February 10, 2006

Student of the game

Roupp’s hard work pays off with banner season

By Joe Zavala
Ashland Daily Tidings

Jamie Roupp can’t change the past, but she’s doing everything in her power to keep history from repeating itself.

On Feb. 25, 2004, the Ashland High guard toed the free throw line with 38 seconds left in a second-round state playoff game at Tigard. The Grizzlies were down by one and in desperate need of a clutch shot, but Roupp, then a sophomore, clanked both freebies.

Ashland High senior Jamie Roupp has refined her game since her freshman season and now is one of the leading contenders for the Southern Oregon Conference Player of the Year award. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings

Moments later, Tigard was celebrating a 52-51 victory and Roupp was forced to deal with an agonizing finish to an already frustrating, injury-plagued season.

“That was the worst feeling in my life,” said Roupp, now a senior with a reputation for making clutch plays. “I’ve never felt like that and I will never forget what that felt like.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

If it does, it won’t be for lack of effort.

Even before that heartbreaking loss Roupp began the process of rebuilding and refining her game. She started prior to her sophomore season by taking individual lessons from local basketball guru Anthony Levrets and has stuck with it ever since (Roupp, in fact, still finds time during the season to work out with Levrets in addition to her regular AHS practices).

Levrets, an assistant for the 10th-ranked Southern Oregon University men’s basketball team who’s tutored most of the players on Ashland’s roster, has helped transform Roupp. A powerfully-built 5-foot-9 point guard, Roupp has always been able to out-muscle most of her SOC counterparts, but over the past three years she’s added much-improved ball handling, one-on-one defense and a deadly outside shooting stroke to her ever-expanding repertoire. And yes, her free throw percentage is also better, currently hovering around 70 percent in league games.

The result is a new, better Roupp, one equally capable of burning opponents with her braun as she is with her brain. She’s done plenty of both this season. Roupp leads the fourth-ranked Grizzlies (20-2) in virtually every major statistical category entering tonight’s game at Klamath Union, including points (12.5 per game), assists (4.5) and steals (2.4).

Roupp the leader

As impressive as those numbers are, Ashland head coach Ken Lathen says it’s Roupp’s on-court leadership that separates her from most of the players he’s coached. Propped back in an office chair after an early-season win, Lathen shook his head in admiration while describing the ferocity with which Roupp imposes her will to win upon the team.

“I’ve been coaching for a long time and someone of her stature as a leader is extremely rare,” Lathen said. “This girl makes things happen. She doesn’t just make it happen, she plans for it to happen and then makes it happen. In 30 years of coaching boys and five years of girls I’ve had three players that are her caliber as a leader, and she is a better leader than the other two, so she is phenomenal and she’s rare, and very special.”

Those comments are reflected in Lathen’s substitution pattern. He rarely sits Roupp and several times this season has played her the entire 32 minutes.

It’s easy to see why. Even when she’s not scoring, Roupp’s impact is undeniable. A common sight during Ashland games is Roupp calmly dribbling to the Grizzlies’ bench, taking instructions from Lathen, then relaying the orders to the rest of the team, which then runs through the play while Roupp directs traffic.

“It’s kind of funny,” Roupp said while icing her knee after a recent practice. “Sometimes I try to sit back and watch and not be really involved — let somebody else on the team do things I usually do.” Then she smiles, and adds, “I can’t do it. I think my personality is really starting to show on the court more than it used to.”

Of course, individual skills alone don’t always translate into great floor leadership. Floor leaders must also know the offense, the defense, the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. They must know the game plan inside and out and be able to execute it under duress, such as when crowd noise prevents communication with the bench.

In short, great floor leaders are essentially coaches in gym shorts. This isn’t a problem for Roupp, whose most important contributions rarely show up in the box score.

“She has an understanding of the game unlike any girl I’ve ever been around,” said Levrets, who has spent countless hours in front of flickering TV screens with Roupp, breaking down game film and evaluating her performances. “She’s going to be a great coach some day if she wants to be. I’ve worked with probably 100 girls and she is far and away the most basketball-savvy girl that I’ve ever seen.

“She just loves to play and she has an unquenchable thirst to learn about the game. She asks more questions — for a while she just drove me nuts asking so many questions.”

Eventually, Roupp hopes to be answering questions — as a college coach with a program of her own. To that end, she already has a leg up. For her senior project, Roupp (and teammate Rheana Laipply) helped direct a summer basketball camp for high school-age girls. Recently, Roupp

took advantage of a similar opportunity when she was asked to help former coach Steve Humann run a middle school girls’ traveling team practice.

As far as college is concerned, Roupp still isn’t sure where she’s going next year but says she’ll definitely be playing basketball there.

Next challenge

Regardless, Roupp soon will say goodbye to her high school playing days and a spectacular three-year run that saw her go from solid substitute to first-team all-SOC all-star (last season) to SOC Player of the Year candidate. The Grizzlies, already the winningest team in program history, are tied with Roseburg atop the SOC standings with three games left in the regular season. If Ashland takes the top seed, it would likely need just two home playoff wins in order to advance to the elite eight, March 2-4 at the Chiles Center in Portland.

The potential is there for a special postseason run, but the unofficial team spokesperson isn’t about to make any bold playoff predictions. Instead, Roupp says the Grizzlies need only focus on themselves and the rest will take care of itself.

“We’ve always been friends, but I think we’re starting to really play like a team and have fun out there together,” she said. “I honestly see improvement every day for our team, and it’s so exciting to see each person on your team stepping it up in a different way.”

And what if she finds herself at the free throw line at the end of another playoff game? If Roupp feels the pressure, she’s not showing it.

“It’s not like anyone has too much on their shoulders,” she said, again shifting the focus back to the team. “Everyone has their part and when everyone does their part it’s fun basketball.

“We’re doing what we all pictured we could do. A lot of times you reach for the stars and maybe you’ll catch them.”

Sports editor Joe Zavala can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 3020 or joe.zavala@dailytidings.com.