Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Famer, Al Senavitis, dies

FROM KEITH GROLLER

It is with great sadness that I report that Al Senavitis died this morning.

Al was a Liberty High basketball star in the late 1950s, playing from 1955-58, and carved out a Hall of Fame career as a teammate of fellow Hall of Famer and childhood friend Billy Packer. Al scored 831 career points, Packer 1,011. It was before my time, but I heard they were something else as a duo.

Liberty went 47-19 in their three years together and won the 1958 East Penn League and District 11 titles.

Senavitis went on to play at Seton Hall University on a scholarship.



He was inducted into the Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.

Senavitis was the boys basketball coach at Liberty from 1968-73, going 52-60.

In recent years, Senavitis was an assistant tennis coach with Paula Kaunitz at Moravian Academy and then became the head coach of men's and women's tennis at DeSales University. He also was a golf coach at DeSales where he was absolutely beloved.

Beyond sports, Senavitis was a tireless worker for Special Olympics and could simply never do enough for that organization. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Special Olympics Hall of Fame

In short, Al was a great, great person and fun to be around. I was honored to be his friend and whenever I wrote about one of his teams, he was always sure to respond with a little "Thank you" note.

I was told by someone who was close to him at DeSales that Senavitis had been hospitalized and then was rushed to Hershey Medical Center on either Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. He was diagnosed with leukemia there and complications from it led to his passing.

Sad, sad news. I know the DeSales University family, as well as the Special Olympics organization, members of the local basketball and local tennis communities and so many others who know him are saddened by this news and will dearly miss Al, as will I.

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