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| Mike
January 5, 2009
9:19:32 AM
Entry #: 3025080
| Just wanted to pass on an in-season update on Jessie, who helped coach the U-13 Cyclones last spring and was a major factor in the girls' improvement. Jess is a junior at Wentworth Institute of Technology and is off to a solid start in her season, averaging 11.6 ppg and 4.2 rpg through 10 non-league games. She was just named All-Tournament at the Bahamas Sunshine Shootout right before Christmas, a great trip for the girls and a great experience (they also went to Hawaii to play when Jess was a freshman).
The team is off to a rough 2-8 start mostly because of two factors - they've played a brutal schedule and they've been short-handed due to injury. However they play extremely hard and everyone feels they are well positioned for a great run in their D3 league, the Commonwealth Coast Conference.
One thing that Jess can be an outstanding resource for, besides skills and drills, is in the college selection process. I know many Cyclones aspire to play at the next level, and finding the right fit is critical. With Jess it was a pretty simple process because she knew she wanted to major in Interior Design and play basketball. Next is was visiting schools that offered her major and where she could play (and be recruited). It's amazing how quickly things sorted themselves out until, before senior year, she was down to five schools. After that it was finding the best degree program combined with the right coach and teammates, weighing things out, and making a decision. This was all a very exciting and fun process which we turned into lots of cool family vacations.
We are thrilled with Wentworth because it is just right for her. It is a very rigorous BS degree program with 3 CO-OPs built in, and she gets to play a lot. She is among several local girls having excellent college careers. Both Alice Mullen (SK) and Jen Knott (Narragansett) are at RIC. Piper Chapman is a fresman at Easter CT and seeing significant playing time. And Allegra Lavoie (Chariho) is wrapping up a great career at Salve. It's a short drive to see one of the best (and certainly most entertaining) players at any level in the Northeast going to the hoop at Salve.
Jess hopes to be able to help with the U14 team again this year, but we haven't quite worked out how that can happen since she will be living in Boston. In any event, she has told me she is always available to help especially with advice on how to find the right college fit for you. her email is coffeyj1@wit.edu.
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