It’s all about the team for Duffy

Colleen Duffy has more than distinguished herself on the basketball court as a scorer, as evidenced by the Spotswood High School basketball player recently eclipsing 1,000 points for her career. But what Duffy really thrives on is making her teammates look good.

Spotswood High School’s girls basketball coach Kevin Brady and Colleen Duffy were all smiles after Duffy registered her 1,000th career point. So when she was recently asked her scoring average (13 points per game), Duffy paused and reflected. Then admitted, “I really don’t know. I don’t keep track of those kinds of things.”

However, ask Duffy what Spotswood’s record is, and she proudly proclaims, “We’re 16-1.”

That record, folks, is the best in the Greater Middlesex Conference. There is the lone defeat to Blair Academy, the private school in North Jersey, which numbers high school graduates on its roster. Besides that loss, only a three-point win over Colonia in December can legitimately be called a competitive game. The other 14 victories have been by an average margin of 15 or more points.

“Colleen is a true team player,” says her coach, Kevin Brady. “She has always recognized her scoring success is a direct result of the hard work and unselfish play of her teammates.”

Duffy is perhaps the queen of her court of four other seniors who have essentially played together and have risen through the ranks since grade school. Besides Duffy, Spotswood’s other seniors are Melissa Kukoda, Brooke Astor, Katherine Jimenez and Maeghan Adinolfi. Duffy and Kukoda are cocaptains. As juniors, the “fab five,” as Brady likes to call them, helped the Chargers post a 20-5 record that gave them a share of the GMC Blue Division crown with a more experienced Middlesex team.

It was the win over Middlesex last year that enabled Spotswood to earn a piece of the Blue Division title that Duffy considers the greatest moment of her Spotswood career — naturally.

“When it gets down to it,” she says, “I love this game because of what we accomplish as a team, not what I do. I recognize the girls on my team have done things to help me look better. In the end, however, it’s whether or not we win. That’s all that counts.”

Perhaps the team concept is no better illustrated than by what happens on the court between Duffy and Kukoda. A point guard, Kukoda can be seen repeatedly delivering the ball in perfect position for Duffy to score an easy basket. A chemistry has developed that has elevated Spotswood to the level it is at now: one of the best in the GMC.

That label, of course, will be tested when the GMC tournament begins later this month. As likely champion of the Blue Division, Spotswood will be given a high seed, although it remains exactly what that will be because of the strength of Red and White Division teams like Piscataway, Woodbridge, Cardinal Mc- Carrick and Bishop Ahr.

Brady points to Spotswood’s participation in the GMC Tournament last year, when he realized Colleen Duffy was more than just an ordinary player. Against East Brunswick (where Brady is a teacher), Duffy was appointed the job of guarding the Bears’ top scorer.

“Colleen held the player to 10 points,” said Brady, “and scored 17 herself, even though her total focus was defending the player assigned to her.And we won the game. That told me we had somebody special and that our team could be special.”

To be sure, this “special” label hasn’t come simply with talent. Duffy is described by Brady as “the first to arrive at the gym” and the “last to leave.”

“I can’t tell you how often I am waiting for Colleen to finish shooting long after practice has ended,” he says. “If the boys practice after us, she and Melissa are out there, surrounded by a swarm of boys, stilling working on their shots and moves to the basket.”

Even during a tough stretch last year, Duffy distinguished herself.

“I can still remember when the team had been ravaged by injuries — three starters were out in January — and Colleen seemed like the last player standing,” Brady said. “She became more focused, taking up the scoring slack despite the injuries.”

Such fortitude is likely the result of having been raised by a family that supports Duffy as much as a high school athlete could ask. Her father, Cary, was Colleen’s coach on many recreation and travel basketball teams. Her mother, Tricia, helps with the Spotswood girls basketball booster club, and nearly every home game is a family reunion with sisters Brittany and Amanda (when home from college) and various aunts and uncles in attendance.

As a senior, Duffy will be wrapping up her Spotswood career, but that will not be the end of her basketball playing days. She is being recruited by a number of colleges and has made numerous visits to campuses around the East. When asked if there is a school that stands out as one she might attend next year, Duffy talks about Mary Washington in Virginia, Fairleigh Dickinson in Madison, and Lycoming in Pennsylvania.

There is work to be done, however, before college comes beckoning for Colleen Duffy. Naturally, her current focus is on what she and her Spotswood Charger teammates can accomplish in the remainder of this year.

“The wins will take care of themselves as we continue to dedicate ourselves to the hard work day in and day out,” Duffy says. “We have a wonderful opportunity to become one of the best ever at Spotswood.”