Lyla Stokes

Sport: Basketball

School: Waldwick

Class: Senior. Age: 17

Accomplishment: Stokes scored 37 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in wins over Butler, New Milford and Manchester as the Warriors won their first league championships in 31 years.

Lyla Stokes tried almost every sport and activity available to her as a youngster growing up in Waldwick.

T-ball, soccer, softball, dance, karate. All through the Waldwick/Midland Park Rec program and beyond, and all coming up short of maintaining her interest.

The only sport that kept her attention was basketball. She was good at it almost immediately.

Her father, Doug, was an outstanding player at Ramapo High School in the 1990s who scored more than 1,000 points in his career. Her uncles Glenn (an all-state player and all-conference selection at Monmouth) and Kevin also eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone.

Lyla, the North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS, has more than followed in her family’s footsteps, with her total above 1,200 points. The Waldwick senior led her team to the NJIC Liberty Division title, the program’s first division title since 1995.

“We go as Lyla goes,” said Caitlin Ernest, the Waldwick coach in her first year with the program. “She’s a special player who’s greatest attribute is that she has the ability to see plays before they happen.”

Ernest took over the program just as the summer was about to start. Greg McBain, the previous girls coach had moved over to coach the boys and his projected replacement had to leave the program due to work conflicts.

So Ernest, a teacher in the school, who had previously been an assistant coach at her alma mater, Pascack Hills, was tapped for the job and brought her father, veteran coach Scott Ernest, to be her assistant.

“They introduced some new drills and we set a goal of winning the division before the season started,” said Stokes, who cleared the 1,000 point mark in the opening game of the season.

The Warriors started slow, losing five of their first eight games. Stokes then picked up her pace on the boards and the defensive end.

“She takes the time to learn the game of basketball, not just play it, and she has a special basketball IQ,” Ernest said. “She’s a 5-foot-10 forward but she really plays wherever we need her.”

Opponents regularly use a box-and-one on Stokes, whose scoring is down from last year’s 15 points per game. But the versatile senior’s other statistics are way up, reflecting the team’s turnaround from a difficult start.

Waldwick went on a tear, winning 11 of 12, including beating division rival Pompton Lakes on a Jane Eitner buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime in the middle of the run.

“This team works so hard as a team and Lyla is one of the biggest reasons why we won the league,” Ernest said. “She never wants to talk about herself and always deflects to her teammates.”

Yet, as much as Stokes has enjoyed playing the game, she’s still unsure whether she’ll continue to play in college.

“There’s so much more to life than basketball,” said the honor student, who wants to major in business at school. “I’m weighing my options.”

If she decides not to play in college, it will definitely mean the end of a tradition that started when Lyla Stokes started playing ball in third grade.

“I’ve yet to play a game where (Doug) doesn’t tie my sneakers before I go out of the floor,” she said. “It started out as a necessity and it’s become a wonderful ritual.”

Is that what they mean when they say family ties?