Malito, White lead Girard as tandem
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GIRARD - It requires plenty of skill, athleticism and confidence to accumulate double figures in two categories on the hardwood, having to fly everywhere at once. Feeding off of each other, while guiding a younger team, the duo of senior Mia Malito and junior Mackenzee White are averaging nearly a double-double a contest on a 12-8 Girard Indians team, 10-2 in the Northeast-8.
First-year coach Joe Bornemiss, a 1983 alum of Girard, has leaned on the duo during his first campaign at the helm.
"We started from the beginning in the summertime; it's a whole new coaching staff. We knew we were walking in with Mia, our lone senior, we really didn't know as a collective staff who else was going to be a part of this group, so we told them right from the beginning how we wanted to play, the style we wanted to play," Bornemiss said. "From day one, these kids bought into it. They conditioned hard and that's where we're at. We want to play fast, put pressure on teams, and see where we're at in the fourth quarter.
"(Malito and White) are great teammates with each other and great teammates in the locker room with those young kids. Those young kids were playing eighth grade basketball last year; now they're playing against Poland and South Range, a lot of good competition right now. To have (Malito and White) having their backs out there makes it a lot easier."
Malito averages 13.5 points per contest, adding 9.25 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 3.25 assists. White compliments that with 13.7 points, 9.25 rebounds, 2.3 steals herself on a squad that has 12 underclassmen on the roster.
As the Indians' only senior, Malito knew her role would be amplified even more with an uptempo style of play.
"That allows us to get a lot more steals, me and Ally Gassman up front on those presses, we get a lot of steals which results in points, just pressing them, getting a lot of rebounds and running down the court for layups," Malito said. "In practice (White) and I go against each other all the time. It's just a great competition to have at practice. Being able to play with her is amazing; she's such a great teammate and a great person. We push each other all of the time and always get looks to each other."
"It's a great opportunity. They're going to have this same team next year just without me, so I want to make sure that I'm showing them good things -- that I'm a good person to look up to, always practicing hard and playing hard just so they know that's what they have to do when they get up here."
White credits open lanes on the offensive end of the floor for the scoring success with Malito, while seeing a team that turned around following an 0-3 start to their winter.
"We have to find each other on the open ball, we find our whole team on the open ball when we can. Me and Mia kind of take it to the rim, what we're best at," White said. "When they shoot it, I just go up, go straight for the rebounds. I just got to look, get the rebound and push it down the court. Our whole team is moving up and down the floor really fast this year. We press the whole game and in the fourth quarter, we're still moving up and down the floor pressing, so conditioning worked out really well.
"We just tell the younger players what to do, and if they're lost on the court, we just kind of tell them where to go. We all help each other out on the court, sometimes me and Mia are lost out there and they help us too. Once I see her energy up, my energy goes up and we just kind of feed off each other's energy and keep each other positive."
Bornemiss added, "It's just been a blessing for me to come back to Girard. I told Mia, over the 30 years of me coaching there's probably five kids that I would have loved to coach for four years through my whole career. She's one of them, that's the kind of person she is.
"It's just nice to be on the floor and stand there, walk the hallways and see your picture up there from 1983, winning the MVC, and stuff like that, it's a good feeling."
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