Michelle Marciniak to be keynote speaker at local basketball banquet

FROM KEITH GROLLER

One of the greatest basketball players in Lehigh Valley history will be returning home to help get the 2011-12 high school hoops season started.

Former Central Catholic and University of Tennessee star player Michelle Marciniak will be the keynote speaker at the Yasso/Rothrock Christmas City Classic Tip-Off Banquet at Moravian College's Johnston Hall. The event is set for Thursday, Dec. 8.

The 2011-12 season begins the next night and on Saturday, Dec. 10, the Yasso/Rothrock Christmas City Classic will be held with all 24 boys and girls teams in the Lehigh Valley Conference in action. Liberty, Freedom and Bethlehem Catholic will host four games apiece.Marciniak2

The Christmas City Classic banquet has had some very impressive keynote speakers over the years, people like 76ers coach Doug Collins, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and ESPN commentator Bob Ryan.

Marciniak is the CCC’s first-ever female keynote speaker.


“We are very proud to announce Michelle as our keynote speaker for this year’s banquet,” said Spud Yasso, one of the founders of the Christmas City Classic. “Not only was Michelle an outstanding basketball player, but she is a local hero and our first-ever female speaker.”

Marciniak is a 1991 graduate of Allentown Central Catholic High School, where she scored 3,025 career points and was named Parade Magazine and Gatorade National High School Player of the Year.

After transferring from Notre Dame, Marciniak played for legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee helping the Lady Vols to two SEC titles and a national crown in 1996. She went on to play in the WNBA, and after retiring she served as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina from 2003-2008. She is currently an occasional color analyst for the WNBA, NCAA, and ESPN Radio, and is the co-founder of SHEEX, Inc., an athletic bed-sheet company.

SHEEX, Inc., is the driving force in Marciniak's career at the moment and she has been on national TV shows to promote her new line of bed sheets which "uses the finest in athletic performance fabrics."

See her on her SHEEX sheets below.

The Christmas City Classic enters its 8th year in 2011. The tournament and banquet honor the late George B. Yasso, long-time Hurricane Basketball Club President and coach. Yasso died in November of 2003 at age 52 after years of dedicating himself to Bethlehem-area athletes.

In 2008, the late Todd Rothrock was added to the tournament’s name. Rothrock, of course, was a successful coach at Moravian College and Liberty High School. He died in August of 2008 after collapsing at his home. Rothrock was 48.

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