La Salle's Winslow can't put away basketball

You're bound for a Division I college on a football scholarship and you've been invited to play in a prestigious postseason all-star game.

Pretty cool, right?

Not if your name is Ryan Winslow.

With all due respect, after giving the matter serious thought, the La Salle High senior nixed the chance to serve as a punter in the Chesapeake Bowl, which was played Dec. 29 while matching headliners from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware against those from Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

You see, the 6-5, 205-pound Winslow, whose next stop will be the University of Pittsburgh, is also a basketball player. And he's not, say, the 13th man. He's in his second year of frontcourt starting and umpteenth of loving the sport.

"Basketball is so much different than football, where I'm just punting and kicking," he said. "Here I get to have the ball in my hands and be an athlete. It's fun to run up and down, grab rebounds, make plays, and just have fun with my teammates. I love playing. It's awesome."

Friday night, the schedule called for the Explorers to open the Catholic League portion of their season with a visit to Father Judge.

Like always, Winslow was not a stand-out-in-bold-relief star. But he did collect six points and five apiece of rebounds/assists and -- this was important -- he did some of best work at the very beginning as La Salle stormed to an 11-0 lead.

Winslow tallied the first four points, then passed to star guard Amar Stukes, a La Salle University signee, for bucket No. 3.

A decent number of interesting moments later, the end result was a 62-56 win.

"When we played Judge last year, we were absolutely awful in the first quarter," Winslow said. "So that was our game plan, to jump on them early. It worked out great."

When Winslow received his CB invite, he was given three days to respond by e-mail.

Keep in mind, La Salle's football season did not end until Dec. 7. The first hoops contest was that same night. Also in the mix: His father, George, a La Salle High product, made the NFL as a punter.

"My dad didn't try to sway me one way or the other," Ryan said. "He just wanted me to do what I wanted to do.

"I figured that coming back to basketball and then leaving after practicing for just one week to go compete in that bowl . . . it just wouldn't make sense. It would hurt the team morale. Disrupt the chemistry. I figured I would give my all to basketball.

"Being a two-year starter, I felt I owed it to my teammates to show them, 'Hey, I'm in this 100 percent.' If I came back, then left right away, they would have had the right to think my whole heart wasn't into this.

"I always get the same question from guys. 'If you're going to college for football, why do you play basketball?' And I always answer, 'Because I love it.' I have a passion for the game."

Stukes finished with 20 points and six apiece of rebounds/assists while wing man Steve Smith, a Fairfield signee, grabbed 10 rebounds. Alex Cuoci bounced around inside for 14 points while missing just one of his eight shots.

It was downright freaky how open Cuoci was on many occasions.

The prime example came with 0:59 remaining on an inbound play under La Salle's basket. Cuoci was SO open, a decent number of spectators probably had this momentary thought: "Oh, my goodness, he's putting the ball into the wrong basket!"

The field goal made it 58-50.

"That play went exactly how coach (Joe) Dempsey drew it up," Winslow noted. "Still, I couldn't believe Alex was completely by himself."

For Judge, five players scored from nine to 11 points. Sean Hanna and Brandon McGuire halved 22. Jeff Seigafuse was the only Crusader (six) with more than three rebounds. Judge definitely kept swingin', however. It trailed by 46-26 with 4:10 left in the third quarter, but reeled off 19 of the next 24 points.

Winslow, who lives in Maple Glen, plans to major in international business. And he might continue to get a hoops fix with the intramural variety.

"But I think," he said with a smile, "I'll probably retire from my singing career."

He's in his fourth year as a bass with the school choir.

"I like doing it," he said. "I think it's neat to be in there with a couple other athletes. It shows how diverse La Salle is, and how an athlete can also be involved with music."

Down the road, might Ryan Winslow become the family's second NFL punter?

"From the time you're a little kid, you always dream of that," he said. "The way I feel is, why not set that as a goal? It would be amazing just to get a tryout.

"My dad has never been what you'd call my personal coach, but he does give me pointers. We have a mutual respect for punting."

And for Ryan Winslow, that will resume, full tilt, once basketball season is over.