Sherry Shootout to Take Place Saturday

By: Keith Mills

The eighth Paul Sherry Basketball shootout is set for Saturday at Boys' Latin. The Bryn Mawr girls will play The Holton-Arms School at 1 p.m. Boys' Latin will play Gilman at 3 p.m. while Roland Park plays St. Timothy's at 5 p.m.

Paul Sherry came to Baltimore from the San Francisco area with his wife Jan in January of 1985. He is a former sportscaster at WJZ-TV Channel 13, news reporter at WMAR-TV Channel 2, stockbroker and father of four who volunteered for 20 years with the Towson recreation and Blaze AAU programs, coaching a variety of girls basketball teams.

The Sherry Shootout was started back in 2000 by Jim "Snuffy" Smith, who retired this year after coaching the Bryn Mawr girls for the last 10 years. Smith and Sherry coached together with the Blaze AAU team, beginning a three-year run that began in 1997 and ended with Paul's death in 1999.

Sherry's daugthers Theresa and Laurie were on their first AAU team (and later Smith's Bryn Mawr team) as was Lauren Dodrill, Kelsey Swift and Smith's niece Ellen.

Theresa Sherry went on to become a top women's lacrosse player and is now the head women's coach at Stanford. Laurie is now teaching English in the Czech Republic while her younger sister Val, also a basketball player at Bryn Mawr, is a junior at Brown and is studying in Barcelona, Spain. Jack Sherry is a senior lacrosse player at Boys' Latin.

Smith, who played his high school basketball for Ed Hardigan at Loyola Blakefield and once coached with Tubby Smith at Virginia Commonwealth under head coach J.D. Barnett, will watch this year's tournament in the stands. He retired this year and was replaced by Mimi Waters. Last Saturday, nearly 200 of his family and friends gathered in Mount Washington for his 65th Birthday and Retirement Roast.

"Thanks to Joe Twist and the Collaborative Group, we've raised over $40,000 for a variety of causes," Smith said. "The first year (2000) we raised $1,000. This year we're shooting for $15,000."

This year's beneficiary of the event is the Catherine's Hearth, joining the Gilchrist Hospice Center, Rayna DuBose Assistance Fund, the Fisher Houses at Walter Reed Medical Center and the Stadium School as programs to benefit from the shootout.