By Lenny Tuttle

Review Sports Contributor

The St. Joseph boys 7th and 8th grade basketball team won the Detroit Catholic Youth Orginization (CYO) Championship on March 7 by defeating University of Detroit Jesuit 38-33. It is the first Division 1 Basketball Championship in the 68 year history of St. Joseph School.

The team also won the Division 2 Basketball Championship last year as 7th graders.

There were 100 teams competing in the two different divisions over a two week period this year.

The Mavericks defeated their playoff opponents by an average of 24 points per game leading up to the championship game.

In the championship game, Jacob Tuttle led the team in scoring and his ball control was phenomenal. Matthew Sadecki played his best game of the year and contributed on both ends of the floor. Caden Husch played great defense and Nolan Tompkins battled U of D’s 6′ 4″ center all game despite being 4″ shorter. Chase Van Ameyde gave the team solid effort despite playing injured. Cass, Cole, Cash, Luke and Kyle also played solid to help the team.

Coach Tuttle is very proud to state “We are one of the few teams in the CYO to play every player in every game this season including the playoff games. This is a testament to the players and coaches for believing in each other. While we do have some superstar caliber players, everyone bought into the concept of Team First. This unselfish concept and the tireless work ethic demonstrated by it’s two captains, Jacob and Caden, is what fueled this team every day in practice to be the best.”

The road to the CYO Championship started nine years ago when Jacob, Caden, Matthew and Nolan started playing together in local leagues.

The team then competed in a Catholic developmental league for the third and fourth grade before competing in the CYO for the last four years.

This team has dominated the CYO during their career by winning over 100 games, four Division Championships, six tournaments, 5th and 6th grade post-season tournaments, the CYO Division 1 Championship and ultimately the CYO Division 1 Championship.

The school now has four CYO Championship Titles, two for softball back in ’90’s and now two for basketball.

All five starters have been recognized throughout the years at the Michigan State University Camp by Tom Izzo. Caden, Chase, Matthew, and Nolan all received Honorable Mention recognition for hustle, rebounding and improvement.

Jacob Tuttle has won the MSU Camp MVP twice for his age group and is playing AAU ball for the nationally know REACH program. Jacob, Caden, Matthew and Nolan will continue this marvelous run together in high school at Notre Dame Prep.

The team also excels in the classroom and the community. They are regular members of the school honor role. Jacob Tuttle exemplified this by maintaining all A’s and winning the Scholar Athlete Award. The team has participated in numerous charitable activities the last four years including events like Moonbeams for Sweet dreams and Toys for Tots which is the team favorite.

The team was coached by Lenny Tuttle and his assistant coaches Ryan Husch, Brent Tompkins and John Frendo. Lenny has coached four different sports at St. Joseph over the last 13 years and was just honored with the CYO Basketball Coach of the Year Award. He has also won 3 State Titles as an assistant coach for the volleyball team at NDP. He has been a St. Joseph parishioner since 1976 and even played football for the Mavericks.