The Egg Harbor City (N.J.) Cedar Creek High girls basketball team features a rather remarkable coincidence: There are times when four of the five players on the court were born on the same day. Yet it turns out there’s a legitimate reason for that, more than a mere coincidence: All four were born minutes apart from the same mother and father.
As reported by Courier-Post out of suburban Philadelphia, the Stefanski quadruplets are four big reasons why the Cedar Creek girls basketball team is the defending New Jersey Group 1 state champion. At any given time, the Cedar Creek squad can feature a point guard, shooting guard, small forward/swingwoman and power forward with Stefanski on the back of their jersey. Three of the four sisters are Cedar Creek starters, while Monique Stefanski, technically the oldest of the four, is the team’s sixth woman, an impact sub who often has a significant effect on the outcome.
All four of the sisters love playing basketball, though unlike some twins they’ve expressed a willingness to go their separate ways in college. Morgan, the 5-foot-8 forward, and 5-foot-5 shooting guard Mikila could both end up at Monmouth University, if it weren’t for Mikila’s desire to strike out on her own.
“Me and Mikila both like Monmouth University, but she’ll say, ‘I don’t want to go to college with her. I want to be by myself.’” Morgan Stefanski told the Courier-Post. “I don’t know where we’ll end up, but I’m sure when we come home for holidays and stuff, it’ll still be the same and we’ll all be close.”
In the meantime, the Stefanski girls will continue arriving at team outings in their PT Cruiser with the license plate “QUADZ”. And their parents will continue struggling to buy enough groceries to feed the energetic quartet, racking up a monthly grocery bill of roughly $1,200.
“It’s an adventure,” Marian Stafanski, the quads’ mother, told the Courier-Post. “The weddings they talk about. I’m like, ‘Hold on, I’ve still got college.’ Even when we need sneakers, it’s a big job. Grocery shopping, for just milk and eggs, it’s $150. I’m constantly buying and buying. They can eat like you don’t know.
“I was so blessed. Once and done now. I don’t have any boys, but I have a lot of boys at my house, whether it’s boyfriends or just friends. They get along with everybody and it attracts a big crowd.”
Now the quads are attracting big crowds for Cedar Creek home games, helping lead the team toward a potential second-straight Section 1 title. Such a feat would be a remarkable achievement, and one that all four are excited to feel again.
Morgan said winning a state title with her sisters is something she won’t forget.
“After the game, we all hugged and cried and said that we finally did it.”
Said Mikila: “I think (playing together) brings us closer together.”
“There are other quadruplets out there, but not all of them win a state championship together,” Mercina added. “Every day at practice, I look up at the championship banner with all of our names on it.
“It just motivates me.”
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