Brett Carroll
Staff Writer
The Edison High School girls’ basketball team is optimistic as the Eagles enter this season after winning 17 games a year ago.
The Eagles lost to Westfield High School, 55-51, in the quarterfinals of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state tournament, but head coach Frank Eckert believes that his team can go on to do greater things this season.
Edison ended with a 17-11 record last winter.
“This year, we’re going to look to make a run,” Eckert said. “We have a lot of our girls back. We happened to start four freshmen a few years ago, and they’re all juniors now. I believed they learned a lot and we’re looking to them to carry us, so yeah, I think we can me a run.”
Eckert hopes that the effort that he is pushing for his team to play solid defense will be the key to winning more games this year.
“Defend,” Eckert said. “Defend. Box-out. Do all the little things that it takes to win. That’s our main goal.”
Eckert has skilled players who he feels will be a big part of the team’s success.
“Samira Sargent,” Eckert said. “She’s our junior shooting guard. She’s 315 points away from scoring 1,000. Daniella Marmol. She’s our junior power forward. We’re looking for her to have a double-double almost every night. We’re going to need that in order to succeed. And our senior guard Virginia Lagameo. She’s a shooter. We’re looking for her to score 10-15 every night, too, which she’s definitely capable of getting.”
Eckert will also rely on juniors like Kenisha Chester, Kara Guno, Lourdes Marasigan, Gabrielle Moreno and Victoria Nelson. He will also call upon sophomore Madison Ruddy.
Marmol believes that Edison will be factors on offense, but wants the team to really key in defensively.
“We have to go out there and play hard,” Marmol said. “Our defense really brings us together. We focus on our defense to dictate our offense.
“When we’re on offense, we’re not really worried about our offense as much, because we’re all expected to hit our shots,” Marmol added. “I’m expected to dominate in the paint. The girls are excellent shooters, so I know I have them outside. Our defense is what we have to focus on the most. Help defense. Talking and communicating in general.”
Both Sargent and Lagameo have high expectations for the season.
“I expect us to do well,” Sargent said. “I expect to win in the championship, and do whatever it takes to beat the good teams.”
“I expect the team to play at the highest level at all times,” Lagameo added. “I expect to win our first game first, since it will be a hard competition. But eventually, I hope to make it to the Greater Middlesex championship and win it.”
“We have to talk a lot,” Sargent said. “We need to communicate when we’re playing. Box-out, and do all the little things.”
“I think we need to communicate and practice hard,” Lagameo added. “If we practice hard, we’ll play hard, so we definitely need to hone in at practice.”
