Girls Basketball Meets Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney World has always been a magical place for the young, and the young at heart.

l coach Rob Lombardo proposed to his wife, Carla, with Mickey Mouse down on one knee beside him in 1999 at the Orlando, Fla., resort.

"Even when you become an adult, the nostalgia of the Magic Kingdom is always with you," he said. "It's one of the most amazing places on earth. There are so many people, and everybody is happy."

More than a decade later, Lombardo returns to the Magic Kingdom next week when he accompanies his team to the KSA Holiday Basketball Tournament.
The week-long national tournament starts early for Seneca Valley, with a 6 a.m. Sunday departure from Pittsburgh International Airport.

After a Disney bus gives the team a ride to the resort, the players will have a free day to visit any of the hundreds of other attractions, from Blizzard Beach to Typhoon Lagoon Water Park.

The team will compete in the tournament  through Dec. 31, and play three junior varsity games and three varsity games. Its bracket includes teams from Texas, New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Nebraska.

Seneca Valley opens the tournament with a junior varsity game at 7:15 a.m. on Monday, followed by a varsity game against Los Alamitos, Calif., at 12:30 p.m.

The 48 girls varsity teams will compete in six brackets of eight teams. There are also six brackets of boys teams.

Lombardo said many of his players are looking forward to Thursday's schedule, which includes a breakfast with the famous Disney characters at the Magic Kingdom, followed by a 10:45 a.m. varsity game. Activities then move to Universal Studio in Orlando, where the team will attend a party starting at 3 p.m. titled "A Celebration of Athletes." 

Universal Studio will be closed during the gala except for the teams participating in the tournament, so the players can skip the long lines and take advantage of all of the adult rides.

"They can just go ride the entire day, and it's all the food you can eat," Lombardo said with a laugh. "It's one big celebration. That's a day they're really looking forward to."

The players will receive Disney Park Hopper passes so they can move from the team hotel, to any park or attraction on the property, plus three meal passes each day.

"I wanted the girls to be in a safe environment, and they'll always be on the Disney property and the Disney transportation system," Lombardo said. "It's almost like we're going to be locked in."

It might sound like an expensive trip, but Seneca Valley School District taxpayers won't be billed for anything.

"It is strictly a booster function," Lombardo said. "It's just like any other tournament we would attend locally. The games count toward our WPIAL record. It's a sanctioned tournament."

The team held two car washes, sponsored a summer basketball league which charged entry fees, held a pair of tip-off tournaments, and ran the one-day, 20-team, Fall Shootout Tournament.

"All the money we made on fundraisers, we divvied it up per girl, and put that toward the cost (of the trip) per girl. And the fundraisers proved to be a good team-building experience," Lombardo said.

Lombardo said he'd like to return to the tournament once every three years. That way, every girl who comes through his program can have the Disney experience.

"Even our junior high kids now are excited about these (senior high) girls getting to go," he said. "They know that their turn is coming in a few years."

Lombardo said his booster group plans to create a separate Disney fund and designate separate fundraisers to support it.

"That way, it will be less work the year of the trip," he said. "It was a lot of work by the kids this year, a lot of work by the boosters and parents. But we had to start somewhere if we wanted to do this every third year."

Lombardo said he's looking forward to the reaction from the seven members of his team that have never been to Disney World before, as well as the reviews from the six others who were there when they were starting grade school.

The 41-member traveling party includes 13 players, two coaches and 26 player or coach family members.