The Mercer County Catholic Youth Organization will celebrate its 25th annual Senior High School Basketball All-Star games Sunday, March 8 at the CYO Center (920 South Broad St.) in Trenton. For two-and-a-half decades, the CYO has invited senior boys and girls from around the county to go head-to-hea d one last time before college in a season-ending game at this historic venue. The boys’ game will tip first this year with a 1 p.m. start, followed by the girls around 2:45 p.m. Between the contests, Mercer County CYO’s Patrick M. Hardiman will honor the Renee Keister, Jack Cryan and John “Mincey” Manczak CYO Referee of the Year award winners. Princeton High’s Leah Bornstein will receive the Keister Award, honoring the McCorristin High (now Thrive Charter) standout whose 1980s career was cut short after an accident at her home that left her confined to a wheelchair. Renee did not let that stop her. With plenty of enthusiasm and courage, she has led a productive life and raised a family of fine athletes with her husband, Pete Balke. Tough as nails, Bornstein (five-feet-tall) did not allow people to view her as vertically challenged. Instead, this floor general used her unrelenting drive to steer head coach Mary Pat Lelinski’s Tigers through a school record, 20-8 season this winter, while they also won the Colonial Valley Tournament (formerly the Mercer County Tournament) for the very first time. Bornstein, who is also a lacrosse star headed to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. next year, scored 406 points in her four-year career, 170 of those this season to go with 97 rebounds, 89 steals, 66 assists and two blocked shots during Princeton’s magical 2025-26 campaign. Lawrence High’s Michael Carrick will receive the Cryan Award, honoring the former Notre Dame High and Rider College (now University) Hall of Famer from the 1950-60s who died of cancer at an early age. Two years after leading the Broncs’ basketball team to the NIAA Championship Tournament in Kansas, for which he received Little All-American honors (given to the nation’s best basketball players under six feet tall), Jack coached St. Gabriel’s High of Hazelton, Pa. to a state title in 1967. Carrick, a six-foot point guard, has scored 314 points this season (his second year on varsity) to go along with 63 steals, 57 rebounds, 34 assists and eight blocked shots for head coach Jeff Molinelli’s 18-8 Cardinals, who are still alive in the Central Jersey Group III Tournament. Carrick has helped Lawrence earn the top seed for the CVC Tournament as well as the CJ III Tourney this winter. Honored along with these two standouts will be basketball official Anthony Giordano, who will receive the Mincey Manczak CYO Referee of the Year award for his hard work and dedication to the sport. ...read more read less