Nashua South’s Nicole De Jesus scans the floor during Tuesday night’s game against Pinkerton.
WHEN her younger Nashua South teammates ask how to make the team, Nicole De Jesus shares her story with them.
Through discipline and selflessness, De Jesus embraced her new home and overcame a language barrier to become a three-year varsity basketball player and a captain this season.
“You just can’t get comfortable,” she said after scoring a game-high 19 points in the Division I Purple Panthers’ 58-53 overtime victory at Pinkerton Academy on Tuesday. “You’ve got to be disciplined. I always care for my teammates. I don’t care if I score 20 points. … I just care about winning.”
The 5-foot senior point guard moved to Nashua from Puerto Rico five years ago, when she was 12 years old.
De Jesus did not speak any English when she enrolled at the now-closed Elm Street Middle School. A native Spanish speaker, De Jesus did not want to learn English, either, until she realized how it could help her while playing basketball.
Taking classes in English, along with getting help from teammates like senior Brooke Berger and sophomore Anya Challenger, strengthened her vocabulary. As she became more comfortable with the language, De Jesus’s on-court chemistry with her teammates improved.
“I struggled at first, but then when I got used to it, then it was easier for me,” she said.
De Jesus played on South’s junior varsity team as a freshman and earned her way onto the varsity team as a bench player her sophomore year.
Panthers coach John Bourgeois considers De Jesus one of the toughest defenders in the division and noted she was among the top 10 D-I scorers last season.
Against Pinkerton (1-1), De Jesus fought for rebounds and made layups even when battling 5-foot-10 Astros forwards Brooke Benz and Cara Mahn. De Jesus also went on an 8-0 scoring run as South (2-0) outscored the Astros 19-12 in the third quarter.
Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey called De Jesus “a helluva player.”
“When I was a freshman, I was on the JV team,” De Jesus said, “but I just wanted to play basketball and be better as a player and as a person and that just helped me go to varsity and then be the player that I am now. My teammates actually helped me a lot — and my coach.”
Alongside winning, De Jesus’s focus is providing leadership for the Panthers.
Bourgeois said he has enjoyed watching De Jesus develop from a JV player into a senior leader for the varsity.
“Nicole’s a blue-collar girl,” Bourgeois said. “We’re a blue-collar program. …More than anything else, her No. 1 thing was, ‘I want to be the best teammate that I can.’ I know people say that, but she acts on that and people feel that.”
Guard Rileigh Finneran the lone constant for Windham girls (2-0)
The Windham girls entered this season with a lot of unknowns, coach Todd Steffanides said.
One of the known commodities for the Jaguars, who graduated four starters and six seniors from last year’s semifinal squad, is junior Rileigh Finneran.
The 5-foot-8 guard is Windham’s lone returning starter and co-captain alongside senior forward Liz Grasso.
Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs described Finneran as a dynamic playmaker.
Finneran led Windham (2-0) in scoring in each of its first two games, tallying 17 points in a 66-31 win over Dover last Friday and 12 points in a 47-34 triumph at Winnacunnet on Tuesday.
“Rileigh, she can get to the basket,” Steffanides said. “She’s a great defender, gets a lot of deflections and steals. She’s improving her outside shot a lot so we’re excited for her potential season this year.”
Trinity boys headed to Malden Catholic for Christmas tournament
The Trinity boys will forgo the Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament this year in favor of Malden (Mass.) Catholic’s Christmas tournament. The Pioneers have traditionally played in the QCIBT.
Trinity coach Ray Farmer said he chose the Malden Catholic tournament over the QCIBT to gain more practice time for his team during the holiday break.
The 62nd QCIBT, which will run Dec. 27-29 (Saturday-through-Monday), features Division I Manchester Central, Memorial, Goffstown, Bedford, Exeter and Alvirne and Division II West and Sanborn.
The Malden Catholic tournament will be held on Dec. 27 and 28. Trinity will play Winchester (Mass.) on Dec. 27 and the winner of that day’s game between Malden Catholic and Bishop Guertin on Dec. 28.
Farmer said the Pioneers, who had six practices before their first game, will practice each day during the break with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas.
He is open to Trinity returning to the QCIBT in the future.
