Grow the Game takes another step forward for women’s hoops

Women’s basketball is having a moment, and Teri Rodgers is proud that the Grow the Game Showcase is playing its part — and has been for five years now.

In Year 5, the annual women-centered event again set a record for participation and competition as it welcomed 49 teams for 33 games between Friday and Saturday, Jan. 3-4, across five suburban high schools.

Rodgers, New Trier’s hall-of-fame head coach, co-founded Grow the Game with three other Illinois coaches as a way to celebrate and empower women in sports, specifically basketball.

“What a great year in women’s basketball,” Rodgers said. “(Grow the Game) has been about getting exposure and showing what women can do in this game. You’ve seen it at the national level, and we’ve been doing this at the local level. That’s really what it’s been about, letting young girls see women leading, both as officials, coaches, themselves and what they can do in the game of basketball and sports in general.”

In its first year, Grow the Game welcomed 14 teams, a number that has climbed each year to the record total (49) this time around. Women coach, officiate and play each game. New Trier was again a host, along with Highland Park, Elk Grove, St. Ignatius and Yorkville high schools.

The Trevians took to the court on both days of Grow the Game, facing off at home on Jan. 3 and at St. Ignatius in Chicago (against the hosts) on Jan. 4.

Coming off a 3-1 performance, good for fifth place, at Dundee-Crown’s Komaromy Holiday Classic, New Trier (7-10) and its young roster had turned a corner this season and looked the part for three and a half quarters against Providence Catholic on Jan. 3.

The Trevians held a five-point lead on the Celtics in the final period, but they could not close. Providence made its shots down the stretch, while New Trier was off-target and took the 55-46 loss.

“We’ve had a lot of games like this,” sophomore Emerson Buck said of close finishes. “We just had a couple where we came back strong and had a great finish. I think this was just one where we had too many little things that went wrong and we lost some energy.”

Buck was one of three Trevians in double figures, finishing with 12 points. Fellow sophomore Victoria Wainscott led the way with 14 points and 6 rebounds, while senior Anna Rivera added 12 points and 3 steals. Wainscott was the Trevians player of the game.

A day later, New Trier took on one of the state’s best in St. Ignatius (13-2) and fell 54-33. Trevians senior Malena Riefe was selected as her team’s player of the game.

Despite the negative results, Buck said her team is ready to take on its remaining schedule, in part because of the Trevians’ dramatic finishes. Of New Trier’s 17 games, 10 have been decided by fewer than 10 points and six by fewer than six points.

“The Christmas tournament was a really big turning point for us,” she said. “We came together and played with a lot of really good teams. I think we’re really ready for the second half of the season, because we’ve had so many close games and we’re ready to make those close games turn out how we want them to.”

Rodgers expressed pride in her team’s recent results as well. She said the Trevians have bought into playing hard, which Rodgers said “has to be our super power.”

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