Highland’s Malak named Coach of the Year
Malak guides youthful Highland to championship season
Highland High’s young girls basketball team attained its championship level a little earlier than anticipated.
Highland High’s young girls basketball team attained its championship level a little earlier than anticipated, but that doesn’t bother Jim Malak.
“When you lose two of your primary players from last year, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out,” the Freeman’s Coach of the Year said.
With a starting lineup featuring three juniors and two sophomores, the Huskies won their first Section 9, Class B championship in three years and gave No. 2-ranked Irvington a scare in the regional semifinals.
“They were very experienced as far as their basketball ability, because a lot of them have played outside of the sport season,” Malak said about the team’s commitment to AAU summer ball. “They had a lot of playing ability under their belt already,
although they are a young team.
“The expectation was there for us to have a successful season and to try and go further than what we had done last year.”
Gone from last year’s team was Ali Rozzi and Katie McCutcheon.
“We lost Ali’s 17 points and Katie McCutcheon may have scored eight points a game,” Malak said. “Certainly the biggest thing was rebounding. I still think it hurt us at times, but I think we were able to overcome it a little bit as well.”
Highland, which went 16-8, was toughened up by a rugged schedule that included Warwick, Valley Central, Class A champion Cornwall and two against Class C titlist Pine Plains.
“I purposely set that up. I learned that just from coaching in general.” said Malak, who guided Rondout Valley to a state football title in 2000. “I remember, in the 90’s with football, that we
weren’t going to get better as a program until we started to play those Orange County teams.
“When we started the play the Warwicks and the Minisink Valleys, then we became a better team and a better program.”
The obstacle Highland had to overcome was Marlboro.
The Dukes, who reached the state final four in 2016, beat the Huskies three times last season and twice more this year. Highland drew the No. 6 seed for sectionals and a quarterfinal game at Marlboro. The Huskies beat Marlboro, then knocked off No. 2 Fallsburg and No. 1 Spackenkill en route to the title.
“We played very composed at Marlboro and that was the start of it, really, for us,” Malak remarked. “We were very competitive with them during the season, but we couldn’t get over the hump. I might have even said, ‘I don’t know if we can beat them,’ because sometimes it becomes a little more psychological.
“It gets into the minds.”
Brianna Rozzi had a double-double girls’
(23 points, 13 assists), Emily Peterson scored 13 points and Candace McCutcheon added 12 in the win. It was exactly the way Malak wanted.
“You always want to have contributions from everybody,” he said. “I remember saying that last year when Ali was on the team, that I’d rather have five people score 10 points than one person score 30. I think it just keeps everybody involved in the course of the game instead of standing around and watching.”
Malak recognized that “we were getting beat in the middle of the floor a lot” and slowly transitioned his defense to exclusively man-toman this year.
“We have some pretty good athletes. We have a couple of soccer kids who have very good footwork,” he noted. “Anytime you have girls who have good footwork, you can afford to play man-to-man.”
The Huskies got aggressive against Irvington, fighting for every rebound and loose ball and forcing the then 22-1 Bulldogs into 13 first-half turnovers. Highland led by as much as five points
and were up 25-23 at halftime. Irvington took charge in the second half to pull out the win and went on to reach the state finals.
The section crown might be a little ahead of schedule, but that plus the performance against Irvington gives a hint of what next season could bring.
“I thought it came a little early, but I’m glad it did,” Malak said. “We know we’re going to have targets on our backs. We got to be ready. We got to come out of the chute next year strong and ready to go and get a lot of people contributing.”
Malak has already begun thinking about the upcoming season with assistant coach Tom Rozzi, whom he praised.
“He works hard with the team in the offseason with the Triple Threat program and open gyms,” Malak noted. “It’s a credit to him. I wouldn’t be here without his help.
“We will come together for a team camp at SUNY New Paltz and a summer league at Ulster and then we go to a Bard league in the fall. With that, we can work on some things and get ourselves
prepped up for the season. Everybody has to step up now. There’s no questions about that,” he added.
“There’s no, ‘Oh, wow. That was a great game from you. I’m glad you stepped up today.’ Every game everybody has to step up next year. They got to come with a lot of energy and a lot of desire. I always tell them, ‘A lot of you have the skill, but no one can measure your will and you have to have the will to really be successful.’”
There was only one senior on the team. Next year, there will be nine.
“I’m going to find the right combinations of people. It might not be the same people that played this year. It might not be the same starters,” Malak remarked. “There may be other people that will step up next year for us, maybe pushing people out of the way or pushing in for some minutes. I think, potentially, we could be 10 deep. I like that. That’s a good feeling for us.
“I’m going to see who really wants to lay it on the line for us, because that’s what is going to get us to the next level.”