When Andrea Innis was still a budding basketball standout, attending grammar school in her native Secaucus, she used to go to a lot of the Secaucus High School girls’ basketball games and watch and admire players like Cory Roesing.
“Growing up, I always watched the older girls and really admired them,” Innis said. “Cory Roesing was someone who I always wanted to model myself after.”
And with good reason, considering Roesing is perhaps Secaucus’ greatest all-around athlete of all-time, earning Hudson Reporter Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2007. Roesing ended her basketball career as Secaucus’ all-time leading scorer, both for boys and girls.
Little did Innis know that she would not only approach Roesing’s career scoring mark, but she would actually eclipse it.
“It wasn’t something I planned for,” said Innis, who went past Roesing’s mark of 1,791 career points last week and now has a career total of 1,865. “I thought I had a chance to get it at the beginning of this season, but I didn’t want to think about it too much and let it get to my head. But I knew it was a possibility. I didn’t know how far away I was until like a day or two before, but I guess it was always in the back of my mind.”
Innis also collected the 1,000th rebound of her career last week, joining Roesing in the 1,000-point and rebound club.
“I had no idea I was even close to the 1,000 rebounds,” Innis said. “I always hoped that I would be able to go out with a bang. I never want this to end.”
In recent games, Innis has been performing like a player who is refusing to allow her career to go away quietly.
She scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a win over Lyndhurst, added 26 points and seven rebounds in a win over Garfield, and had perhaps her finest all-around performance of the season, scoring 32 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, dishing off for seven assists, and collecting four steals in a tough loss to Immaculate Conception of Lodi.
For her efforts, Innis has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.
Innis’ scoring totals have always been solid, but what makes her rebound totals more impressive is that she has been playing the point guard position for the last two seasons.
“As the point guard, she has to take care of all of our ball handling,” Secaucus head coach John Sterling said. “She’s our best ball handler, so she had to play there out of necessity and she’s done a great job. We have to get the ball in her hands.”
But it means that Innis is also close to the basket at times, gobbling up rebounds as well.
“In all my years of coaching, I never had a girl get 1,000 rebounds,” said Sterling, who had a storied coaching career at Bogota before arriving at Secaucus four years ago. “Andrea is the total package. She’s had a remarkable career. We came into Secaucus together. She’s right up there with the best players I’ve ever coached and she’s certainly done more than anyone else.”
Sterling knew that he was getting a solid player in Innis.
“I knew she’d be a good player when she got here,” Sterling said. “I knew she’d have a good career, but I never imagined anything like this. The special thing about Andrea is that I can be harder on her that anyone else. Anytime something goes wrong, I am complaining and picking on her and she takes it all without even blinking. She responds to everything in a great way.”
Innis said that she was helped coming from a truly athletic family. Her three older brothers all played several sports in high school and college and her immediately older brother, Kevin, a football/wrestling standout at St. Peter’s Prep, was the Hudson Reporter Male Athlete of the Year last year and is now wrestling at Boston University.
“I think it was a great advantage for me, coming from an athletic family,” Innis said. “I got a lot of lessons from my brothers, how to succeed, how hard work and discipline pays off. Having them around definitely pushed me to do more.”
“They are an absolutely superb family,” Sterling said. “They all know nothing but success. Andrea is definitely a credit to her mom [Jo-Ann] and dad [Kevin, Sr.]. I can’t thank the parents enough for having the chance to coach Andrea.”
Despite averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists per game this season, the reigning two-time Hudson Reporter Player of the Year still has yet to receive a firm college offer to date. It is something that perplexes everyone in Secaucus, especially Sterling.
“I am really surprised by it,” Sterling said. “I don’t know if the colleges fully appreciate all that Andrea can do. Lately, more and more colleges have taken notice. I’m still hopeful she’ll get something.”
“I hoped it would all be figured out by now,” said Innis, who was selected to play in the New Jersey Scholastic Basketball Coaches Association’s North-South All-Star Game in a few weeks. “If it hasn’t happened, then there’s a reason for it. I know I have room for improvement and I’m working on things every day. I’m hoping that someone will realize that I can play at the next level. My speed is something I can work on and I’m definitely making that my priority in the off-season.”
Innis hopes to major in business, marketing or advertising in college.
She’s not about to allow the uncertainty of her future get in the way of what has been an extraordinary career.
“It’s definitely been unbelievable,” Innis said. “The last four years have been the best years of my life. It’s pretty hard to believe it all. It’s been great.”
Just as great as the legacy that Andrea Innis has now left for the next great star from Secaucus to emulate in the future. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also check out Hague’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.