Slade brothers upholding family tradition at Monsignor Bonner

His dad and one uncle made their marks in basketball. Two more uncles - twins, in fact - experienced success in football.

Scott Slade is now 6-5, 195 pounds, and can jump rather well. However, he also has the frame a football coach would drool over, especially one trying to mold the next great tight end.

"I did try both sports when I was little," Slade said. "I just kind of gravitated to basketball. I didn't like playing in the cold."

Funny he should mention that . . .

Multiple students at Monsignor Bonner High must be late with tuition payments, or maybe school honchos flat-out hate heat? Spectators inside the gym could not quite see their breath yesterday as the Friars hosted Archbishop Ryan, but many opted not to remove their coats.

No sweat. By 4 o'clock, Slade and his Friars teammates were feelin' all warm and fuzzy.

With Slade wedging eight of his 15 points and five of his seven rebounds into a 24-18 fourth quarter, Bonner triumphed, 62-58, to claim one of the many, many spots in the upcoming Catholic League playoffs.

(Eleven of the 14 squads will experience postseason action. The first six have earned first-round byes. Three are headed directly to that level and two more, with Ryan included, must endure a pre-playoff. Complete schedule on Page 66.)

"In the fourth quarter," Slade said, "I kept thinking, 'Leave it all on the court.' I didn't want go away from my last home game with a loss. I wanted to get my team to the playoffs, to see if we could make a run."

Slade's father, also named Scott, was a second-team coaches' All-Public honoree for Martin Luther King in 1985. His uncle, William, better known as Randy, was the sixth man for the '85 Murrell Dobbins Tech powerhouse that featured Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, and then was a third-team pick in '86.

In '79, meanwhile, Mike (first-team All-City) and Mark Slade (third-team) were star linebackers for Abraham Lincoln's 1979 Public League champion.

The relative line does not end there. Another of Bonner's starters, under normal circumstances (Joe Phelan, Brandon Watts and Nick Ransone received Senior Day nods yesterday), is Craig "Poppy" Slade, a junior and Scott's brother.

Sixty-two seconds into the fourth quarter, Craig got popped in the you-know-whats (ouch!) and briefly disappeared. Later, Scott took a shot to his nose and when he returned to action, a hunk of cotton was protuding from his right nostril.

Ah, but what fun they had with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left. From the left side, Craig lofted an alley-oop pass and Scott emphatically flushed. That made it 54-45. Just a short time earlier, Scott had fed Craig for a three-point play.

"Craig's been saying all season he's going to get me an oop," Scott said, laughing. "That was the first one. We just looked at each other. I knew it was going up. I guess Josh [Hoho] did, too. [The two bumped in midair.] We do have good chemistry between us. We're only like 14 months apart. We've always played on the same teams."

He smiled. "He can be real dramatic. I thought maybe he was playin' [while writhing on the floor, and even yelping]. I hope he gets better fast."

Of his own medical minimisery, Scott said: "I didn't know anything until I saw drips of blood on the court. Then someone said it was coming from me."

The game's best plot was the long-distance war between Bonner junior Billy Cassidy and Ryan senior Eric Fleming. The latter dominated the first half, hitting five treys en route to six and 26 total points. Cassidy missed his first trey, nailed one before halftime and then drained six more in a row en route to 22 points.

He hit three apiece in the third/fourth quarters and one, off an offensive rebound by Hoho, snapped a 40-40 tie and sent Bonner on its way.

"When Cass is on, forget it," Scott Slade said. "You just give him the ball and know he'll hit it. That was amazing.

"At practice he'll go down to the other end and just shoot and shoot. You'll look down there and that's all you'll see - him shooting."

Hoho added 11 points while S. Slade, Cassidy and Anthony Jackson thirded nine assists. Fleming, Nick Aughenbaugh (16) and Christian Rivera (14, four assists) combined for all but two of Ryan's points.

The Slades are based at 50th and Spruce, in West Philly. Scott has heard from UMBC at the D-1 level while West Chester and East Stroudsburg are pushing the hardest among D-2's.

"Being a Slade means a lot," Scott said. "I always hear how my father and uncles played as hard they could. That inspires me and my brother to do the same."

Now the Friars are headed for postseason hoops. You could say their visit was made in the Slade.