Observer-Reporter Athlete of the Week

Name: Alec Ferrari
School: Chartiers-Houston
Year: Senior
Sport: Basketball
Ferrari’s week: The 6-0 point guard made history Friday night in the Bucs’ 80-59 victory over Fort Cherry by breaking the single-game scoring record for the second time this season. Ferrari had 47 points to lead Chartiers-Houston, which was missing sophomore guard AJ Myers.
Ferrari previously broke the record with a 45-point effort against Fort Cherry Jan. 3.
The historic point total gave Ferrari 522 points, a Chartiers-Houston single-season record. His performance followed a 20-point effort in a win over Brentwood Tuesday.
“It was just watching a player who was completely under control and making all the right choices,” Chartiers-Houston head coach Eugene Briggs said of Ferrari’s 47-point game. “Pass when you should pass, shoot a jumper when you should shoot it and take it to the rim when you should. He was making all the right decisions.”
The moment: During both record-setting performances against Fort Cherry, Briggs called a timeout with just over one minute remaining in regulation. Both times, Ferrari was sitting at 42 points.
“After doing it once and scoring that many points, I thought the second time that I’d be able to tell I had that many points, but it was honestly the same scenario,” Ferrari said. “I didn’t feel like I had that many at all, but it’s funny that it felt like the exact same thing.”
Along with Myers, Ferrari helped lead Chartiers-Houston (12-10) to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs, where the Bucs will face Avonworth Saturday at Chartiers Valley. The winner will face No. 2 seed Lincoln Park next Wednesday.
Though the program’s success is no surprise, the manner in which they have excelled is. C-H lost three prolific forwards from last year’s team: Kodie Hanley, Miles Williamson and Ben Shade. The result was a very young lineup this season that relies on the talents of Ferrari and Myers.
It forced Ferrari to shift from a true point guard to a scorer. He is averaging more than 23 points per game.
“Last year was a lot of fun for me because I love getting out on the open floor and I love getting assists over scoring any day because that’s the way I like playing,” Ferrari said. “I knew coming into this year I would have to become more of a scoring guard and that was fine with me. I never try to force anything, but I do have to look for my shot more and I can’t pass up any open looks.”
No baseball: Ferrari’s basketball season will mark the end of his high school athletic career. He missed his junior football season after a blood clot formed from a structural problem in his shoulder where bones pinched a vein. It led doctors to remove a portion of his rib cage to put a stent in his vein to prevent it from collapsing.
The procedure worked, but doctors will either inflate the stent or replace it following this basketball season, which will put Ferrari on blood thinners for six weeks. It will prevent him from playing baseball this spring.
“It is kind of surreal. It doesn’t kick in until you lose,” Ferrari said. “It is crazy to think that because this whole year I expected to play baseball. It has hit me the past few weeks that this is it. As far as we go is as far as I go for my high school career, but that motivates me.”
Compiled by Lance Lysowski