The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THREE national team players - Ashley Moss, Shaunae Armbrister and LaShae Rolle - are back home from school for the Christmas holiday and they couldn’t resist the opportunity to take advantage of a training session with their local coach Anthony Swaby.

The trio went through a workout session at the DW Davis Gymnasium on Monday night and will be involved in a full scrimmage game with the other returning collegiate players and the other players out of the Angels basketball programme headed by Swaby, starting at 1pm Sunday.

Out of the Snow

Moss, a 23-year-old forward for the Hurricanes women’s basketball team at Holland College in Charlottetown, Prince Edward, Canada, who is returning to the team this year where she was joined by Bahamians Marvia Dean, another forward and guard Alexis Belle. She was sidelined with a left knee injury.

“I had a pretty good season,” said Moss, who is now recuperating from an injury that has hampered her progress this year. “For my first time away from home, it was quite a transition. But once I got over it, I was able to settle down and performed very well last year.”

She averaged about 20 points and was the Hurricanes’ leading rebounder. With a 3.5 average, Moss has attained her academic requirements and she’s hoping to stay consistent as she looks forward to closing out her stay at Holland College and venturing closer to home in college in the United States.

Having taken the necessary precautions by staying off her legs as much as possible so as to not re-injure herself, Moss said she’s slowly getting back to 100 per cent and is eager to return to Canada to “do some more damage. I’ve been out for a while and now I’m ready to go.”

Here until January 5, Moss said she intends to get in as much workouts with Swaby as she can because it was so difficult to do it at Holland College where “it was just snowing everyday. When I came off the plane, I was just so happy because all I had was snow and more snow.”

College Bound

A former student of CC Sweeting, 20-year-old Armbrister said she’s just getting started, but her season is still going very well at Darton State College.

“We have a solid record right now. We lost one conference game so far and won 12. All we have to do is keep progressing. We’re not trying to go backwards, not go forward,” she said. “We are trying to win the region and then the state title.”

Although she expected to perform a whole lot more on the basketball court, Armbrister said she has more than made up for her deficiency in the classroom and that has helped to supplement her performance in sport.

“I went in knowing a lot of the stuff that I did in the classroom, so it was kind of easy for me. All I had to do was follow instructions,” Armbrister said. “But it was a little different on the court. So hopefully when I go back, I can just continue to make my contribution as we move forward.”

Armbrister, who is now nursing a knee injury, has her sights set on getting into a major division one school programme next year. And although she already has some offers on the table, she has not yet sat down to decide where she would like to continue her career.

Good Old Home Cooking

Having left St Augustine’s College in 2012 to attend Life Preparatory Academy in Wichita, Kansas, Rolle is averaging 10.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.3 block shots, 1.3 steals and 0.5 assists per game through their first seven games where they are 5-2, including a loss in their last game.

“It’s been good so far. I’ve been learning a lot and I got to meet a lot of people from around the world. My school has about 30 different nationalities,” Rolle said. “At one point, I was ranked No.4 in Kansas as a sophomore, which was pretty good for me.”

Not only has Rolle being holding her own in her senior year on the basketball court, but she’s been a dominant factor in the classroom and could end up either being the valedictorian or the salutatorian, currently holding a 4.0 grade point average as she prepares to take her game to the next level in college.

“I have offers right now, but I’m just waiting to see how it goes,” said Rolle, who opted not to say exactly where she would like to end up next year.

Rolle, 17, admitted that she is so excited to be back home because she can now get some good “home cooking. Being up in Kansas, you don’t get that traditional food. You have to import the seafood because what they have there don’t taste the same.” She noted that she was craving for a cracked conch snack, conch fritters and peas and rice and macaroni.

Hopefully, by getting in some workouts under Swaby, Rolle said she won’t put on the excess weight from eating too much this holiday because when she returns to school, she still has about 15 more games to play to complete her basketball season and start preparing for college.

No Christmas Break

While here for the holiday, Swaby said he intends to keep the young ladies as active as possible in the gym.

“It’s good to have them home so that I can see where they are at,” said Swaby, who has stayed closely connected to his players no matter where they end up going. “The good thing now is you can go on line and follow them. It ain’t like people come and tell you they are doing this and doing that and you ain’t sure if it is true.”

Moss, according to Swaby, is a special player because of the way she has settled down and progressed academically.

“To me the important thing is when you walk out of school, you have that degree in your hand. Anything else is a plus,” he said. “They all have coaches looking at them to play elsewhere, but I don’t look at all of that. Anything they can get is a godsend. This is what you want for these kids.

“They are still enthused about what they are doing. Despite their successes, they still come home and practice and play on the national team. They are well grounded and they are always saying thanks. I think that’s the most important thing for me. That’s why I’m so proud of all of them.”