Erickson set to make most of last shot
Bengals’ leading scorer says close calls past two years have team hungry
Ron Beaudoin is the third varsity girls’ basketball coach for Tamarac senior star Emily Erickson, joining predecessors Curt Bailey and Eric Medved. Although Beaudoin knew he inherited a pretty polished player in Erickson, he wanted to enhance other attributes in the fifth-year player.
“My goal was to get her to be the leader of this team. I think she is,” Beaudoin said. “In her last game, she did not score that much, but she was so positive — slapping kids hands during timeouts. It has been great to see her grow from the beginning of the season to now.”
“It has really been good with coach Beaudoin. We have a really good relationship together,” Erickson said. “We can talk about things we need to work on and not have any problems. We communicate well together. That is all I really need as a player.”
Erickson, despite shifting from shooting guard to point guard this season, ranks eighth in Section II this season at 20.1 points per
game. She is a huge reason why Tamarac garnered the No. 1 seed for the Class B sectionals. The top-seeded Bengals (16-5) begin pursuit of their first Section II Class B title since 2014 Wednesday when they play host to No. 8 seed Hudson (164) in first-round action.
“Everyone tells you that (your career) goes by quick, but you never really realize it until you are a senior,” Erickson said. “I can’t believe that it has already been that long. You definitely want it so much more as a senior.”
Erickson, who began her varsity career playing for Medved (currently the Tamarac boys’ coach) as an eighth-grader, helped guide the Bengals to the Class B final in both 2018 and 2017. Tamarac, however, dropped decisions against Voorheesville (2018) and Glens Falls (2017).
“It bothered me a lot because they were winnable. We were all really upset about it,” Erickson said. “This year, we want it even more because we’ve come up short the past two years.”
“I think last year is the one that stung the most because they felt they could beat Voorheesville in the finals,” Beaudoin said. “We have talked about the journey. It goes by in a blink. You don’t think about it and four months later, you are at the end of the season. I don’t think she really wants it to end. I really don’t. I think she is really enjoying her senior year.”
Erickson and the rest of the Bengals had to deal with adversity before things began as senior Renna Poulin, the team’s second-leading scorer as a junior, was lost to a seasonending knee injury.
“Everyone doubted us, even people in our school, that we wouldn’t do a lot without Renna,” Erickson said. “I think we have proven them wrong. This season, we’ve shown we can do a lot.”
“In the smaller schools, if you have two really good kids, you are going to win games,” said Beaudoin, who coached at Shaker last year. “With Renna gone, Emily was going to have to bear the weight of what happens.”
Erickson has risen to the challenge, improving herself as a playmaker while maintaining her scoring prowess.
“When you get older, you look at the game a different way,” Erickson said. “I have been with all of these girls since I was little on Biddy teams. This is our last chance together. We want it to end better than it has.
“I think I am a bit more composed than I have been in recent years and a lot more positive. On the court with my teammates, I try to lift them up when they are down.”
As a junior, Erickson joined brother Ralph (who played at Tamarac and La Salle) and sister Jenna as 1,000-point scorers. On Feb. 2 against Emma Willard, Emily Erickson passed her older sister to become the program’s all-time leading scorer when she scored 31 points in a 55-45 win.
“I have always tried to prove that I am not them, but they have also been my biggest supporters,” Erickson said of her siblings. “I know Jenna is proud that I did it.”
Erickson currently ranks 20th all-time in Section II in scoring with 1,724 points. The senior captain is pleased with that accomplishment, but she wants to achieve something her sister did as a senior: win the Class B title.
“It would mean a lot because we have been working so hard and I believe in my team,” Erickson said. “I believe we can pull it off.”