#Charleytough Getting Stronger Amid Outpouring of Support

By Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com

March 11, 2021

On a recent evening at the home of Corunna boys basketball coach John “Rocky” Buscemi and his wife Chloe, the household is a whirlwind of activity.

Their daughter Charley, 5, darts in and out of the Buscemis’ home office to ask questions, mimic riding a horse, or whatever else comes to the mind of a little girl full of energy.

The only thing that would tell you that cancer had interrupted their lives for five months in the fall and winter is the hair that just now is starting to grow on Charley’s scalp.

Shock, then Support

Charley Buscemi is named after her grandfather, Charley Silm, who refereed high school basketball for 22 years in and around mid-Michigan when he wasn’t working on the farm. He often took his daughter, Chloe, to games he worked when she was a youngster.

“I remember packing up my little bag with snacks and watch my dad officiate,” Chloe Silm-Buscemi recalled. “Even though I didn’t play basketball, I grew up in the gym, just like Charley did.”

Her daughter has grown up watching her dad coach. She confidently refers to Corunna players as “her boys” and announces that she wants to coach with him some day.

Last summer, Charley was having trouble sleeping, and sleep apnea was diagnosed. Her doctor advised that removing Charley’s tonsils would likely eliminate the apnea.

Corunna Buscemi FamilyThe Buscemis agreed, and her tonsils were removed Sept. 25.

“We knew nothing else,” Chloe said, “but apparently the doctor noticed that one of the tonsils looked abnormal, or a little awkward, so he sent it off for testing.”

Chloe said she was told that any complications might require another operation to stop bleeding in the area, but she was stunned when the doctor’s office called back Oct. 1.

“We didn’t know the testing had been done,” Chloe said. “We got a call that said ‘the findings of the pathology are consistent with a diagnosis of lymphoma.’ And we were like, ‘Wait. What?’ It caught us completely off guard. (Charley) was racing in circles around our kitchen island and our dining room table, and I was like, no, you’ve got the wrong kid here. There’s no way this kid has cancer.”

“Initially, it was, this can’t be right,” Rocky said. “I was trying to read between the lines and find some wording that gave some idea that this is what they think. I tried to hang onto the idea that there’s got to be more tests, and those tests will show us that it’s not (cancer).”

The diagnosis was correct. Charley had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s a fast-growing cancer that affects B-lymphocytes, a type of blood cell that helps fight infection.

While it is a fast-growing lymphoma, it’s considered potentially curable.

The cancerous cells found in Charley’s tonsil were sent to the Mayo Clinic and the National Institute of Health, and the diagnosis was confirmed.

Charley began chemotherapy at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing and celebrated her fifth birthday there.

Chloe, meanwhile, was also navigating the second trimester of her pregnancy.

“I spent most of my second trimester sleeping on a cot in the hospital while she got chemo treatments,” Chloe said.

“Her first round of chemo was horrible,” Rocky said. “She didn’t react to it well, and we were there 20 of 25 days.”

Corunna boys basketball 2But once word got out, people in the Corunna school system, neighbors, fellow coaches and others reached out in the Buscemis’ time of need.

“The schools were so understanding,” Rocky said. “Once we found out, it was, go be with your family. Put in for your (Family and Medical Leave Act). Everyone was supportive from that end.”

The Corunna basketball players drove out to the Buscemi home and raked up its leaves. Some Corunna alumni got together to string up Christmas lights, the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s team sent her a giant stuffed panda, and many more showed support.

“We’re working on thank-yous now,” Chloe said. “My mom says people would know if you posted a thank-you (online), but I want to be able to send something out. Right now there’s something like 250 thank-yous.”

Strength & Sliver Linings

Charley had two rounds of chemotherapy and has been pronounced cancer-free. She has monthly meetings with her oncologist and quarterly CT scans scheduled for the next year.

“They’re watching her heart, because the chemo can affect that, so we meet with the cardiologist,” Chloe says.

“It’s a lot for a little person,” she adds as Charley flits back and forth between parents, announcing at one point she has cleaned her plate at dinner with no small amount of pride. “But for the most part, she’s just like this. She’s pretty happy, pretty easy-going, and takes it in stride. Sometimes I struggle with it more than she does. You feel totally helpless.”

For Rocky, the whole experience is full of silver linings, however hard-won.

“You’re always trying to find the silver linings,’ he said. “We had no idea she had cancer, but the silver lining was once we found out what it was, and it was confined to the tonsil, the blessing was it was almost a miracle we had her tonsils removed almost at the same time it was starting to develop. It wasn’t found anywhere else, so that’s a silver lining.

