By Dan Murphy
Yonkers High School senior Lauren Rodican reached a significant achievement for any high school basketball player last week when she scored her 1,000th point. The basket came from a 3-point shot against Gorton High School, after which play was stopped and Lauren was congratulated by her teammates, coaches, friends and family for the accomplishment – which had never happened before at Yonkers Middle-High School.
Lauren has played on the YHS varsity team for four years, and has accumulated 1,000 points over four years. At 20 games per year, she has averaged 12.5 points a game for 80 games. Her high-point game was 30 points in a city tournament game last year.
How long has Lauren been playing basketball?
“Ever since I could walk,” she said. “When I was 3 or 4 my mom started singing me up for Woodlean Rec League and I took to basketball right away. I played CYO for St. Barnabas and the Yonkers Middle High School.”
Lauren attended School 5 for elementary school and her family are parishioners at Barnabas.
Both of her parents emigrated from Ireland so there was no love of basketball in the family, just a love of sports and getting involved and staying active. “Both my mom and dad put me into sports and I fell in love with basketball,” she said.
As captain of this year’s Yonkers Middle-High School varsity women’s basketball team, Lauren said she is happy with their record of 12 wins and eight losses, which gives them entry into the playoffs and a first round match-up against Peekskill, who they lost two close games to this year.
Lauren thanked her YHS Coach Megan Fitzpatrick for helping her improve her game. “She motivates me to be a better player and lead the team,” she said.
As a starting guard, Lauren said she loves shooting 3-point shots, and her favorite player to watch is NBA star Stephen Curry. “I like the way he shoots and I try to shoot it like him,” she said.
Going into the big game last week, Lauren didn’t even know she was close to 1,000 points until Fitzpatrick told her. “My teammates kept passing me the ball and telling me to shoot 3-pointers,” she said.” I finally got one in and they stopped the game and gave me that game ball. Looking back on it now I’m delighted. In my freshman year I didn’t think this would happen, but my coach told me I had the ability and I played every game hard and hoped for the best.”
What is Lauren’s advice for young basketball players to achieve greatness?
“Just keep practicing and shoot as much as you can and good things will come out of it,” she said. “Always behave on and off the court, and have respect for your coaches and other players on your team and the other teams. That will bring you a long way.”
Lauren is heading off to college in the fall, but she’s not yet sure where she will go. She hopes to get a basketball scholarship from a Division 2 school, like Concordia or Dominican colleges.
Congratulations on your achievement, Lauren, and good luck with your future!
Editor’s note: During the interview Lauren told me that two other high school basketball players in Yonkers this year have also achieved 1,000 points; one from Roosevelt and one from Gorton. We will be reaching out to them to hear their stories in the weeks to come.
