Greg Wall

A FAMILIAR FACE TAKES CHARGE: 2021-22 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SEASON PREVIEW

11/17/2021 7:13:00 AM

By: James McGlynn, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

Syracuse, N.Y. - When asked what she hopes to accomplish while on The Heights, first year Women's Basketball Head Coach Mary Grimes needs not a moment to ruminate - "National Championship. Period," says the former Division I do-it-all guard (770 career points, 228 rebounds, 220 assists and 123 steals while at Siena College). Grimes' newest addition to her staff, assistant coach Joanna Dobrovosky '18 immediately lets out a "Heck Yeah" from the adjoining office in response to her boss's statement. That's the kind of support Grimes has come to expect from the former Dolphins forward who tallied 156 blocks during her Le Moyne career.

"Her energy is second to none, and I knew that when I hired her, there's never going to be a dull day in the office, and she's held true to that. Her energy is really, really contagious and her love for Le Moyne is unbelievable. When we have recruits on campus that's what they say is that you can tell she loves this place," Grimes said of her assistant coach.

Dobrovsky is of course not the only coach on the staff with some history on The Heights. Grimes was notably an assistant coach under Jeanne Dupree from 2003-2005 and she returned as an assistant on Head Coach Gina Castelli's staff from 2017-2019, during which Le Moyne went 43-17 overall and 27-13 in conference, won their first-ever NE10 regular season and tournament titles and earned an NCAA tournament berth, advancing to the Regional Championship game for the first time in program history. As an assistant at Division I programs Albany and Syracuse in between those two Le Moyne stints, and most recently as an assistant coach at Xavier, Grimes enjoyed plenty of success, and gained the experience of helping devise game plans and defensive strategies to match up with some of the biggest stars in college hoops (Maya Moore and Paige Bueckers, to name a couple).

For the moment, Grimes does not spend much time thinking about what it means to get a head coaching opportunity at a place she knows so well - "I'm just living in the moment. Maybe when the season is over I'll have time to reflect, but I'm just focused on, how can we get better today, how can we win this game, that's been my approach." - but she appreciates that her level of familiarity and history with the College has aided her in the transition.

As far as first year head coaches go, Grimes has had a bit of a head start. Not only due to her familiarity with Le Moyne, but also due to the fact that she has previously coached five players on her current roster. Taliyah Countrymon (Dorchester, Mass./Cathedral), Gabriella Badway (Pittsburgh, P.A./Fox Chapel), Jenna Zimmerman (Adams, N.Y./South Jefferson), Erin Fouracre (Loudonville, N.Y./Colonie Central) and Emma Brinker (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) were all underclassmen on the 2018-19 Le Moyne team that made a run in the NCAA tournament with Grimes as an assistant coach. Now in 2021 they are all seniors, and Grimes has been impressed with their development since she's been gone.

"I think they have grown tremendously, not only on the court but off the court just in their maturity about the way they approach things, and their maturity has definitely shown on the court," said Grimes of her five returners from 2018-19. Grimes knows what a winning work ethic looks like, and to her pleasant surprise, so do her players.

"I feel like they understand the expectations I had previously, and then the expectations I have now, so it's made it really easy to transition. There's a lot of things I'm not having to correct, some small things that they understand there is a standard of excellence here, and what we're striving for is a National Championship."

The endlessly enthusiastic pair of Coach Grimes and Coach Dobrovosky are consistently buoyed by a roster of players that make coming to work enjoyable.

"I just enjoy the players, I enjoy coming in everyday,"said Grimes, "It's been awesome, there has been no day where I'm like 'this is a drag', it's been very exciting to see this group, and I'm excited to see how far we can go."

Grimes has the benefit of returning an extremely mature and experienced group of guards. Fouracre, who was second on the team in assists during the 2019-20 season, will handle a large share of the ball-handling and play-making responsibilities for the Dolphins.

"Erin's played the one and the two before, now she's mainly the point guard, but she's embraced it, and she's a leader off the court, so when she's directing the team on the court it's been easy and we have a lot of conversations because the point guard/coach relationship has got to be second to none, and she understands what I'm looking for, and even when she doesn't, she's a thinker, and I'm a thinker, so we're a majority of the time on the same page and she can communicate that to the team." Grimes said of her senior point guard.

Along with Fouracre, Grimes is going to rely heavily on junior scoring guard Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) to set the tone on both ends of the floor for Le Moyne. For a team that hopes to pressure the ball and get out in transition, Baker and Fouracre will be imperative to team success as dynamic, athletic, skilled and experienced back court players. Overall, the head coach has seen plenty of positives from her guard group so far this preseason.

"They've [Fouracre and Baker] been really good in the few scrimmages we've had, just their energy and work ethic. With Lexi Gruss (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton) and Gabby Badway, that's a good backcourt we have, a good rotation, so the level of play doesn't drop with that experience and it's exciting to see them flourishing with the press and getting out in transition."

With Gruss and versatile Davidson transfer Saeeda Abdul-Aziz (Schenectady, N.Y./Mohonasen/Davidson) the Dolphins are able to spread the court with dead-eye shooters.

