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"There's gonna be a lot of pressure on me and Charnette, and a lot of pressure on all the others who are going to have to step up next year," Charlene Phelps admitted.
When practice starts the day after Thanksgiving Trenton will be the team with the giant bulls eye on its back, the team every other girls squad in New Jersey will be shooting to knock off.
It won't be an easy task to repeat, not with tourney-tested teams like Willingboro, Immaculate Heart Academy, Marlboro and a few others returning almost their entire roster off 20-win-plus seasons.
"I'm already excited about next year," Charlene admitted as she projected a starting lineup that will include her and twin sister Charnette, fellow starter Ciera Darby, and two of this year's key reserves-- Zahiyah Anderson and Tanyall Law.
Don't count out coach Reggie Murray coming up with a sleeper out of the middle school ranks who might be ready to step into the varsity spotlight much the way Ford did four years ago.
In another year, it might even be Ford's younger sister Jacoby who steps in to lead the Lady Tornadoes.
"She's a good player already and she's still learning," says Ford. "She keeps telling me she is going to be a better player than me. I just smile and tell her to keep working at it."
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Ford still has two game left before she closes the book on the finest season in her basketball life -- thus far.
On Saturday she will play with a team of South Jersey all-stars in the N.J. Coaches Association North/South Game at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
A week from Friday she will be on coach Murray's all-star team that heads to Denver for the annual Joint Effort All-Star Game promoted by ex-Princeton High player and Trenton Weed & Seed director John Bailey.
Murray says the three seniors on his TofC champion squad -- Ford, Asia Dowling and Raquel Rivera -- are scheduled to make the trip as part of his New Jersey all-stars.
All-stater Michelle Campbell from Notre Dame, Pemberton High's all-time scoring leader Erica Messam, Willingboro's lone senior starter Gabrielle Ratliff,and Ewing's all-time scoring leader Amber Oliver have already been invited by Murray to make the trip.
He hopes to complete his squad by adding Rumson-Fair Haven's Chrissy Fisher and Wildwood's Monica Johnson, along with Shabazz senior Jada Jefferson and Morristown's Jen Harris.
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The Lady Tornadoes were given a hero's return home yesterday with a huge pep rally in Tornado Alley. "It was the biggest pep rally I've ever seen," Murray said after.
Coach Vinny Cannizzaro, who experienced a lot of huge pep rallies when he was head coach at perennial national power Christ the King in New York, was at Trenton's gym to finalize plans for Lady Tornadoes senior stars Ford and Dowling to move on to Stony Brook University on Long Island next year.
Cannizzaro is assistant coach at SUNY-Stony Brook and says the team that came within one basket of getting to the NCAA Division I women's tourney this season is looking forward to adding the Trenton TofC heroes to its program next season.
