The Monroe Township High School girls’ basketball team may be young and undersized, but the optimism is high this winter.
Coach Leigh Vogtman hopes her young Monroe team will come in and learn on the fly this year.
“We’re a young team,” the coach said. “My first expectation is that these kids work hard. They need to come in and strive for improvement every day. It’s going to be a learning process throughout the year. Over the past couple years, we’ve graduated some pretty talented and athletic seniors. So we have a whole new crew in here, and we’re hoping that these guys can come in and get the experience that they need to move the program forward.”
Monroe comes off a 9-18 season and was eliminated in the opening round of the Central Jersey, Group 4 state sectional tournament by Middletown High School North, 61-43.
Vogtman knows her team will have to work harder than its opponents to be successful, stating the team’s lack of size will be a factor going forward.
“We’re a bit undersized for our division,” Vogtman said. “So we need to make sure that we’re doing our best to keep possession of the basketball. Work hard to win possessions. Execute on the offensive end. And be scrappy on defense.”
Vogtman will count on two seniors to guide this youthful squad.
“We have our two senior returnees: Dyliany DeLeon, who’s a senior guard, and Angela Oskierko, who’s my other senior guard,” the coach said. “They obviously have the most experience on the team, so we’re looking forward to their leadership to help move this team in the right direction. I have a group of sophomores that have been playing together for a long time, so I’m hoping that they turn the corner this year. And I have a bunch of freshmen coming in that we’re happy about.”
Oskierko and DeLeon are optimistic about the Falcons’ potential this season.
“I think we’re going to be a really good team,” Oskierko said. “Hopefully, we’ll be very competitive with other teams. We’re a very small team, but we’re very quick, so we’ll use that to our advantage.”
“We’re going to be very fast,” DeLeon said. “I think we’re going to be very scrappy. We’re going to be one of those teams that never give up, and we’ll battle till the end.”
The seniors believe they must be sturdy in all aspects of the game.
“We’re really going to have to box out and be scrappy,” Oskierko said.
“We’re going to have to be tough,” DeLeon said. “We need to really execute our plays and play hard defense.”
The Falcons started their season on Dec. 15 at home against John P. Stevens High School. Monroe will travel to Edison High School on Dec. 21 at 7 p.m.