“Recently she’s been diagnosed as having celiac disease, and we’ve been given the OK to (shift) to a gluten-free diet. If she hadn’t had cancer, we might not have known until she was a teenager and had permanent damage. We’ve been so fortunate and blessed to find things out when we did.”

The Buscemis talk in tones of awe and appreciation for the caring and other gestures that have come their way.

“It’s incredibly humbling,” Rocky said. “It makes you want to do for someone else. I’m much more aware of people in need, and I hope to pay it forward. There are a lot of people you wouldn’t have anticipated reaching out who have reached out.”

The fear and stress of that time, he said, are often near, even with Charley in the clear.

“I wanted to be strong for Chloe and my family and be that rock that could be leaned on,” he said. “But man, oh man, there are still mornings when I drive to school and tear up. It’s nice to have other guys who understand that or have been through it. I’d be the rock here (at home) and then I’d be emotional with my friends in the coaching fraternity.”

Charley and 3-year-old brother Sam were mainstays at practice last year, playing quietly in a corner of the gym while the team practiced. Charley was at most every game, and Rocky always made a point of looking for her and her mother in the stands.

That hasn’t been the case this year, as Charley’s immune system has been weakened by the chemo and has kept her at home this season, watching the Cavaliers play on her mother’s laptop.

There’s been another change, too.

Corunna Buscemi Family 2“I’ve adopted a one-day-at-a-time, appreciate-every-moment approach,” Rocky said. “A year ago in 9-degree weather, I might have been trying to find reasons not to go outside. Now if Charley wants to go sledding, we’re going sledding!”

He laughs as he says that, a man who has a new appreciation of things.

His players have been honoring her, too, wearing black T-shirts at warmups with a large unicorn on the front with the hashtag #Charleytough and the Corunna logo on a basketball.

As for Charley, she will go back to kindergarten next year, but at the moment, she’s anxiously awaiting the birth of her brother or sister March 22.

She already has informed her parents that her new sibling will be a girl, named Maggie, and wants the newborn to sleep in her room.

“She says, ‘Mommy, I’ll feed the baby,’” Chloe said, chuckling. “I told Rocky we don’t have to worry about parenting a third baby. Charley’s got it.”

Besides another new brother or sister, if all goes well, Charley will be back on the sideline with her dad and her basketball team next winter.

Rocky says his family’s experience, among other things, showed him how strong the ties are in the coaching community.

“It was nice to see the game be the bridge that allowed me to reach out and depend on people a little bit,” he said “Without it, you don’t have those relationships. Things like this make you realize how special those things really are. If you don’t experience it, you don’t get to understand people’s true motivations.

“It was humbling,” he added. “It was scary at times, but all in all it was a little bit of everything that helped us to be able to get through this.”

PHOTOS: (Top) Charley Buscemi and her dad Rocky enjoy a fun moment at home. (2) From left: Charley, Rocky, Chloe and Sam Buscemi. (3) Corunna players wear #Charleytough T-shirts as warm-ups for their games. They prominently feature Charley’s favorite animal, a unicorn. (4) Charley’s immune system isn’t robust enough for her to attend games in person, but she never misses a chance to watch “her boys” play on her mom’s laptop. (Photos courtesy of the Buscemi family.)

Unearthed Recording Will Soon Allow All to Recall Memorable 1971 CHSL Matchup

By Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian

January 17, 2025

The box, labeled “Property of CC Athletic Department,” sat in the front closet of the Blackwells’ Detroit home for decades.

Contained within was an open reel of tape – unlabeled. Morris Blackwell has no recollection of how he ended up with it. But the lore that surrounds the content has been relayed countless times within the Blackwell family and likely among families with the last names Moreno, Rojas, Simpson, Williams, and Miller.

The details, from a game played on a Sunday night at the University of Detroit in February 1971, also may have even been discussed among those with the surname Tanana, Jonca, LeGarde, Rzonca, Bluitt, and Mei, but the memories may not have been as positive.

Now, thanks to a transfer of the tape, the complete game between Detroit Catholic Central and Detroit Holy Redeemer – a legendary battle for a Detroit Catholic League’s First Division title – can soon be watched by all.

