Coach Bert DeSalvo talks to the team. Photo Credit: Derek Torrellas
Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
Recruiting players for any team, at any level, isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially in women’s basketball head coach Bert DeSalvo’s case, who is doing all he can to help the Owls program become winners once again.
“I look for a level of toughness,” said DeSalvo. “Whether it’s mental toughness or physical toughness, one of the issues this team had prior to Courtney Burns [assistant coach] and I coming was availability. We want to make sure we have a deep roster.”
It’s been almost eight years since the Owls raised a National Title. Since then, the program has been through their ups, and downs. From reaching basketball dominance with a record of 34-2 under former head coach Joe Frager, the Owls only had two winning seasons under previous head coach Meghan Brown.
With Brown’s unexpected and unknown leave of absence, the Owls athletic program then hired Bert DeSalvo, who in his first year reached heights even the Northeast-10 conference committee didn’t expect by selecting them last in the conference in pre-season polling.
DeSalvo and his team finished the year with a 14-15 overall record, but an 11-9 conference record. For the majority of the season, the Owls were in the running for best team in the Southwest division record wise. It wasn’t until later in the season, where those late game mishaps in addition to a costly knee injury to captain point guard Mariah Hankton, came back to haunt the Owls.
But with a full year under his belt, and the season in the past, it’s time for DeSalvo to start recruiting players who can help this program and build a solid foundation.
Busy time of yr: Recruiting-Closing on house-Recruiting-2 year old-Recruiting-Moving-Recruiting. Hoop Life, wouldn’t have it any other way.
— Bert DeSalvo (@CoachDeSalvo) March 10, 2015
DeSalvo said recruiting takes time because there’s a lot of homework and game tape studying on players needed to determine if she is the right fit for his team.
“There are juniors that we’ve made offers to already,” said DeSalvo. “Basically there are kids we’ve seen last summer who were sophomores in high school. It could be a 2-3 year process. For me, I like to really get to know who I’m bringing in. It’s important you spend a lot of time with them because they are going to be a very big part of what we’re trying to do here.”
DeSalvo added, “I like to feel comfortable to with the kids we bring in.”
With the Owls season over, DeSalvo has already received three commitments. The first commitment is Trumbull High School’s, Amanda Pfohl who told the Trumbull Times that Southern is a perfect fit for her.
“Southern is a great opportunity for me to play basketball and it fits my academic needs because of their awesome special education program.”
The second recruit is Danbury High School’s Allie Smith. Smith is coming off her third consecutive Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference Championship [FCIAC]. DeSalvo’s final commitment recruit is Erin Rider, a six-foot-one guard from Clarkstown North High School in N.Y.
With the loss of seniors Mariah Hankton and Sydni Lester due to graduation, DeSalvo said this offseason is going to very important for player to improve and come back next season as improved players.
“We currently have three weeks off right now and we can’t discuss any basketball activities with them due to NCAA rules,” said DeSalvo. “But coach and I are banging our heads around to see where our players can get better. That’s the real challenge right now. We are just trying to help our kids get better heading into the off-season.”
