Newtown Rita’s To Honor Saint Andrew Girls For Winning State CYO Title

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — The Saint Andrew Varsity Girls Basketball Team will be honored later today at the Rita's Italian Ice store for bringing the Pennsylvania CYO State Championship title home to Newtown.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26 the store will recognize Newtown’s winning team by donating a portion of its proceeds to the team and by featuring team members and coaches as “Celebrity Scoopers.”

“We are hosting the team to celebrate their awesome accomplishment and to express to them how proud we are of them,” said Mitch Cove, the owner and operator of the Newtown Rita’s store.

“The players truly have demonstrated both to themselves and their peers that hard work, dedication and teamwork can lead to great success,” said Cove. “And the lessons and experiences that they are learning now will resonate with them for life.”

He added, “There is no doubt that their journey was very difficult, but now they can say they are champions.”

Throughout the evening, the players will be working in the store as “Celebrity Scoopers” taking shifts inside and greeting and serving guests.

The Rita's Italian Ice Store in Newtown. (Mitch Cove)

There will also be remarks honoring the team and its coaches and the Newtown Rita’s will be awarding the players “free ice for a year.”

In addition, the local franchise will be donating a percentage of its sales to the team Wednesday evening.

“I want to thank Mitch Cove for giving these girls this opportunity,” said the team’s coach Fran Costello. “This will be an amazing celebration to identify all the accomplishments the girls had as a group, but also an opportunity to show the kindness that Mitch and Rita's does for the community.”

On its way to the state championship, the team won the Region 19 championship over Saint Bedes, 60 to 16, and the CYO Archdiocese championship versus Our Lady of Calvary, 51-41.

The team then went on to win the State Championship vs. Mother of Mercy Academy (Pittsburgh), 37-34, finishing the season with a 28-1 record.

Costello calls the team an “extremely hard-working group of coachable kids” who each brought the same basketball mindset to the court.

“Many of them have had the opportunity to win a lot of basketball games starting during their 5th grade season,” said Costello. “This group won JV tournaments and championships, which transitioned to winning a lot of games over their varsity careers.

“We had an opportunity to play in many games and tournaments this year that prepared us as a group” for the Saint Helena's annual basketball tournament, which takes place on MLK weekend "and is always a tournament with the best teams in the area,” said Costello. “We were fortunate to win that tournament and at that point is when Coach Mitch and I knew we had a special team."

Costello said the team “truly had a TEAM mentality. Everyone on the team had a role in order for the team to be successful. Very unselfish individuals and that is why I truly believe they accomplished so much as a group.”

Bringing the championship trophy home to Newtown meant a lot to the team and to the community.

“It truly was a crazy seven days of basketball in March," said Costello. "It all started with their hard work back in November to get to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia championship game on March 2. When we had the opportunity to win that game against a great team in Our Lady of Calvary, it was amazing to see the smiles and joy in our girls in the locker room. All their hard work paid off in front of an amazing crowd and their supporters."

But Coach Costello said it didn't really hit home until the clock on the scoreboard in Pittsburgh hit 0:00 with a final score of 37-34 in favor of the Saint Andrew girls.

"It was surreal and a memory that our girls will remember for the rest of their lives," he said. "There will be a banner that will be hung eventually in Saint Andrew's gym that will represent these girls for the rest of their lives. They will be able to tell a great story for years to come.”

The team is coached by Fran Costello and Mitch Akright. The players include Lauren Smith, Tori Smith, Nicole Trespalacios, Emerson Akright, Haley Costello, Claire Slaugenhoup, Delaney Demianczyk, Lilly Cosenza, Austyn Murray, and Jillian Dippolito