'I Don't Think It's Fair'

Anyone who knows Regina Rogers, the highly sought after, 6-4 post from Seattle, Wash., knows she is articulate and has many opinions. She shares many in an interview with HoopGurlz.com that covers topics from her treatment by referees to the distraction of the scandal at her high school, Chief Sealth, to her recruitment ("I'm behind," she says).

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
LAS VEGAS - Near the end of a game in which Regina Rogers decided to take over - so she did - a defender from Big Sky, a team out of Montana, tried a tactic Rogers would later say wasn't so original. After biting on a Rogers fake, the defender literally jumped on Rogers' back. Rogers shrugged her off like a mosquito and powered through for a layup. Rogers raised her hands, questioningly, but the referees' whistles remained silent. A parent screamed, "She rode her like a horse!" The bench of Rogers' team, Tree of Hope, erupted in protest.

After the game, an atypically narrow win for Tree of Hope, Rogers went for what she felt was her only recourse - she asked one of the officials about the non-call.

"Most of the refs know me by now," Rogers said after a Sunday afternoon game in the Main Event viewing tournament. "I've played in this tournament three years. so they know me here. She (the official) said, 'We know what kind of player you are. You just need to play through it.' I don't think it's fair, but I can't help it. The only thing I can do is ask about it. I just have to keep playing."

Rogers makes a high-post lob

The fairness issue has been with Rogers long enough that, like taxes or parking meters, she doesn't like it, but has learned to pay the price. The price for what? The price for being bigger, in both a literal and figurative sense, than everyone else. Rogers, who attends Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, is 6 feet 4 and has shoulders as wide as the Puget Sound. She also is the very visible, very vocal foundation of two straight Washington state championship teams.

And like the rest of society, basketball is not always kind to its giants. Most of Rogers' games are rodeo shows, with any number of defenders hoping on for a largely free ride. Most rumors that fly about players in regard to the recruiting scandal that embroiled Chief Sealth are linked to her. And then there is the summer recruiting circuit, into which Rogers leapt with a fast-falling stock because she was thought to be - take your pick - too lazy, too out of shape or too indecisive about where she even wants to play her college ball.

Rogers, articulate and full of opinions she is willing to express, on and off a basketball court, did not flinch when any of the aforementioned were placed before her.

Fueling the talk about her indecision, Rogers says she is "wide open" in her recruitment, mostly because her high-school coaching staff, she says, did not talk to her about the recruiting process (ironic since coach Ray Willis and his staff made much of their ability to land college scholarships for their players). She only started the process with her club-team coaches early in the summer. As such, Rogers says, "I'm behind."

From here, Tree of Hope travels to Anaheim, Calif., and Rogers hopes to take advantage of the geography and start making unofficial visits. UCLA is one school she mentioned. She otherwise is guarded about naming schools, though a source close to her says Rogers has narrowed her list to about 10. Even if that is true, Rogers still qualifies as being "behind."

Both the style of coaching and scandal at Chief Sealth have taken a toll on Rogers, she says. The Sealth staff did not focus much on conditioning during the season, Rogers said, worrying instead about players getting injured. Consequently, she admits the talk of her being out of shape has been true, though she has been working out with a plyometrics trainer in recent weeks to remedy that.

Rogers finishes a coast-to-coast run

"I've heard that and I've tried to address that," Rogers said. "I've gotten better. Now I'm beating other big girls down the floor. I'm just not beating the guards. If that's what they're talking about, I don't think I can get there. You can't be perfect."

The biggest Sealth-related toll has been emotional, Rogers said. Sealth's coaching staff has been penalized for numerous recruiting violations and the district in which Sealth plays voted to force the school to forfeit its postseason games in 2005 and 2006, banned it from postseason play in 2007 and recommended that its two state championships be stripped. Contracts for Willis and his assistants, Walter Amos and Laura Fuller, have not been renewed. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is scheduled to rule on those penalties and appeals of those penalties on Monday, July 24.

"It's been distracting," Rogers said.

There has been talk that Rogers could be treated as a transfer to the Seattle School District and, as such, be relegated to junior-varsity play during her senior year. There also have been accompanying rumors that Rogers will transfer to another school, the most prominently mentioned being Renton. Rogers said she doesn't think she'll transfer and would play junior-varsity basketball, if she had to.

"I will play basketball," she said. "There's nothing else I really have to go after. I have MVP awards. I still have two state championships, no matter what anyone says. I just want to play basketball. To me, there isn't any difference between varsity and JV."

Some suddenly way undermanned junior-varsity coaches may beg to differ. Rogers is one of the most powerful players, nationally, in the Class of 2007 and forces opposing teams to commit a lot of defensive resources to dealing with her. She showed that on a national stage earlier this month, leading Tree of Hope to a championship in the Blue Division at the Nike Summer Slam, just outside of Chicago.

Rogers' performance in the Summer Slam also was meant to address the laziness issue raised by some college coaches.

"We played against some good teams, and a lot of coaches let me know that I played really well there," Roger said. "I feel like I left Chicago with a lot of people knowing my name."

That may not be fair, especially this late in the game, but at last it's true.

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