Playing unfamiliar teams over the holidays is not unusual. Many high school basketball teams play out-of-town schools over the holidays to prepare for the second half of the season and the postseason.
Now that the page has turned to the new year, one Cincinnati team has an unusual opponent this weekend.
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Elder’s basketball team is hosting Bishop Verot from Fort Myers, Florida Friday night at 6 p.m. Verot flew to the area on New Year’s Day and played at Conner in Hebron, Kentucky Thursday afternoon.
Elder is hosting Verot because the game pairs two longtime head coaches and their wives. Elder head coach Joe Schoenfeld has 504 career wins after reaching the 500 milestone Dec. 8. Verot’s Matt Herting, in his 29th season, enters the game with 497 career victories and should reach the 500 mark soon back home in Florida.
Herting’s wife, Jill Jansen, is a Cincinnati native who graduated from Seton High School in 1996. She played volleyball for Seton while Schoenfeld’s wife, Coleen, was the junior varsity coach.
Jansen has nieces in the Cincinnati area who play middle-school volleyball in the Catholic school system, and they were able to cheer on Seton as the Saints won the Division I state volleyball championship last fall.
“I miss it so much,” Jansen said. “I loved every minute of playing volleyball for a school that has so much tradition.”
Verot is 9-4 overall this year after losing at Conner, 73-53. On Monday, the Vikings lost by seven, 60-53, to Cardinal Gibbons from Fort Lauderdale, a team that’s ranked 13th in the state in its division.
Herting is one of the most successful head basketball coaches in southwest Florida history with several deep postseason runs. He started the Southwest Florida Association of Basketball Coaches.
In a 2020 interview in the Fort Myers News-Press, he said: “To me, the sport of basketball, I like it, but I can probably take it or leave it. But the strategy, the competition, the camaraderie, the friendships, the mentoring, that’s the stuff I love. I love the bus trips. I love the locker room after the game. I love the games. It’s not the sport as it is the relationships.”
His wife said he has had that attitude his entire career.
“I’m proud of my husband for his long career at the school,” she said. “It’s not about basketball as it is about the guys. It’s one of my husband’s favorite things to do. I can’t wait to see the competition.”
After playing Conner, the Verot Vikings will spend Thursday night and during the day Friday touring downtown Cincinnati and other local landmarks.
Jansen expects a lot of friends from Seton and Elder, who are sibling schools and neighbors to each other, to attend the game and enjoy each other’s company.
“It’s so much fun for me, seeing the boys get to bond,” Jansen said. “I get to see them have fun and I’m able to show off my hometown. I want them to see that Cincinnati has a lot to offer. We’ll take them downtown and explore the city. The culture at Elder is similar to Bishop Verot with the tradition they both have. I hope everyone has a lot of fun.”
Elder is 5-2, picking up a win against Greater Miami Conference co-leader Fairfield Saturday in the Holiday Hardwood Classic at Xavier’s Cintas Center, 61-54.
Senior guard Cam Williams had 22 points and seven assists in the game and is averaging 14.7 points and 3.8 assists. Alex Dugan posts 14 points per game.
The game should be a good test for the Panthers, who play at Huber Heights Wayne on Sunday, then start Greater Catholic League-South action with defending league champion Moeller at home Jan. 10.
