Ciani Cryor Is CBS Philly's Hoops Player Of The Year
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)— Somewhere buried in the avalanche of long arms, heads, shoulders and high fives was the voice, greeting them as she always had in the doorway of the Hershey Park Arena dressing room. The voice was always positive. Always encouraging. Always energetic.
As her taller teammates peeled away, about to embark on a historic state championship, out spilled pint-sized Ciani Cryor.
The 5-foot-4 Neumann-Goretti senior guard was the undeniable quarterback of undeniably the best high school girls' basketball team in the nation. She received first-team all-Catholic League honors, along with guiding the Saints to the Catholic League, District 12, PIAA Class AA state championships and—unofficially, though mythical—national championship this season.
Neumann-Goretti finished as the nation's No. 1 team, according to USA Today, ESPN.com and CBS MaxPreps.
The Saints also will go down as the greatest high school girls' basketball team that's ever played in the Philadelphia area. They finished a season for the ages, going 30-0. The leader through it all was the Georgia Tech-bound Cryor, a player beloved by her teammates and nerve-racking to play against.
It's why CC Cryor is CBS Philly's high school Player of the Year for the 2014-15 season.
The rare times that the Saints were challenged this year, they knew they could always turn to her.
"CC did everything for us," said Saints' coach Andrea Peterson, who, herself, was awarded the Naismith Award as the national high school girls' Coach of the Year. "She held up under a lot of pressure this year. Think about what she's done: Won a Catholic League championship, the city title, the state title and won a national champion.
"I don't care what anyone says. We played a national schedule. We beat some nationally ranked teams in the beginning of the year and then went through the Catholic League, some really good teams in the state and finished undefeated. We finished as the best team in the country and none of it would have been possible without CC leading us."
In Cryor's two years as the Saints' starting point guard, Neumann-Goretti went 59-1. The girls' program achieved things it never accomplished before, like consecutive Catholic League championships, back-to-back city titles and for the first time a state title and national championship.
Before the state final, Cryor took it upon herself to make sure she was the one that greeted everyone in the doorway of the dressing room as her teammates were coming in. She was the one that shouldered the tenor of the team—made it stay on course.
"I wore my state medal every day after we won the state title, I even wore it to school," Cryor said. "We all worked hard for this. I've done a lot of growing up here at Neumann-Goretti. I know the way people used to look at me, what used to be said. That's not me anymore. I knew I had to make a lot of changes. I've learned to calm down and how to talk to my teammates. That's the most important thing I think I've learned. I've learned what to say and when to say things. I wanted to be there for my teammates."
Saints' guard Sianni Martin, CC's close friend who's going to Towson on a basketball scholarship, said Cryor was the motor that made the Saints run.
"CC controlled everything, she's just a leader and the one who took us far this year," said Martin, who had an exceptional postseason run. "CC has known me for close to nine years now. She knows every player, and how to talk to everyone and what to say. She never let us get down. CC kept reminding us we're the top team in the country; we're the ones everyone wanted to beat."
No team this year ever did. Thanks to a tiny, motivating fireball.