"I recruited Saeeda when I was at Albany, and I recruited Lexi before I left, so it's exciting to actually be able to coach them now when I didn't have the chance to before, because I saw their potential in the recruitment process and then to be able to coach them and put the battery in their back and say, 'hey go do what you do.' - it's exciting to see. They are both going to play a major role this year, offensively and defensively," said Grimes.

Redshirt-freshman forward Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, N.Y./Holland Patent) is in a unique place in terms of experience. Due to the cancellation of the 2020-21 season, Roberts has been with the team for over a year now, but will compete in meaningful games as a collegiate athlete for the first time this winter. While Coach Grimes admittedly mentally still sometimes treats the second year student like a freshman, she's been impressed with the impact Roberts has had during the team's preseason scrimmages.

"In both the scrimmages we've had she's statistically been really, really good. Maybe seven points, eight rebounds, or you know, eight points, nine rebounds… so I think she'll be fine, she just has to learn the college game, the pace, the physicality - being physical without fouling. I'm excited about her."

Similar to her back court group, Coach Grimes returns plenty of experience in the front court with Brinker and Zimmerman. Grimes has high expectations for Brinker this season, and has been mindful of the 6'2' forward's health, emphasizing the importance of having her on the court throughout the season.

"She's a high-volume shooter and over her career she's shot over 50%, so we're definitely looking to get her the ball."

Grimes considers Zimmerman to be more of a 'silent assassin', providing value to the Le Moyne cause in ways that the casual fan may not notice, "She does a lot of good things, she may not have had the best offensive game in our second scrimmage, but she probably had four blocks. She's going to impact the game however she can in whatever way, whether it be offensively or defensively, and when she gets going offensively it's a good night for Le Moyne."

Grimes' team also benefits from the addition of local CNY high school standout Azariah Wade (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Grimes/Hartford). Grimes values the knowledge of the game and Division I experience that Wade brings to The Heights.

"I watched her play in high school and inside/outside she's a force to be reckoned with and will be tough to guard, so I'm looking forward to her getting back on the court when she's healthy," Grimes added on Wade.

The first year head coach is also excited about her first year class of players. The Le Moyne women's basketball freshman class consists of three guards: Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida), Carley Hill (South Burlington, V.T./Rice Memorial/New Hampton School) and Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth). All three have made a positive impression on their head coach so far this preseason.

"I'm really excited about Sydney… just knowing what she can bring to the table offensively, and her basketball IQ and understanding the game from a passing perspective but also a scoring perspective… Carley is a great shooter, and she brings that element to stretch the defense… Emily, she's just all-around energy. She uses her voice, she brings energy whether we're stretching, whether we're in a drill, that's what I'd love to see from her - bringing that energy throughout the season."

So as Coach Grimes stated in her D2 East Hoops New Coach Profile, "The cupboard is not bare by any means," however that is not to say that this year's Dolphins squad won't experience growing pains as they work to find their identity and try to develop into a team that can contend for an NE10 Championship.

"I think it's really tough, without playing for a year to say, 'Okay, this team is going to be at the top of the conference, this one's in the middle of the pack.' It's really hard to even say that because no one has played. Even for us, we have grown a lot, but we took a poll amongst our team - who's played college basketball, who's played significant minutes in college basketball, and we don't have a ton of experience in that respect… so you know that experience that we have, as far as maturity - yes. But as far as game experience I would say Jenna and Erin are the ones that have the most experience, so it's hard to forecast who's going to be where across the league. It makes it tough to prepare, but I'm excited about it."

Grimes' pre-existing knowledge of the College and many of the players, paired with the infusion of talent via the transfer portal, in addition to the talent pool returning to the team, with the added uncertainty and excitement of players entering into new roles for the team, all present a great opportunity for Head Coach Mary Grimes to continue to develop and implement her own unique coaching style and vision on The Heights.

As a player Grimes' basketball mind was informed and influenced by the likes of Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, Katrina McClain, Ruthie Bolton - "All those women that paved the way for basketball and had a major impact."

Grimes has long since made the transition to thinking about the game from a coaching perspective and now draws inspiration from recent gold medal winning coach Dawn Staley, Caroline Peck and Vivian Stringer - "Those are the women I look up to and think to myself, 'how did they get to the success that they got to?' And I hope to continue to inspire the younger generation of coaches like they inspired me," added Grimes

There are plenty of exciting matchups on the Dolphins schedule: A rematch of the 2019-20 NE10 Conference Championships Semifinals against Stonehill at home on January 8, an early-season conference contest at home against New Haven on November 20, and a matchup with Adelphi, who was voted atop the NE10 Southwest Division Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll, on February 11. Grimes however refuses to get ahead of herself.

"Honestly, I haven't looked past East Stroudsburg." Grimes is focused on taking it one day at a time, one practice at a time, and one game at a time, with an emphasis on continual, daily improvement.

As the Le Moyne College women's basketball team begins their 2021-22 campaign at Ted Grant Court on Wednesday, November 17 at 5:30 p.m. EST against East Stroudsburg University following a prolonged absence from meaningful competition due to the cancellation of the 2020-21 season, there is plenty of intrigue, and plenty of excitement, but a few things are for certain: The Dolphins are going to play hard, they're going to play fast, and they are going to enjoy themselves whenever they are competing together, wearing the Green & Gold.

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