishes or schools. For example, Chilton is a student at St. Francis Xavier Academy, S.E., and the program has attracted players from St. Ambrose in Cheverly, St. Anthony in Washington, D.C., St. Francis International School in Silver Spring, St. Joseph’s in Beltsville, and St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Hyattsville, with SFIS the biggest contributor.
In addition to its obvious hoops excellence, St. Jerome’s CYO program is flourishing, and it fields cross country, and soccer teams, in addition to basketball. Sego also tries to encourage other CYO programs in the county, including renting the St. Jerome’s gym to the Holy Redeemer CYO basketball program from Berwyn Heights, while St. Jerome’s teams practice at their gym and Hyattsville Middle School’s gym.
Sego also tries to share best practices with other CYO athletic directors.
In addition to the championships, Sego clearly takes pride in other accomplishments that don’t necessarily result in medals or trophies, such as a severely autistic sixth grade student from St. Francis International School in his CYO program who scored his first basket this season, with the assistance of both teams, to a very appreciative response from the people in the gym.
