CARROLLWOOD DAY SCHOOL GIRLS GO UNDEFEATED

By STEPHEN HAMMILL

The girls’ basketball team at Carrollwood Day School was as green as green could be coming into their first year in existence. Seventeen wins and no losses later, they were unexpected champions.

Karim Nohra is the head coach of the Patriots, the middle school girls’ varsity basketball team at Carrollwood Day School, 1515 W. Bearss Ave.

The school hired him to build the girls’ basketball program from the ground up. The school is in the process of creating its high school athletic program. Nohra began with the seventh- and eighth-graders in the hopes of carrying them through to the next level with a running start.

To the surprise of the coach and the school, the Patriots proceeded to go undefeated in all competitions this year. The feat is all the more noteworthy considering the lack of experience on the team. Only two of the girls had ever played organized basketball before.

“The sensational six – that’s what I called them,” said Nohra. The six are Abbigail Kaczmerek, Ganice Macho, Colby Maffei, Taylor Magnan, Maddie Peek and Taylor Tippett.

Eighth-grader Macho has been playing basketball since she was 9, but for most of the girls, this was a brand new experience.

“We were cheerleaders also, but it’s more fun wearing the shorts than skirts,” said Peek.

“It was a fun experience. I’d never played before,” said Taylor Magnan, who also plays softball during the year.

“I play one sport every year,” said Maffei, the team’s leader in steals. Two of the seventh-graders also play soccer.

In an effort to get the girls up to speed, Nohra held two-hour practices every day after school during the season, teaching the fundamentals.

“We focused on defense and running the floor,” he said. The girls all chimed in that the running drills were the toughest challenge.

The team’s motto this year was, “No doormats no more!” Despite the lack of game experience, the wins started mounting, and once the team saw the success, it became easier for Nohra to encourage them to strive for more.

“Part of the problem with girls is sometimes they get on the court and they’re too passive,” he said. “We taught them to be aggressive. They flew everywhere to get the ball.”

In fact, according to Nohra, the girls were competitive with the boys’ team at CDS. They also played games against a high school team from Tampa Adventist Academy in preparation for the championship run.

The Patriots belong to the Florida West Coast League, in the blue division. The league comprises 20 private schools in the area.

“Our championship game had a lot of people,” said Macho. A CDS pep squad made of second-, third- and fourth-graders, called the “squirt squad,” came out to cheer the team on during games, and rest of the campus soon followed.

“It was fun for everyone to watch them,” said Trudi Buscemi, the school’s principal. “The parents were amazed.”
As the team’s winning streak grew, so did their cohesiveness.

“When a group of six girls bond together like that, it’s something special,” said Bitha Wodrich, the school’s athletic director.
Nohra is a professor in the college of engineering at the University of South Florida, where he teaches civil engineering classes during the day. Coaching young kids is a love that dates back almost 20 years.

He started coaching girls’ basketball in 1990, at Tampa Catholic High School. Before that he had coached junior-varsity boys’ teams. The Carrollwood Day School athletic department came calling last year, recruiting him to head up the burgeoning girls’ basketball program.

Nohra thinks too many boys want to wow crowds and fellow players, while the girls are more interested in perfecting the fundamentals of the game.
“I’m a teacher by trade. The girls are like sponges; they want to absorb what you say.”

“We just needed to get players to come out and join us – to build a first-class athletic program to go with the great academics here.” Nohra said.
Headmaster Mary Kantor agreed.

“It’s been highly successful. We’ve brought coaches in with lots of experience,” she said.
Kantor also noted that the girls’ parents have been supportive.

“They’re all very excited about how much they’ve learned under him,” she said. “They played their hearts out.”

Mackenzie Vidonic is Nohra’s assistant coach. An education major at the University of Tampa, she’s worked with Nohra for the past five years.
“Coaching is something I want to get into in the future, and he’s the best,” Vidonic said.

“Did I expect us to go 17-0? Absolutely not,” Nohra said. “For us to go undefeated is a major accomplishment, and now that they have tasted some success, they know what it takes to succeed,” he said.

Macho, the team’s leading scorer for the year, said she plans on continuing with basketball in the future. The others are less sure, but they all relish the time spent together, as a team.

Founded in 1981, Carrollwood Day School, a secular private school, has grown to include elementary, middle and high school classes. The nonprofit school is governed by its own board of trustees.

The elementary and middle schools moved to the new CDS campus on Bearss Avenue in January. The grounds feature a 92,000-square-foot main structure that includes classrooms, labs and a tutoring center. The school is currently without a gymnasium. The Patriots used the Tampa Baptist Convention Center for its home games last year.

The high school classes currently reside in portables, as plans continue to build a new wing. Future planned improvements also call for a new media center and construction of a new gymnasium.

The high school itself plans to expand from about 40 students this year to 80 or 90 next year. Enrollment is currently open for next year’s high school classes.

Kantor and Nohra agreed that the young basketball program will provide an opportunity for incoming high school students who want to be on a team but don’t have years of experience playing for their middle schools.

The school’s football program is also under way. CDS fielded just a six-man squad last year, but with the hiring of a new head coach they aim to build it up to a full team in the near future.

Nohra hopes next year’s incoming high school girls will provide some depth to his squad, but he said he is ready to go back to work with his original six.

“We encourage character development here,” said Nohra. “If you want to be successful, there’s no other way to do it,” he said.

For more information on the school, visit http://www.carrollwooddayschool.org.