By SAM WILSON

Special to the Era

The last time Michelle Alvord coached the Big 30 Basketball Senior Classic, her New York side held on to beat the Pennsylvania girls in a thriller, lifted 81-80 by two free throws from Allegany-Limestone’s Morgan Davis back in 2018.

Alvord, the longtime Wellsville coach, is back on the sidelines for Sunday afternoon’s (2 p.m.) tipoff in Portville, leading 12 New York seniors against 12 from Pennsylvania. She’ll face another active coach, Otto-Eldred’s Shawn Gray. Alvord and Gray’s teams both enjoyed strong years (O-E going 23-6 and making the second round of the state tournament, Wellsville 15-7 with a sectional semifinal loss) and have two players each in the game.

“I was truly honored to coach it, having coached it before and being a big part of the Big 30 and obviously any time you’re asked to coach a group of seniors who have had some pretty stellar careers,” Alvord said of the invitation to return to Team NY. “It’s just honestly an honor. The Big 30 does so many good things with scholarships and things that they’re really trying to improve and pick up on over the years.

So it’s definitely an honor and I think just as a girls coach, it’s always nice to be asked as a woman coaching women, coaching girls.”

New York’s squad includes players from Randolph, Portville, Ellicottville, Cuba-Rushford, Bolivar-Richburg and Wellsville, with the Lions’ Natalie Adams and Makenna Dunbar joining their coach again.

“I’ve coached a lot of great players but as far as Natalie Adams, probably one of the most coachable kids I’ve ever coached and Makenna just again, to have another game, what a tremendous honor for her and for me to be able to coach those two as seniors in this type of game, it’s going to be fun,” Alvord said. “It’s going to be exciting. I just can’t say enough about the career that Makenna has had for us. It’ll be nice I guess to be her last coach and Nat too.”

Alvord is joined on the bench by assistant coach Joe Hennessy, who helped the Wellsville varsity this season.

With several pairs of teammates (two each from Wellsville, C-R, B-R and Ellicottville, three from Randolph), Alvord wants to get those players on the court together whenever possible. The 12 players will be on a rotation for equal playing time.

“Just enjoy it and go out and have fun,” Alvord said of her message to the team. “Play hard, but overall go out and enjoy it. I think my plan is to kind of keep the kids that are used to playing together, together because again I think it gives them one more game with their teammate but I know we have to do a rotation.

“Go out and have fun and represent your school and I’m assuming for most that this is their last game. I don’t know if any of them are going on. I think more than anything, just go out and enjoy it and have fun.”

Quinn Pence, Payton Morrison and Sadie Steward all come from a Randolph team that was among the best in the Western New York, the closest to challenge eventual Class C state champion Frewsburg.

While cross-state matchups are often rare, Gray’s Terrors lost to Randolph two years ago and beat Wellsville this season.

“Of course know about Dunbar and Natalie Adams having played them this year,” Gray said, “and at least I’m familiar, Carrie (Drummond) and Addie (Bell) probably remember the three girls from Randolph, got to play them a couple years ago at the IAABO/Joe DeCerbo Showcase and those three girls from Randolph that are on that team helped to destroy us that day, so we’re very familiar with them.

“The other six or seven I’m not super familiar with …That’s neither here nor there. I’m not really going to worry about the other team, I’m worrying about our own and make sure that my 12 have the best experience that they can have out there Sunday.”

Gray believes Pennsylvania has a highly talented team, comprised mostly of North Tier League players. Schools with at least one Pennsylvania player include O-E, Oswayo Valley, Austin, Port Allegany, Kane, Coudersport, Cameron County, Bradford and Elk County Catholic.

“It’ll be especially neat because I’ve got eight girls from the NTL playing in it so I’m very familiar with them and how they play and their styles just to see how they work together and that kind of thing,” Gray said.

“I think we’ve got some really, really good players. We’ve got some girls that can really shoot it. You’ve got (Emilee) Ruter from Coudersport, (Charlotte) Austin-Keech from OV, (Mya) Pistner from Elk County, and my two girls (Drummond and Bell) can really shoot it. So we’ve got four or five that can really shoot it from outside, we’ve got some size from the two girls from Kane and also Makenna Manning.

I think we should be able to hold our own on the defensive end and on the glass, so we’ve got a girl like Isabella Rees and Alyssa Johnson and Ella Moses that are just do-it-all kind of girls. They’re suffocating defensively, they can get their own shots offensively, so I just think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Assisting Gray will be Dan Dalton, who helped Gray get his start in high school coaching, as he moved from youth coaching to junior high ball with Dalton, then JV and on.

“I thought it appropriate that since he got me started that I asked him to be my assistant, to kind of change roles this time,” Gray said, “and he’s a great dude, one of my best friends and he agreed immediately.”

Gray wants his team to win, of course, but like Alvord, wants to see his 12 players have fun.

“I’m probably not going to change from my normal style,” he said. “I just tell all the kids that I’ve ever coached really just be yourself, do what you do, don’t let the things you can’t do interfere with what you can do and rule No. 1 on all the teams I’ve ever coached is have fun and that’s definitely going to be the case on Sunday.”