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SCRANTON — The Abington Heights and Central York boys basketball teams arrived at the Lackawanna College Student Union on Saturday afternoon with the same goal: advance to the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs.
Only one team would advance. It would be Abington Heights but the Comets’ show of support for Central York senior Peter Falci, recently diagnosed with cancer, had a larger meaning than anything that happened during game action.
Abington Heights received permission from District 2 to wear pink socks during the game and they purchased the final 14 T-shirts that Central York had in stock to wear during pre-game warmups. The Comets coaches were also more than willing to allow Falci to be announced as an honorary sixth starter.
In addition, Abington Heights head coach Ken Biachi offered his players the option of making a donation and the team captains presented Falci and his dad with a card prior to the game.
“I know we’re adversaries during the game, but there is something bigger than the game,” Bianchi said. “When it comes to something as atrocious as cancer, we’re all on the same team. We wanted to see what we could do to help brighten his spirits. I had a kid that played for me and my assistant Jeff (McLane) had a kid that played for him (diagnosed with the disease). To find out in his senior year that your son has cancer, nobody should have to put up with that. It’s shocking. Anything that we could do, we wanted to do it and help out.”
Central York head coach Kevin Schieler called the gestures “top notch” and has been moved by all the support for his player.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “We actually had a rival school back in York (Northeastern) and the York Catholic girls basketball team purchased T-shirts, and to have Abington (Heights) do that, too, is first class. I’m very happy they were able to do it to support Pete and wear the socks.
“It’s more than basketball. I’m glad they got involved in it, because it means a lot to the Falci family.”