Stepinac’s Three Basketball All-Americans Receive Their Jerseys
By: Steven Schwankert
Adonis Ratliff, Darius Ratliff, and Jasiah Jervis will play in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Phoenix on March 31
Archbishop Stepinac High School’s three McDonald’s All-American basketball players received their jerseys on Tuesday, March 10, in the school’s gymnasium.
Darius Ratliff, Jasiah Jervis, and Adonis Ratliff will play in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 31.
Only 48 of the top high school boys and girls — 24 each from the eastern and western halves of the United States — are chosen as McDonald’s All-Americans. The naming of the Ratliffs and Jervis doubles the total number of All-Americans Stepinac has produced to six; the previous three were RJ Davis (now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers), Adrian Walker Jr., and Johnuel “Boogie” Fland.
READ MORE: Three Stepinac Basketball Stars Named to 2026 McDonald’s All-American Team
“It takes a lot of hard work from the individuals themselves, the program, and the school, and then the overall platform that Stepinac’s been able to provide these student athletes,” Head Basketball Coach Patrick Massaroni told The Good Newsroom after the ceremony. “I think that’s the biggest thing, playing a mix of not only the competitive New York Catholic League schedule and the national platform that we’ve been able to get to that provides these guys a stage for that exposure.”
The Crusaders defeated the Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinals 72-59 at Fordham University‘s Rose Hill Gymnasium on Saturday, March 8, lifting the Catholic High School Athletic Association city intersectional trophy for the fourth consecutive season — the first four-peat in the competition’s 123-year history.
READ MORE: Stepinac Captures Fourth Intersectional Championship With ‘Iconic’ Win
Stepinac’s Crusaders will now face the winner of the Public School Athletic League (PSAL) championship for the all-city title — of which the White Plains school is the current holder — on March 22 at 5 p.m. at Long Island University‘s Brooklyn campus gymnasium.
Maintaining the team’s focus will be Massaroni’s chief challenge ahead of the March 22 game. “Next week, we’ll start game-planning for whoever we play, we’ll find that out later this week, and just try to stay as sharp as we can with the two-week layoff. That’s hard, especially when you have nine seniors,” he said.