LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION honoring Coach Ruth Lovelace of Boys and Girls
High School's boys basketball team upon the occasion of winning the
Public Schools Athletic League Class AA Championship

WHEREAS, It is incumbent upon the people of the State of New York to
recognize those individuals within our midst who have contributed great-
ly to the quality of our lives by providing exceptional leadership and a
commitment to excellence; and
WHEREAS, Excellence and success in competitive sports at the profes-
sional level can be achieved only through strenuous practice, team play
and team spirit, nurtured by dedicated and outstanding coaching and
strategic planning; and
WHEREAS, It took three trips to Madison Square Garden, but Boys and
Girls High School's boys basketball coach Ruth Lovelace finally has her
trophy and her place in history; in the school's third trip to the
Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) Class AA championship game in the
last four years, the second-seeded Boys and Girls High School's Kanga-
roos rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat first ranked
Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, 55-50, on Saturday, March 6, 2010; and
WHEREAS, It was the Kangaroo's first championship since 1979, and
Coach Lovelace became the first woman to lead a boys PSAL basketball
program to a championship, her first title in her 16 years of coaching
the Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn program; and
WHEREAS, Coach Lovelace and the Kangaroos dedicated the victory to Dr.
Frank Mickens, the beloved former Boys and Girls High School's principal
and basketball coach who died in July of 2009; Dr. Mickens hired Coach
Lovelace in 1994 in an unprecedented move that made her the first woman
in the PSAL to coach an upper-tier boys basketball program; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the entire period of her outstanding coaching
career, Ruth Lovelace has stood constant in dignity, good grace and
humor, and has earned the respect and admiration of her players, oppo-
nents, colleagues, family and friends; and
WHEREAS, The athletic talent and success displayed by the PSAL Class
AA Champion Boys and Girls High School's boys basketball team is due in
great part to the efforts of Coach Ruth Lovelace; she has done a superb
job in guiding, molding and inspiring the Kangaroos toward their goal of
winning the PSAL Class AA Championship; and
WHEREAS, Sports competition instills the values of teamwork, pride and
accomplishment, and Coach Ruth Lovelace has clearly made a contribution
to the spirit of excellence which is a tradition of this great Empire
State; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
honor Coach Ruth Lovelace of Boys and Girls High School's boys basket-
ball team upon the occasion of winning the Public Schools Athletic Leag-
ue Class AA Championship; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Coach Ruth Lovelace.