St. Ed’s varsity girls basketball team achieved an important milestone Dec. 7 by smothering the Pine School, 36-13, and making this the winningest season for Paula Robinson in her four years as head coach.
This was a program that needed resuscitation when Robinson took over. At times games were in doubt due to a shortage of players. The 1-7, 3-6 and 4-7 records of the three previous seasons in hindsight portray a gradual rebuilding process that has apparently come to fruition.
After the win over Pine School, St. Ed’s returned to earth two nights later with a 70-34 defeat at the hands of Highlands Christian Academy in a Sunshine State Athletic Conference game. Thus the rejuvenated Pirates will go into the New Year at 5-2.
“I’m very proud of the way the girls are playing right now,” Robinson said. “We started out really, really well. We are still trying to find our way as we go, but this is the strongest team I’ve had thus far.”
The news gets better from there. There are no seniors on the roster. Optimism is on the rise for the rest of this season as well as next year if everything holds together. In the meantime, all five starters are contributing to the stat sheet, with junior co-captains Maya Jenkins and Tea Tee setting the tone.
“Maya has been playing for me since eighth grade,” Robinson told us. “She has really stepped into her role as a leader. She plays really hard every game and tries to set an example for the other girls on the team.
“Tea just does what she does best. She’s really fast and a great defender. It’s hard for people to gauge how she is going to react because she is so quick. She is very impressive since she has learned how to control herself, especially when she is going for a steal.
The coach says Jenkins and Tee are two of her three bigs. In addition to scoring, assisting and creating turnovers with steals, they can go down low and mix it up for rebounds and loose balls. The other three starters are sophomore Katy Rodriguez, and two freshmen, Zion Atwater and Elise Mallon.
“Zion is also one of my bigs,” Robinson said. “She has a long wingspan and grabs a lot of rebounds. She’s a young player with great potential. She works really hard and gives 100 percent. After a defensive rebound she wants to get the ball to her point guard so we can run the court and get some easy baskets.
“Katy, we call her Katy Rod, is one of my point guards. At any time on the floor I like to have at least three people capable of handling the ball. She is one of them. She has become a good director of traffic and she is also a key to our defense. She has grown a lot and is making better decisions on the floor.
“Elise joined us this year and she is also one of my point guards. She sees the floor really well. She is usually one of my breakout runners when we snag a defensive rebound. She thinks about scoring, but she is always looking for what her teammates can do. I’m trying to get her to be more aggressive and go straight to the basket. She’s still young but she’s learning.”
The starting package is bolstered by sophomore Ellie Huryn. She is the first off the bench and the coach keeps her role fluid depending on game situations.
The Pirates joined the Sunshine State Athletic Conference this year after struggling as an independent. That represents another upgrade for a suddenly thriving program.
“We needed to start somewhere and this was a good time to get back into league play,” Robinson explained. “It gives the girls a goal as well. I feel as if the games matter to them so much more since we are in a league.
“We had three years of building the program and now we have a full complement of stronger players. It makes me feel really good, but what makes me feel even better is how it affects the girls. You can just see it. They are more relaxed and it’s good to see the confidence they have now.
“They no longer go out and think, my gosh, we are going to lose this game. Now it’s let’s go out and beat this team.”
This change in attitude has trickled down to the middle-school teams. Robinson noted that “the middle-school teams are growing and the players see what we are doing here. They are working hard and want to play on the high school team. We are looking forward to what they can add to the program in the future. That will really help.”
