The St. Ed’s varsity girls basketball team raced past Community Christian Academy 43-15 in its home opener last week behind a three-pronged attack that accounted for all but two of the 43 points.
Maya Jenkins led the way with 16, Nicole Alden added 14 and Tea Tee chipped in with 11. The routine victory raised the Pirates record to 2-1, thereby doubling the win total from a year ago.
This is a modest step forward for a program desperately in need of generating positive news. It’s no secret that girls basketball at St. Ed’s was at low ebb in terms of interest and success on the court. That may be turning around, however. This varsity team should win several more games and the 14 girls on the middle school team coached by David Rogers were 3-0 as of last week.
“I do see things improving a lot,” second-year Head Coach Paula Robinson said. “All of the girls are committed to the program and they practice hard every day. They work really hard in games as well. It’s nice to see the improvements that most of them have made over the past year.
“This year we are playing a less rigorous schedule than last year. As we learn and grow and build our program to become more of a district-caliber team, our schedule will get stronger. We are in the infant stage right now, just crawling. As the season goes by, we’ll see how we do.”
Robinson has two bona fide varsity players in Jenkins and Alden. Tee isn’t far behind. Jenkins is a skillful ball handler, game manager, and scorer. Alden has a nice touch from outside and is capable of double digits every time out. Tee is all over the court honing in on the ball, especially when her team doesn’t have it.
That’s a formidable combination at this level of play. Jenkins and Tee, both freshmen, have played together for four years starting in middle school. They were elevated to the varsity in eighth grade. Alden, a junior, is a four-year varsity veteran. Sophomore Victoria Bradford has one year of varsity experience.
Their four teammates are relative newcomers to the game. Sophomores Nikki Jankowski and Lesly Sun started against Community Christian, as did freshman Jocelyn Xiong. Freshman Alie Miller got her first bucket in a win over Glades Day School.
“We do have quite a few novices, but they are making improvements every single day,” Robinson said. “Xiong scored her very first basket against Community Christian and it was amazing.”
The bench and crowd erupted when that happened. Robinson described another incident where one of her girls was called for a three-second violation only to quickly scoot out of the lane the next time down the court.
The learning curve is steep for Chinese exchange students Xiong and Sun, a situation compounded by the need for a translator. Robinson admitted that it “takes some getting used to” for everyone, but she also acknowledged that these girls are “learning the game quickly” and contributing to team unity.
“At the beginning we expected that the three of us would carry the scoring load,” Alden told us. “As the other girls get better we can use everybody on the team for scoring and everything else. I’m having a lot of fun and I love my team this year. I’m doing some scoring, but I need to work on rebounding. My teammates tell me that I don’t jump and they’re right. I never do and I don’t know why. I’m definitely going to work on that.”
Alden will post up near the foul line while Jenkins and Tee work the perimeter.
“I see myself as a leader on this team,” Jenkins said. “I’m expected to bring the ball up, look for my teammates, and score. I think we will win most of our games this year, especially if we continue to work really hard. We will be a more cohesive unit as the new girls gain experience and become productive.”
Whereas Jenkins brings controlled energy and charisma to the court, Tee confesses to “being really hyper out there, that’s why you see me running all over the place.
“I’m better at defense than offense, but I’m definitely more confident this year on offense. This team is really coming together and we should be able put together some nice wins. All of the girls are fun to play with. We all come from different backgrounds, so we can really learn a lot from each other.
“Coach wants me to play a leadership role and I’m really trying to do that. I hope I’m succeeding. Maya, Nicole and I are certainly able to help the other girls.”
The coach also wants to keep everyone grounded, with the possible exception of Alden.
“Right now we’re focusing on day-to-day improvement,” Robinson explained. “We’re not thinking about two games down the road. We always have details to work on before, during and after each individual practice and game.”
