Fitzkee, seniors have Bulls girls riding high at 11-1
When Ellen Fitzkee took over the Hereford girls’ basketball program this winter, she knew most of her players were more focused on other sports, but they were athletic and that fit right into the former Towson University coach’s style, emphasizing full-court defense and rebounding.
The combination has the Bulls off to one of the best starts in school history at 11-1.
“Basketball for most of them is not the first sport, but they’re athletes and so they understand competitiveness and they understand grittiness and I think they were always a scrappy-type team, so I’m just taking that and using it on the full court. You can bring defense and you can rebound every night with heart and hustle," Fitzkee said.
Having eight seniors, including seven who return, also has been key, said Fitzkee, who coached the Randallstown girls for three years and took them to the Baltimore County title game in 2007 and 2008.
Although the Bulls fell to Catonsville, 54-43, in the third game of the season, they have beaten some of their toughest rivals in the county’s Class 4A-3A Division, including tight wins over Dulaney, 31-30, and Milford Mill, 50-46 in the last two weeks. Before that, they edged Maryvale, 54-52.
Four seniors start – Marieke Oosterwijk (9.9 points per game), Rebecca Silver (7.2 points), Megan Bell and Michelle Oosterwijk. Their top scorer is a junior, Julia McLaughlin, a 5-foot-11 forward playing center with 12.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.7 blocks a game.
The bench also gets a good share of playing time, adding 10.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 4.8 steals a game.
The statistic that really stands out on the team, however, is steals. The Bulls average 25. Marieke Oosterwijk leads the way, averaging 4.9 while Bell has 4.4 per game. Fitzkee also keeps track of the tips and deflections that lead to steals.
With that swarming defense, Fitzkee said, “the idea is regardless of our shooting percentage – if we just shoot OK – we should win most of the games and that’s really been what’s driven the team.”
The chair of the guidance department at Hereford, Fitzkee moved from Randallstown to Hereford in 2009 but didn’t take over the Bulls program until former coach Dave Schreiner decided not to coach this winter. She coached the last of her 13 seasons at Towson in the winter of 2000-2001, having been named all-conference Coach of the Year twice.
Now, she is preparing the Bulls for a second half that includes a game against No. 12 Woodlawn as well as a rematch with Catonsville.
“We’ll hopefully have more in terms of systems in -- in terms of offense and defense -- toward the end of the year,” Fitzkee said. “Hopefully, players will have developed fundamentally and that’s the other thing we’re working on, getting these players developed fundamentally from top to bottom so that we get better as a team.”
The Bulls next play host to Patapsco on Friday night at 7 p.m. for their annual Think Pink breast cancer awareness and fundraiser night. The teams will wear commemorative shirts and pink shoelaces. Gate receipts will be donated to breast cancer research.
“When I said I was going to be coach back in the fall," Fitzkee said, "the kids came to me and said, ‘This a real important event for us. We’ve done something but it’s not been organized,’ and so Marieke is kind of the organizer with the rest of the seniors. They went out and got sponsors, so we have some corporate sponsors. It’s something the kids really, really wanted to do and they’ve done all the work on it.”
