St. Ed’s varsity girls basketball team took a holiday break with a record of 2-4, and first-year head coach David Rogers was pleased with the gritty style of play he saw in every game from tip to buzzer. Three of those losses were by a grand total of nine points, and with some repeat customers on the upcoming schedule, Rogers is excited about the outlook for the New Year.
“I have a good team with a lot of players that can play different positions,” Rogers said. “We have a small team in numbers with nine on the roster, so we need players to be able to fill different roles.
“We don’t have a lot of girls with basketball experience other than just playing during the season. But you can tell they are heeding the instructions of the coaching staff and learning a lot about the game.”
The coaching staff is made up of Rogers and Neumann Marlett, a former head coach of St. Ed’s varsity girls basketball team for two seasons (2010-11 and 2011-12). That tandem brings a great deal of coaching experience to the court. Rogers earned his coaching stripes at the middle school level.
“I started working at St. Edward’s in 2002, and if my memory serves correctly, I started coaching basketball in 2004-5,” Rogers recalled. “It was kind of a fluke thing because a coach was needed for the seventh-grade girls team, and I said I would do it.
“I played basketball in high school and knew a lot about the game, but as I found out way back when, not as much as I needed to. However, as a middle school coach for the past 12 or 13 years, I have educated myself and established a good rapport with the administration and student body.
“When Paula Robinson (girls varsity head coach for the previous five seasons) announced she was leaving, (AD) Jeff Lamscha and I talked about the position. It was always something I wanted to do at the varsity level as a challenge. With my middle school coaching experience, and with all the years I’ve been at St. Edward’s, we thought it would be a decent fit.”
Rogers inherited a program that is on the rise. He has to continue that trend without two outstanding stalwarts from the Robinson era. Maya Jenkins and Tea Tee graduated last spring, but three girls in particular appear ready to pick up the slack.
The team averaged 34.5 points per game through the first six. Elise Mallon (12), Zion Atwater (10.5) and Alexa Soderman (9.5) accounted for 32 ppg, or 93 percent of that total. Blending everyone else into the rotation will be the number one task.
“We usually have a set four (starters) for sure, but the last few games we had a set five,” Rogers explained. “We always want to start the best five. Now that we are getting into the middle of the season and seeing some teams for the second time, we may know a little more about where our personnel can better match up.”
In addition to Mallon, Atwater and Soderman, Rogers mentioned Ellie Huryn, Morgan Chapman and Sam Camp when sorting through his starters. Huryn and Camp are the only two seniors on the team, and Rogers started coaching Huryn as far back as sixth grade.
“We play a Sunshine State Athletic Conference schedule, and there are a lot of schools like ours in our division,” Rogers told us. “I think we will be able to compete – and who knows, if the ball bounces the right way, compete at a high level.
“We’ve had some close games and they are always tough on a coach. They will make you old quick. When we turn that corner and establish good team chemistry, we are going to wind up winning those games.”
Finally, Rogers offered his take on the often overlooked therapeutic value that sports can bring to players and coaches alike.
“You have the normal and sometimes not so normal things going on at home and school. In the gym we can relax and just think about basketball. We can put our other issues – whether they are family issues, school issues, or whatever – kind of behind us.
“We just put our basketball blinders on and go from there. It’s a different world. And it’s our world.”