MAYFIELD — On Dec. 21, 2022, Cloey Dopp reserved her place on the girls basketball banner in the Rovito Gymnasium at Mayfield High School honoring the 1,000-point scorers — Stacie Hime, Trista Capano, Julie Hampton and Sydney Sheldon.
Just over a year later, in the Thursday’s opening round of the Mayfield Holiday Tournament, she moved to the top of the standings with a 20-point performance to push her career total to 1,463, eclipsing the career scoring record of 1,455 set by Hime in 1990.
“It was definitely a dream come true,” Dopp said before the tournament championship game against Northville on Friday. “I put a lot of hard work and dedication into where I am now. It is definitely something that I really worked hard for. Having such support from a really good teams and a good coach that has brought me here this far. It was awesome to hit it at home yesterday.”
Dopp is a three-sport athlete for the Panthers playing on the varsity soccer, softball and basketball teams, but said her favorite is basketball.
Veteran girls’ varsity basketball coach Brian Moore saw something special in Dopp and moved her to play with the varsity as an eighth grader.
“There was no question,” he said. “I looked at her as a seventh-grader just ball handling skill wise, but size was an issue along with maturity at that level. But when she was in eighth grade it was a no-brainer. Her work ethic and her love for the game impressed me. She put the hours in. She would come to practice and then go to the Y, go to practice and go to the Y. She put in the time and the effort the get to where she is. It did not happen over night.”
Dopp remembered her first season of varsity competition and being in awe of her teammates.
“Honestly, as an eighth-grader, I was jealous,” she said with a laugh. “I was maybe 5-foot and in eighth grade. I was jealous of how tall they were and how they could do all that. That put me at the next level saying, ‘I am going to do that next year.’ “
Now as a 5-foot-10 senior, she relishes her position as a team captain and inspiration for the younger players.
“She is a great example for them and a good role model,” Moore said. “She takes time out of her life to volunteer and help out with the youth program and be that example. It will make my life easy 10 years from now when they are up in her shoes. If I have players anywhere near her caliber, I will be in a good spot.”
Coming up through the Mayfield youth program and traveling in the off-season to play with an AAU team was that start of Dopp’s drive to the top of the Panthers’ scoring list. However, with her senior year in front of her, she admitted she took her off-season training to a new level.
“I think over the summer I worked probably the hardest I have ever worked and it really came to me,” she said. “It is not an easy sport especially when I am getting face guarded a lot. But I have made it a lot easier.”
Dopp added another 16 points to her career total Friday night in Mayfield’s 60-45 loss to Northville in the tournament championship game to take her total to 1,469 and was named to the all-tournament team.
Looking toward the future after graduation, Dopp will be headed to Dominican University where she intends to major in elementary education.
“I was in New York City looking at colleges that weekend and the day before, Dominican text me so I went and looked at Queens College and Dominican,” she said. “As soon as we pulled into Dominican, I loved it. I walked around and got butterflies. I loved the team and the coaches.”
But for the near future, he sights are set on leading the Panthers in their quest for a Western Athletic Conference title and a run at the Section Two Class C championship.
“I want to make a run in sectionals this year,” She said. “The past couple of years we have all come out nervous. I an working on getting that out of every ones head now, so that in sectionals we are not going to be in our heads.”
Mayfield (5-6 overall, 3-3 WAC) returns to league action Wednesday at Schoharie.
“Congratulations again to Cloey,” Moore said. “I hope it is a record that stands for a long time and, for my sake, I hope that I get another player like her someday. Stacie Hime’s record held for over 30 years and one that I didn’t necessarily fall at Mayfield. Cloey has put in the time and effort to put herself in position to be where she is today.”
MONROE SCORES 1,000TH POINT
With 5:42 remaining in the opening half of Friday’s championship game, Northville’s Hailey Monroe joined a prestigious group of players.
Monroe received an outlet pass, drove the length of the floor and laid the ball in to record the 1,000th point of her three-year varsity career at Northville High School.
Monroe is the first Lady Falcon to reach the milestone since Chelsea Paul in 2009 and joins Heidi Gifford (1,546), Lisa Bailey (1,340), Jill Gifford (1,194) and Paul (1,137) in reaching the milestone.
“I have been anticipating it so much, it was really nice to do it,” Monroe said. “I could tell I was getting close just by the way the crowd was getting crazy. When it finally fell in, it was pure enjoyment.”
The junior guard needed 33 points coming into the tournament and hit 18 in Northville’s win Thursday over Galway.
It didn’t take long for her to get on track in Friday’s game against host Mayfield as she poured in 10 of Northville’s 20 first-quarter points. She continued connecting for six of the Falcons’ first eight points of the second quarter to reach and pass the milestone.
“It was a little bit of a let down that I didn’t get it on the opening night of the tournament because I had some friends from Connecticut come and watch but I knew I could get it by the end of the tournament,” Monroe said. “Tonight it was much nicer because we had our whole fan section here. So I really enjoyed that.”
Monroe finished the night with 32 points and was named the tournament MVP as the Falcons defeated Mayfield 60-45 to win the title.
“Last year we came so close to winning it and this year we really wanted it,” she said.
Northville girls varsity coach Jim Zullo, who has coached his share of 1,000-point scorers in his illustrious Hall of Fame career said “Hailey is a really good player and makes all the other players around her better. She is very unselfish.”
Zullo also was proud of the way his team played in the tournament, especially on defense.
“I am hard on them but they work hard and responded,” he said. “Mayfield is a good team and well coached. It is not easy playing defense with the way they [Mayfield] play. We played them tight and had to work hard the whole game. There were times we were a little too casual with the ball. This was a good lesson for them in terms of time and score. When you are ahead you should be able to control the tempo of the game. They have to understand, we didn’t need that last jump shot . . . time is more valuable. These are the things we have to learn and this was a good chance for us to learn that.”
With a short seven-man roster, Northville’s high-pressure defense and running style offense can wear down the opposition as well as the Falcons players.
“Really have a really in shape team,” Monroe said. “Even though we are small, we all play three sports and are active throughout the year so we stay running.”
Monroe was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Gretchen Forsey and Lily Klippel, Mayfield’s Cloey Dopp and Abigail Chest, Gloversville’s Zoie Tesi and Galway’s Keira Allen.
Gloversville won the tournament consolation game 51-31. Tesi and Angelina Christman led Gloversville with 13 points apiece, while Anna Spadaro led Galway with 10 points and Allen had seven.
Great achievements by these talented athletes! Congrats to Dopp and Monroe on their impressive milestones at the Section 2 tournament! #TrailblazersOnTheCourt