The game was recorded using the EIAJ format – a black and white reel-to-reel standard created in 1969 for early video tape recorders by Japanese electronic manufactures. The high expense of EIJA units meant broadcast organizations and educational institutions primarily owned units. Extremely few individuals owned recorders at home, as cartridge tape systems like Beta and VHS did not come along until the mid-1970s. Hence, the family mostly ignored the box and its likely content.

“It’s pretty cool,” noted Ben Blackwell, Morris’ son, who, after a few failed attempts to transfer the unusual format, tracked down a company in Florida to move what was captured to modern-day media. ”Not perfect, but cool nonetheless.”

Detroit’s Catholic High School League

Organized for baseball in the spring of the 1925-26 school year, the “Greater Detroit Catholic High School League” played for a first league football championship in the fall of 1926, then opened its first basketball season with 12 city and suburban parochial schools participating. Since the league’s creation nearly a century ago, more than 125 schools have been members of the CHSL at one time or another.

That year, Detroit St. Leo and Wyandotte St. Patrick ended the “regular scheduled season tied for first place with identical 9-1 records,” hence a championship game was scheduled to determine a titleholder. Scheduled to start at 8:30 at the University of Detroit gym, according to the Detroit Times, “the largest crowd that ever witnessed a Catholic league game was on hand” for the title game, won by St. Leo, 13-5.

For the 1929-30 season, 25 schools made up what was briefly called the Southern Michigan Catholic High School Basketball League. “This year finds the league almost double its ’29 size when the league was divided into two divisions. A post-season game was held between the two division winners to decide the league championship. … This year a trophy will be awarded to … four divisional winners and a post-season series may be played to decide the city title,” stated the Detroit News.

Indeed, at the end of the season, winners of the Divisions 1 and 2 and Divisions 3 and 4 squared off in a “knockout” round. In the title game Detroit St. Theresa – the Division 1 titleholder and the league’s reigning champion – downed Division 4 victor Royal Oak St. Mary.

Between the 1930-31 and 1954-55 school years, using a post-regular-season playoff format, the league acknowledged champions across three divisions. For several years, playoffs were hosted at the Detroit Naval Armory – home of the University of Detroit’s cage team.

In May 1952, the University opened a new facility on campus – dedicated as the Memorial Building – and hosted its first basketball game at the facility in December of that year. In February 1953, the impressive arena served as a fantastic host for its first Detroit Catholic League triple-header championship. A crowd of 5,860 attended. Today, everyone knows the place as Calihan Hall, named in honor of the late Bob Calihan – athletic director, coach, and the Titans’ first basketball All-American – but that christening didn’t come until the autumn of 1977.

The Catholic League continued to swell in size, with 59 teams sponsoring basketball squads in 1956, broken into eight geographic sections spanning the three divisions built around enrollment and athletic success. Between 1956 and 1962 the league opted to move to a four-round playoff designed to name just one league champion regardless of regular-season Division.

By 1963, population growth, shifts to the suburbs, and hence, distance between schools, were altering makeup of the largest high school league in the country, now totaling 79 teams. The First Division included 32 squads split between four sections (Central, East, West, and AA ), 29 teams spread over four sections in the Second Division (East, West, Northwest, and Southwest), and 18 teams divided into two sections – the Third Division and the Macomb League division, according to the Detroit Free Press. At the beginning of that season, a decision was made to identify First and Second Division basketball champions – via a 16-team, three-round playoff that involved Division and section champions and various runners-up across the four divisions. (Two CHSL titlists have been determined annually through the 2022-23 school year.)

Unforgettable Seasons

By the 1970-71 school year, with closures and consolidations, the CHSL was down to a competitive and still impressive 44 teams. By the first of January, Detroit Catholic Central stood out amongst that crowd. Free Press prep guru Hal Schram had the team ranked No. 1 in his first weekly Class A rankings. Coach Bill Foley, who graduated from DCC in 1942, and who had guided the basketball team since 1952, was happy with the choice.

“Certainly we realize we’re on the spot … everyone will be shooting at us,” Foley said, talking about his Shamrocks, undefeated across five games, “but I’m certain I’ve got a squad that can live up to such a responsibility.

DCC’s Frank Tanana (44) puts up a shot.One day later, DCC dropped an 84-83 thriller to Detroit De La Salle on the Shamrocks’ home court. The Pilots had been quarterfinalists in the MHSAA Class B Tournament that past March. Because of the loss, the Shamrocks had fallen to No. 4 in Schram’s weekly rankings by early February. But the Detroit writer’s confidence in the squad was undeterred.

