Presenting Elite Basketball Teams of the Decade

And the Clarion Herald presented the best of the hardwood phenoms at the end of each season in its annual selection of Elite teams.
    

During the decade, local Catholic schools combined to win seven state or division championships, and seven claimed runners-up trophies.
    

All were led by athletes deemed to be the cream of the crop by the Clarion Herald.
    

St. Augustine was the team to beat throughout most of the decade as evidenced by  the selection of five Purple Knights being named to the 10-player Elite men’s team.
    

The trio of Javan Felix, Deion Taylor and Craig Victor provided the spark for the Purple Knights’ 67-43 victory over Scotlandville for the 2011 Class 5A title, the only state championship of the decade.       
    

De La Salle was the 2017 Division II champion, with Paul Kelly coaching the Cavaliers back into basketball prominence.
    

Led by Kristen Nuss and Taylor Berry, Mount Carmel won Class 5A state championships in 2014 and 2016. Then Ursuline Academy followed that act with its finest teams during the period 2015 through 2018.
    

Kourtney Weber, named “Miss Louisiana Basketball” in her senior season, led the Lions to the 2016 Class 4A crown as a sophomore, then culminated her  career with a 70-43 rout of Lee Magnet for the 2018 Division II title.

On that same weekend, St. Katharine Drexel Prep defeated its archrival, St. Mary’s Academy, 43-42, for the Division III trophy. 
  

The decade had its share of outstanding individual talent from which selecting an all-star team would be an enviable task for any coach.
    

Felix, who went on to a brilliant career at the University of Texas, joins Jesuit’s Elijah Morgan (2017-19) and Holy Cross’ Greg White-Pittman as the best backcourt players of the decade.
    

There was even more talent among the Elite women, particularly at the guard positions.
    

T hree-time Most Outstanding Player honoree, Jenna Deemer, was a starter on St. Mary’s Academy’s team as a sixth grader before transferring to Ursuline a year later. 

    

Guards Kristen Nuss, a three-sport letterman, and Taylor Berry were the keys to Mount Carmel’s Class 5A state championship victories over Destrehan (2014) and Denham Springs (2016).
    

Although she never experienced the thrill of being on a state championship team, Cabrini’s Rakell “Queen” Spencer was one of the most valuable assets of the decade  for the Crescents.
    

And Kailyn Williams, who at 6 feet, 3 inches, hovered over Xavier Prep opponents from 2010-12, was the most feared scorer, rebounder and shot-blocker among the Elite athletes of the decade.