by Terri Travers
The Harrisburg JCC has a long basketball history. Current Iddy/Biddy basketball participants have grandparents who got their start in the same program. This year alone the HBG JCC has teams for both boys and girls from 3rdgrade up through high school.
The Harrisburg JCC has taken basketball teams across the country and to Israel in the past decade to compete in the JCC Maccabi Games, yet nothing could have put basketball on the map like a shot seen by hundreds of thousands of people on national television and social media.
Recently, the Harrisburg JCC was playing in the Carlisle Christian High School Invitational Tournament. In the semi-final game the JCC was playing a team from Frederick. With 2.5 seconds on the clock and the score tied, it was the JCC’s ball under their opponent’s hoop.
In an amazing shot from behind half court with two people guarding him, Sammy Schwab hit the shot of his life. The JCC team won and what could have been a good story turned in to so much more with the help of social media.
After obtaining the video of the shot from both Carlisle Christian and the opposing team it was put out on social media and sent to a few people. Within four hours of the game, the shot was the #1 Play on ESPN’s SportsCenter. I was getting texts from friends the next morning from across the country going ‘Oh my goodness the Harrisburg JCC is on SportsCenter.’
It took a team effort for the JCC to be in the position to have the opportunity for the shot to win the game. Sammy came up with a clutch shot and it was all a group effort to get to that point. The team is counting the shot as a highlight of the season however with about 6 weeks to go in the season they know there will be many more wins ahead of them if they continue to work hard and trust in each other.