“The question you hear from all outstate precincts,” he wrote, “‘Who’s the team from Detroit who’ll give us the most trouble in the (MHSAA) March tournament?’” With the Catholic League playoffs about to tip off, Schram stated, “The answer in February remains the same as it was in December.” Detroit Catholic Central now donned a 10-1 record.

“The Shamrocks have height to burn” and remained “the best team in metropolitan Detroit,” according to Schram. “If he chooses, Foley can floor four youngsters 6-foot-7 or better. But only two of these schoolboy giants, 6-foot-8 Chris Rzonca and 6-foot-7 Rick Mei, start. ‘I doubt if any squad has two better guards than Frank Tanana and Ben Bluitt,’ Foley tells you. … Tanana has to be the best ball handler in our league.”

Foley’s Shamrocks had previously won an MHSAA Finals title in 1961, advanced to the MHSAA Semifinals in 1967, and won Catholic League First Division titles under Foley in 1952, 1961, and 1968. Most recently, the Shamrocks finished as league runners-up in 1970.

Other Catholic League entries scattered within Schram’s weekly ratings, each unbeaten, were De La Salle, No. 8 in Class A; Detroit Holy Redeemer at No. 8 in Class B, and Hamtramck St. Ladislaus, No. 6 in Class C. (Redeemer would see its 11-game win streak end on the night those rankings appeared in print, with a 69-67 loss to Detroit Benedictine, then drop another just days before the Catholic League playoffs to Detroit East Catholic. St. Ladislaus, unbeaten in regular-season action, was stunned by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the opening round of the Second Division tournament on Sunday, Feb. 7.)

Semifinal Trials

An unexpected crowd of 7,460 showed up for the four-game opening round of the 1971 First Division Catholic playoff, hosted at Memorial the following Sunday. Three of the four contests were blowouts, with 20+ point margins. Only Royal Oak Shrine’s come-from-behind triumph over Redford St. Mary, 65-59 in overtime, provided true excitement.

During Thursday’s semifinal round, DCC survived a major scare in its game with those same Shrine Knights, who held a 9-6 win-loss record. Trailing by seven points in the second quarter, Shrine knotted the game at 32-32 by halftime, and again, 45-45, on a Mickey Evans basket with two seconds remaining in the third quarter. Despite the significant height advantage, the Shamrocks were out-rebounded by Shrine. But Tanana, DCC’s all-state guard, ripped off 12 of his game-high 22 points over the final four minutes of the contest as Catholic Central finished with a 65-57 win over the Knights.

“Before the Shrine collapse in the waning minutes,” stated Detroit News staff writer Ken Williams, “Tanana had shared the applause of 4,233 spectators with rival Mickey Evans, who finished with 18 points.”

On the other side of the bracket, De La Salle was 14-1 on the year, with its only loss delivered by DCC in their regular-season rematch, and the Pilots were favored in their game with Holy Redeemer. The Lions, however, opened an 11-0 lead, and were up by 12 points, 35-23, at the half. The Pilots bounced back, outscoring Redeemer, 20-9, in the third quarter to pull within a point, 44-43, but could not close it out as the Lions held on for a 61-57 victory to advance to the title game.

The Sunday Finale

The First Division championship game between 15-1 Catholic Central and 14-2 Holy Redeemer was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. In that evening’s opening contest, staged at 7 p.m., Orchard Lake St. Mary’s downed previously-unbeaten Hamtramck St. Florian, 57-53, for the League’s Second Division title. St. Mary’s, powered by five juniors, had twice lost to the Lancers during the regular season. The win was the school’s first boys Catholic League tournament championship since the 1943-44 season.

In the First Division title game, significantly smaller in enrollment – and height – Redeemer struggled with Catholic Central. As most expected, DCC quickly opened a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, and according to the Free Press, “with two minutes left in the period it appeared the Shamrocks would chase Redeemer off the court.”

Yet Catholic Central still struggled on the boards, and by the half, the game was tied, 27-27. Nevertheless, by the end of the third quarter, the Shamrocks had opened a five-point advantage. The final frame was an all-out battle, with five ties and four lead changes. In the stretch, “Redeemer tied the score twice, (first) at 57-57 on Morris Blackwell’s field goal with 2:11 to go, and again at the 1:47 mark at 59-59 on a basket by Brigido Rojas. A (Tony) Moreno field goal and Rojas’ free throw eventually gave Redeemer a 62-59 lead,” stated the News.

