Recapping Rutgers Women's Hoops foreign trip to Croatia and Greece
In thinking of any place in the world to get a good workout in, how about the original site of one of the most famous sports competitions in the world?
That’s what the Rutgers women’s basketball team got to experience as part of their ten-day foreign trip through Greece and Croatia. On their first full day in Athens, the Scarlet Knights went for a tour of the Panhellenic Olympic Stadium, then had a workout on the track led by Glenn Cain, the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Many thought it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.
Head coach Coquese Washington, a self-admitted history buff, agreed, as being able to “stand on the winner’s podium and to walk through the mini-museum they have there, and you can see all the history from all the [Olympic] games from 1896 to the present, that was pretty inspiring for me.”
“People dream of doing stuff like that,” sophomore guard Mya Petticord, a transfer from Texas A&M, said. “For us to be doing a little workout there, it definitely opened our eyes to see the history of that place.”
“I just felt like I was in the first Olympics, like I was trying out for track,” senior guard Erica Lafayette said. “It was really amazing to see how far athletics and sports have come, being that it started there. If it wasn’t for this place we were walking on, we probably wouldn’t have an Olympics, or it probably would’ve started later, or probably wouldn’t be as successful as it is now. Just to walk through those halls and be a part of something and experience something like that was amazing.”
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There were plenty of other highlights on the trip besides just that first day, over the ten days the team spent abroad. Lafayette, the self-proclaimed energy-giver on the team, remembers leading the team on a sing-a-long as they walked through Croatia. The “Scarlet Harmony” even managed to impress some of the local residents, as Lafayette said they were even given some coins for their performance.
The harmony continued on the court as well, as the team went 3-0 with wins over the University of Regina in Greece, as well as the InCroatia All-Stars and ŽKK Buducnost Podgorica in Croatia. Chyna Cornwell led the way tallying three double-doubles, including a stat sheet-stuffing 12 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and five blocks in the 76-72 win over the University of Regina.
Petticord and North Carolina transfer Destiny Adams, the program’s two additions in the portal, also showed out in their first time playing with the team. Adams scored double-digit points in every game and led the team in scoring twice, while Petticord had multiple double-digit scoring games and led the team in assists twice. She said she is already filling that point guard role that Washington coveted over the offseason.
“That was my intention for sure,” she said. “When Coach Washington called me she said she needed a point guard, and that was the missing piece from last year. That was definitely the top reason why I came to Rutgers, because I feel more comfortable being a point guard.”
Washington echoed the sentiment, noting her leadership as well.
“Mya really has stepped into that point guard role for us,” she said. “She did a great job of leading our team and running the team. We struggled with our point guard play last year, so to be able to have her kind of pick up the pieces and pick up the gauntlet for us in that role was great to see.”
The second-year head coach also went through every other player on the roster and noted their improvements and contributions during the three games on the trip.
“I think I hit on every single player on the team,” she quipped. “I thought we had a really good summer, and I think it showed when we played in our games overseas.
The trip was not only important for the new players on the team to acclimate themselves, but for the new coaches as well. Jeanine Wasielewski and Nneka Enemkpali joined the team over the summer and had their first experiences with the team on the court in the three games.
“We got to understand Coach Nneka more,” Lafayette said. “It definitely brought different experiences to the coaching staff. Coach Jeanine wanted to be on curfew, but it brought us closer to them and to understand them”
“It gave us as a staff, and our support staff, time to get a leg up for how we want to be on gameday,” Washington said. “Getting to know Nneka because we didn’t know Nneka before she arrived here, so spending some time with her on and off the court, getting to know who she is, was really valuable.”
Sophomore guard Kaylene Smikle was the lone Scarlet Knight who was not on the trip, but Washington said she and the team are excited for her to rejoin the team in the fall and get back into the swing of things.
The trip even added some new perspective as Washington, Petticord, and Lafayette all echoed the sentiment that playing in the different environments and rules opened their eyes to a potential career overseas after college. The ten-day tour proved to be a great success in building team rapport on and off the court, as well as making some great memories to look back on.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” Lafayette said.
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