PHS girls’ hoops a growing program
By: Justin Feil
The results may not show up this year, maybe not even next year, but in three and four years, Nikki Inzano’s offseason work will help make the Princeton High girls’ basketball team much better.
This summer, Inzano, who will open her second season as head coach of the Little Tigers tonight against Lawrence, opened her first basketball camp.
"It’s never been done here in the past as far as I know," Inzano said. "We had 18 girls, which is a little low. But for a first-time thing, it was good."
The benefits went beyond just seeing the future of PHS basketball. The future was able to meet the present and the interaction was priceless for both.
"We had a great thing," Inzano said. "We had some of my (current varsity) players, like Tiffany (Schuler), Kelly Curtis, Erin Cook and Brittney (Holmes) there to help teach them. So they had control of a team which was neat. And to see the little kids look up to them was really nice."
In the coming years, those first-year campers will be getting closer and closer to looking them in the eye. Campers ranged from sixth through ninth graders, who are already eligible for varsity play.
"I was able to have a couple freshmen there," Inzano said. "So that let me see some of them. But not everyone came out."
The camp wasn’t the only way for prospective new PHS players to mesh with the returners from Inzano’s first Little Tigers squad. There was also a summer league.
"We played in the Bordentown summer league," Inzano noted. "It was good because a lot of players who played at the JV level are now on the varsity. They hadn’t played a lot with some of the girls. It helped them mesh together on the court."
Preseason practices have brought them even closer. As much as Inzano is focusing on her varsity team, she’s also maintaining a strong connection to the building blocks of the program. The camp was just one aspect.
"There was no sense that they as sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, were building up to what we’re doing," Inzano said. "Then they have to learn all that. Hopefully we won’t have to do that now.
"You’re always looking at what’s coming up," she added. "You always want to improve what you have."
Inzano also has found encouragement in several important changes that have taken effect at the middle school level since her arrival.
"This year, they’re practicing five days a week," Inzano said. "Last year, it was three days a week. You see the schools like Steinert, West Windsor, Lawrence, and all those people are having five days a week. It hurts you not to. We had two days where they didn’t do anything. And we had less games. There are more games for sixth and seventh graders.
"And we’re able to cut kids. I don’t like to cut kids, but you can’t have a team with 60 kids in the gym. You can’t do anything."
They are important steps that Inzano expects will pay off in the future. Girls’ basketball, Inzano believes, is just one program that is benefiting from increased opportunity.
"I feel it’s a move in the right direction," she said. "Our AD, Eric Amkraut is looking to move all girls’ programs forward. They’re good steps."
Inzano will do her part as she showed in her first offseason with the Little Tigers. The summer league opened up opportunities to current varsity players. Her camp gave the future ones a better chance to excel.
"I intend to keep having it," Inzano said. "It’s going to help build Princeton basketball."
The first payoffs come this season, with more to follow.

