AVA CATANO IS THE REAL THING.
I first met Ava Catano when she was an eighth grader at NBS.I didn’t know much about her. But I watched her for about two minutes, and I knew she was special. So I immediately moved her onto one of the main courts at NBS. That meant she was going to play against current and soon-to-be Division I players who were three years older than her.
That is tricky business.
Upperclassmen don’t always like playing against talented “babies.” There is a reputation at stake. Nobody wants an eighth grader making them look bad.
But there is another side to it.
If you put a young player too far over their head, you can damage their confidence, their self-esteem and their swagger.
Ava experienced both sides. She won some. She took some beatings. Sometimes those beatings were physical. Sometimes they came from the basketball itself. She was an eighth grader trying to survive against older, stronger and more experienced players.
I remember walking up to her one day because I was concerned.I asked her:
“Are you good with all this?”
She looked at me and said:
“I’m perfectly fine.”
That told me something.
But there was another moment at NBS that really opened my eyes.
Ava had a sore foot. We were getting ready to do our sprints and running, and I told her to sit out.
She told me she wanted to run.
I watched her.
It was obvious she was in serious pain.
But she kept going.
And that told me something very important about Ava Catano.
She was mentally tough.
Even as an eighth grader, she had something you can’t teach easily.
She could fight through adversity.
Her father was a football player at Rutgers. Maybe some of that toughness was passed down. I don’t know.
But I do know that was the moment I started thinking:
AVA CATANO IS SPECIAL.
And I believed she was going to become one of the best players in the state.
I haven’t seen much of Ava since those days at NBS.
But when I finally got the opportunity to watch her play high school basketball, I immediately recognized something.
She had grown.
A lot.
Ava is now 6’0” with what I would describe as the perfect basketball body. She is long, smooth and athletic.
But here is what really separates her.
She doesn’t take over games. She dominates them.
She can dominate with her shooting.
She can dominate with her scoring.
She can dominate on the glass.
She can dominate as a passer.
And she has become a vocal leader.
Ava Catano is the real thing.
Her improvement curve has been massive.
And the scary part?
I don’t think we’ve seen her ceiling yet.
Ava has already scored 1,000 points in just two years at East Brunswick.
That is history.
No East Brunswick girls basketball player had ever reached 1,000 points that quickly.
And there is another incredible part to that story.
Her mother was one of the great players in East Brunswick history and also scored 1,000 points.
But even she didn’t accomplish it in two years.
There aren’t many players anywhere who can say they reached that milestone that quickly.
Then there is this:
Ava was named ALL AREA Player of the Year as a sophomore.
Think about the names that have played basketball in the Greater Middlesex Conference and area
Now think about a sophomore being named the best player in that area.
That’s not normal.
That’s special.
I finally got another chance to really watch Ava this summer.
It forced me to go back and watch more film. I wanted to do a deep dive.
And what I discovered was fascinating.
This isn’t just a mega talent.
This is a mega talent that is still emerging.
Think about that.
A player who has already scored 1,000 points.
A player who has already been named Area Player of the Year.
A player who has already established herself as one of the best players in the entire state.
And she is still getting better.
That’s what the great ones do.
They don’t stop improving because they’ve reached a certain level.
They find another level.
Then another.
They are simply a different animal.
But there is something about Ava that really made me sit up.
You see, when you don’t see a kid every day in the gym, you don’t always know the intangibles.
I’m not talking about skills.
I’m talking about the things that don’t show up in a stat sheet.
How does she treat her teammates?
How does she treat coaches?
How does she treat opponents?
What kind of person is she?
One day, during an after-school shooting session, a few players walked up to me.
I asked them:
“How does Ava look?”
Their answer shocked me.
They said:
“She’s awesome.”
I thought they were talking about how she played.
They weren’t.
They started telling me about the things Ava says to her teammates.
“Keep shooting.”
“You’re doing great.”
They talked about how positive she was.
How encouraging she was.
How she constantly supported the people around her.
Then Ari Wissen said the magic words:
“She’s just such a nice person.”
Boom.
That was enough for me.
Because the great ones have presence.
They have swagger.
They have confidence.
They have the ability to change a game.
But the truly special ones also have something else:
The respect of their peers, their teammates and their coaches.
That’s when you know you’ve got something different.
Ava Catano is on her way to big things.
I don’t know exactly how high this ride is going to go.
But I know this:
The ceiling is high.
Very high.
And as a resident of East Brunswick who lives less than a half-mile away, I have a pretty unique opportunity.
I get to watch it happen.
I get to watch Ava Catano continue to grow.
Continue to lead.
Continue to dominate.
And continue to become the player I believed she could be all those years ago when she was just an eighth grader at NBS.
Back then, I saw something.
Today, everyone else is starting to see it too.
AVA CATANO IS THE REAL THING.
And I’m going to sit back and enjoy the ride for the next two years.
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