Talk about your royal treatment especially for a Lady Royal Knight.
Emely Rosario was being heavily recruited by NCAA Division I Eastern Kentucky recently when they presented the Marist High School graduate with her own uniform, complete with her name and number.
“They were already ordering things,” Rosario said of her visit to EKU, located in Richmond, Kentucky, two weeks ago. “They had the uniform ready for me and I picked the number. The uniform was my size. I was impressed.”
That was all the talented Marist point guard needed to see. She signed her national letter of intent to attend Eastern Kentucky before she returned home. The recruiting of Rosario was over before it even really began.
“The campus is beautiful,” Rosario said. “They have a good business program and that’s what I want to study. I get along with the coaches real well. They are enthusiastic and humble. It all helped get me through the process.”
Rosario had received some interest from Mercy College and the University of Bridgeport, but it was the approach of the EKU coaching staff that pushed Rosario toward the Colonels.
Rosario averaged nearly 19 points, six rebounds and five assists last season as Marist enjoyed a breakthrough season under head coach Reggie Quinn. The Lady Knights posted a surprising 24-2 record and reached the Hudson County Tournament finals.
Rosario became Marist’s first Division I signee since Cristena Centeno signed with Siena in 2008.
Quinn was impressed how the recruiting process just stumbled across a player like Rosario.
“What I saw in her with the ball, she was a natural leader and played both sides of the ball,” Quinn said. “She was very unselfish. So I knew she can bring a team together with her unselfish play. It wasn’t easy. She’s really mentally tough. Over the years, she became the coach on the floor and I trusted she will always make the right play or give the ball to the right to the right player.”
Rosario said that when she was younger, she didn’t know the different levels of college basketball, namely NCAA Division I, II or III.
“When I was younger, all I dreamed about was playing in the WNBA,” Rosario said. “I didn’t know anything about levels. But once I did, I wanted to be a Division I scholarship player. I always had that in my mind. I knew it would be hard, but I managed to work my way through it.
Added Rosario, “I had to keep my mind focused on my goal. I wanted to play in college. I’m glad it worked out this way for me. Now I just want to go out there and show what I can do, both academically and athletically.”
Rosario was selected to the Hudson Reporter Girls’ Basketball All-Area First Team last winter.
“I think I worked on my mental toughness more than anything,” Rosario said. “Over the course of the summer, I just had to keep my head in there and eventually things would work out.”
Things have worked out so well that Rosario will board a plane this week for Kentucky to begin the next chapter in her life.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Rosario said. “It’s a great opportunity for me.”
Quinn realizes what a Division I product means to a program at a school that came dangerously close to closing its doors forever last June.
But Marist survived – and so did their girls’ basketball program.
“It shows parents if you send your kids to Marist, not only do you get a good education, but Marist sends girls off to play [NCAA] Division I basketball,” Quinn said. – Jim Hague.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
