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Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week

Rogers’ move a boost for PDS

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
  As far as fresh starts go, Joe Rogers’ has been perfect.
   After spending the last two basketball seasons at Princeton High School, including last year when he was the Little Tigers’ leading scorer, Rogers is now at Princeton Day School.
   And if the first seven games of his PDS career are any indication, everything has worked out just fine for the Princeton resident. The Panthers, who won just three games last year, opened the year with seven straight wins. And Rogers has been a key to the success, averaging a team-high 24.7 points per game.
   ”At first I didn’t know what to think,” Rogers said of the move to a new program. “I played in a summer league with two other guys from PDS and we played OK, so I had a good feeling about it. I played with Kenny (Holzhammer) and A.J. (Rubin) and could tell they were good younger players. And Anthony Farina also played for us a little bit. I could see that we had some talent.
   ”I know the team only won three games last year, but we’ve been a different team this year. We’ve started out 7-0 and you can’t really ask for anything more than that.”
   Rogers has always shown an ability to score, and when he came to PDS, new head coach Paris McLean knew he was getting a scorer. But it has been the other aspects of Rogers’ game that have impressed his new coach the most through the first month of the season.
   ”I knew him primarily as a shooter and I was excited to have that kind of player coming onto our team,” said McLean, whose team was scheduled to face Dunellen in the opening round of the Destroyers holiday tournament on Thursday. “When he first got into our school, we had some players at the Eastern Invitational Camp and I saw him there and saw the way he took the ball to the basket and could put it on the floor.
   ”He also has real good vision and has had games with four or five assists for us. And he’s also had a game with 13 rebounds, which for a guy who is 6-foot tall and mainly known as an outside shooter is pretty impressive. He’s really shown his willingness to go the extra mile to win games.”
   And the Panthers have shown that when they put it all together, they can win games with the best of them. In the week prior to Christmas, the Panthers posted wins over South Hunterdon, Allentown and Oratory Prep, with Rogers averaging just over 20 points per game in the wins.
   Joe Rogers is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
   ”It’s been much better than I expected,” Rogers said of his switch of schools. “Everyone has been nice and Paris is a great coach. I get along really well with my teammates and that makes it easy. I’m very happy with everything so far. School is going well and that was the main thing. And basketball has been going well.
   ”It’s a lot different. I don’t know a lot of the teams that we’re playing or any of the players on the other teams. So I don’t know what to expect when we go into most of our games.”
   Rogers has enjoyed the up-tempo game that the Panthers have played through the first few weeks of the season. In fact, as a team, PDS averaged nearly 70 points a game in the first seven wins.
   ”I never played for Coach (Jason) Carter at Princeton, but they seem to be playing a similar style this year, which is more up and down the court,” Rogers said. “For me it is a much better style. There is a lot of freedom and we try to run when we can.
   ”We have a bunch of different players that can score for us.”
   And Rogers is at the top of that list right now. McLean came in hoping to be more up-tempo with the kind of team he had. So far, it’s worked well.
   ”Especially for a kid like Joe, if we push it and take the ball to the basket, that’s what we want to do,” McLean said. “And if it’s not there we can kick it back out to one of our shooters. We have a lot of weapons on offense. Joe can create and is also a good shooter. Kenny is another player who can create. And when we get Antoine (Hoppenot) back, that’s another option we’ll have.
   ”We knew we had the pieces of the puzzle if we could pull it together.”
   McLean is happy to have Rogers as one of the pieces of that puzzle.
   ”I think it was the right move for him,” McLean said. “Another year will help him. Now he has two years to reform his game and figure out what he can do well. He has a whole other summer to go through the AAU circuit and work on his game. The extra year will open so many more doors for him.”
   And two years for McLean to benefit from his presence, not just on the court, but off it as well.
   ”He’s a great kid off the court,” McLean said. “I teach second grade and he volunteers with me in class three or four days a week. He helps them with their math and assignments. He takes time with the little ones and that is something he does on his own. He’s part of the volunteer program and being a new student in the school he’s taken time to work with the young kids.”