March 11, 2005

     SMITHFIELD -- At some point, Dede Fogarty's basketball career is going to come to an end. She's just not ready for it to happen this weekend.
     The senior guard from Middletown, Conn., hopes to play a major role Friday afternoon when seventh-seeded Bryant University battles No. 2 seed Bentley College in the first round of the Division II NCAA Tournament.
     Fogarty, who has become of Bryant's all-time greats over the last four years, has a bit of extra motivation this weekend knowing her next game could be her last.
     "It's more than an extra drive. I'm going to pour my whole heart out onto the court," Fogarty said. "It's starting to hit me that this could be my last game. People around me have been mentioning it all week in practice. I want to do the best I can to help the team win."
     Fogarty has helped the Bulldogs win a lot of games since her arrival in 2001 -- 75, to be exact, over the last four years. The 5-foot-5 guard is currently the sixth all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,298 points -- just 11 behind fifth-place Heather Chase. She led the team in scoring and steals this year and was recently named to the Northeast-10's All Conference Second Team.
     After a loss to Southern Connecticut in the NE-10 quarterfinals last week, Fogarty thought her career at Bryant was over. Mark Caruso, one of the team's assistant coaches, told the players they were a long shot to make it back to the NCAAs. On the night of the selection show, a group of players listened live on the internet and were shocked to find out they qualified as the seventh seed in the Northeast Region. Fogarty was more relieved than anyone.
     "I was jumping for joy," she said. "I had a very nice sleep that night."
     Now the time for resting is over. Fogarty is focusing on leading the Bulldogs on another deep tournament run reminiscent to the one they pieced together a year ago. Ironically, that also began with a win over Bentley. Fogarty is destined to keep playing and keep her career alive.
     "She's focused," head coach Mary Burke said. "Basketball has always meant a great deal to Dede, and while she's grown so much on the court, she's really flourished as a person in terms of maturity, understanding her responsibilities and what it takes to be a part of this team. She's meant a great deal to our success over the years."
     Fogarty has been playing basketball since second grade, so it's easy to see why she doesn't want to stop now. The game means so much to her. She played at Middletown High School and was a three-time all-conference selection and an all-state pick as a senior.
     Fogarty also played for Caruso on the Connecticut Starters AAU team for two years along with former Bulldog Tanya Iwanski and current fifth-year senior Lindsay Hermann. At the time, she was 18 years old, and Burke was intrigued by her speed and ability to run the floor.
     "The year before, we got Tanya and Lindsay from that team, so I went back to watch the team again because Mark had the kind of kids we were looking for," Burke said. "Right away, I was impressed with Dede. I felt she could play the up-tempo style we like and help us right away."
     Caruso helped get her to Bryant, then he was named an assistant coach later that summer. Having two former teammates, along with her old coach, made the transition much easier for Fogarty during her freshman year.
     "It was a big boost for me," she said. "I'm generally a shy person, but with them around me, I felt like I was home. It was definitely a big part of it."
     Their presence also helped on the court. Fogarty still had a long way to go as a player, but she knew the tendencies of some of her teammates. She knew where Iwanski and Hermann liked to get the ball in the post, so it was easier for her to find them during a game.
     As a freshman, she averaged 7.4 points and dished out 59 assists while playing in all 29 games. She continued to improve during her second year, most notably with her shooting and her ability to penetrate and pass into the paint. She shot 33 percent from the field her freshman year and 30 percent from three-point range. As a sophomore, she started 19 games and her percentages improved to 36 and 35, respectively.
     "My shooting was the main thing," Fogarty said. "Ask anyone who knows me. I was never able to shoot, and I used to practice a lot, but it never came. Finally, I started to improve. A lot of it has to do with confidence. I always had trouble getting the ball into the post, because in high school, I was the post player, and on the AAU teams, I'd just give the ball to Lindsay and let her do all the work. Now I focus more on passing, because I was horrible at it last year. I still feel like I could be doing better. I'm not fully comfortable with where I'm at, but I feel I've gotten to where I need to be."
     Burke also said the presence of point guard Tricia Guertin helped Fogarty's evolution. Guertin graduated in 2003 and was a solid point guard with great ball-handling skills, tremendous speed and a strong sense for where everyone was on the floor. She taught Fogarty the ropes in terms of how to get the ball inside and how to execute properly.
     "For her, it was all about understanding the level of competition," Burke said. "She had to learn the stepping stones when she got here, and Tricia was a mentor for her early on. She had so many more tools than Tricia in terms of athleticism, but she needed to put it all together."
     Fogarty still doesn't think she's a complete player, but she's as close as she's going to get with the Bulldogs' first tournament game lurking on the horizon.
     Burke said she's "one of the top seven or eight" players she's coached, which is quite an honor considering she's coached four of Bryant's top five all-time scorers. She also pointed out that Fogarty has worked hard each summer participating in the Greater Springfield Pro-Am Basketball League in Springfield, Mass., with Division I players.
     Whenever something goes wrong, she has people she can turn to for help. Caruso, who knows her better than anyone else, is there on the sideline, along with her stepfather, who attends each game and sits near mid-court offering words of encouragement - along with an occasional criticism.
     "Ever since I was little, he's been yelling at me and taking me to the courts to play," Fogarty said of her stepfather. "He's like the voice in my head. He says the stuff the coaches don't want to tell you. If I was horrible, he'll tell me, 'You were horrible out there.' When I do something I shouldn't do, I just look over there for the glance, and it helps calm me down a little."
     As she prepares for Friday's game against Bentley, she no longer needs outside sources of motivation. Everything's in front of her now. She's had a marvelous career - one in which she doesn't want to end anytime soon.
     Perhaps she'll play professional basketball overseas after college, which has been a dream of hers, but she's not sure what will happen in the near future. All she knows is that each win guarantees her one more game. That's all the motivation she needs.
     "I've been playing since second grade. It'd be hard for me to end it, especially knowing you have so much more in you," Fogarty said. "I feel that I can be one of the main contributions, but it's going to take a lot of hard work. I think we've all come together as a team, and when we do, it's hard to beat us. When it's all on the line, this team is going to work hard. We have to."