“Then the pressure built up in the final 30 seconds. CC’s Ben Bluitt cut the deficit to 62-61 on a basket and Mike Miller countered with a free throw for Redeemer at the 16-second mark.”

A fifth personal foul pulled the Lions’ starting forward, Jim Williams, from the game with 11 seconds to play. Bluitt sank both free throws to tie things up, 63-63. That set the stage for a dramatic Hollywood ending.

A screen shot from the video of that championship game indicates the full crowd surrounding the court. Adding value to the taped broadcast is play-by-play provided by a pair of unknown individuals, according to Ben Blackwell. The label on the box is a tip-off to bias gleaned from some of the recorded observations. Their comments, regardless of leaning, are extremely valuable when, “for the lack of better words,” tracking or skewing issues with the tape’s content blurs the image of exactly what is happening on the court.

“With 7,425 fans screaming in ecstasy,” penned the Free Press’ Schram, “Moreno dropped in a 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left to give Holy Redeemer a 65-63 victory over favored Catholic Central.”

Tanana led all scorers with 24 points for CC, followed by Mei with 17 and Bluitt with 16. Rojas paced the Lions’ balanced attack with 17, including making 7 of 9 at the free throw line. Blackwell added 11, Moreno and Mike Miller each finished with 10, followed by Ralph Simpson with nine and Williams with eight.

Redeemer had won its first First Division title in 1964 with coach Joe LaScola, and again in 1969 under the guidance of coach Bill McCartney, later an MHSAA basketball state championship coach at Dearborn Divine Child, then a football assistant coach under Bo Schembechler at the University of Michigan before guiding the University of Colorado to a national championship in football.

It was a sweet victory for Redeemer’s current coach Stan Wegrzynowicz, the school’s football and track coach who added basketball to his duties when McCartney departed for the job at Divine Child in 1969. Wegrzynowicz, who once advised Moreno that he should skip basketball to focus on track after he had run an impressively-fast mile as a freshman, was thrilled his stocky 5-foot-8 guard had ignored his suggestion.

“As of now, the only folks who have viewed this are myself and my father,” stated Ben Blackwell of the recording. “He was over the MOON watching this footage he never really knew existed.” As they watched, the elder Blackwell was telling his son what was about to happen on the screen – more than 50 years ago – before it happened.

Soon after, a message was sent by the Blackwells to Redeemer’s other starters, who are all still around. Within minutes, three responded, asking the Blackwells about setting up a watch party.

Once that happens, Ben’s plan is to share the video of what many consider one of the greatest upsets in Catholic League championship history publicly via YouTube.

Another Surprise that Spring

Adding to the legend that school year, Holy Redeemer downed previously unbeaten Catholic Central in the Catholic League First Division baseball final, 4-0 in extra innings, in a game played at Tiger Stadium that June. Tanana – whose Major League Baseball career would span six teams over 21 years – had struck out eight and walked two, handcuffing Redeemer through four innings, but back muscle pain and a sore arm forced him to switch to first base. Lions’ senior Craig Barlow struck out 12 and walked four while surrendering just five hits across eight innings.

The 1971 pitching matchup had attracted Major League scouts to the game. One year previous, Barlow had pitched a no-hitter as Holy Redeemer downed Harper Woods Bishop Gallagher in the Catholic league title game.

“If Tanana stayed in, we would still be playing,” Morris Blackwell told the Free Press back in 1999 when the paper recalled two prep “Corner Classics” played at Tiger Stadium. “I don’t know who would have gone longer – Craig or Frank.”

Blackwell went on to play football, basketball, and baseball at Wayne State. Beginning in 1974, he hooked up with the Detroit Parks and Recreation Department, coaching baseball and softball to kids in the summer, notably at Detroit’s Clark Park on the West Side. Over the years, he has coached all three sports at college, high school, and youth levels and is still instructing kids today.

Ben Blackwell guesses the tape was passed on to his dad somewhere during his coaching years. The basketball game’s magnetic existence makes him wonder if footage of the baseball game may also have been captured.

“Dad said he has been asked probably 40 times in the past if he played in that basketball game,” Ben Blackwell said. “When he responds, ‘Yes,’ the next question always is, ‘How did you beat them?’”

PHOTOS (Top) The 1970-71 Detroit Holy Redeemer boys basketball team pulled off one of the most memorable upsets in CHSL history in a championship matchup with Detroit Catholic Central that season. (Middle) DCC’s Frank Tanana (44) puts up a shot. (Below) A screen shot from the video of that championship game indicates the full crowd surrounding the court. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch.)