The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Avon senior finding success with underhand free throws
Coaches credit Drenik for being open to unorthodox approach
The word courage is bandied about quite often in the sports world. Sometimes it is overused and sometimes it is misused.
This is one time where it fits. Meet Molly Drenik, a senior on the Avon girls basketball team who will be playing at John Carroll next year. She averages a double-double at 10 points and 10 rebounds per game, and she has a variety of moves in the post, making her a difficult matchup.
But there’s one catch — she struggles as a free-throw shooter. Midway through the season, Drenik had made just 8 of 27 free throws, just under 30 percent. Seven of those misses were either airballs or shots that hit the backboard without finding the rim, a violation that goes down as a miss.
“Every time she would go to the line, we were like, ‘Oh, God, we’ve got to get her to hit these shots,’” said Coach Maggie Ferrando. “She’s our inside player and she gets fouled all the time. She would go to the line, already looking like she knew she was going to miss. She didn’t even want to go to the line.”
Clearly, something had to change. It’s not as if Drenik didn’t put in the practice time on the free-throw line, but for whatever reason, she couldn’t make the ball go in.
“I definitely struggled from the line,” she said. “At that point I was willing to try whatever it took to be able to make the shots.”
The solution came from assistant coach Bob Steadley, who is Ferrando’s father and has been her assistant for 17 years through stints at North Olmsted, St. Joseph Academy, Walsh Jesuit and Avon.
“We were all agonizing for Molly when she went to the line,” Steadley said. “She was having all kinds of problems converting at the free-throw
line. So, we asked her if she would be open to some suggestions and perhaps an unorthodox approach and, to her credit, she said she was. Thus, the Rick Barry underhand free throw was introduced to Molly.”
That’s right, like a throwback to the 1950s and the movie “Hoosiers,” Drenik now shoots her free throws underhanded. Rick Barry — an NBA Hall of Famer from the 1960s into the 1980s shot free throws underhand. His career percentage just under 90 percent is fourth all-time in NBA history.
“When (Steadley) first approached me about it, I thought he was joking,” Drenik said. “It was before practice and he was underhanding it, and I just thought, ‘OK, this is interesting.’ And then I tried it. He said, ‘I’m serious. You’re going to do it.’ I was like, ‘OK, if it works, it works.’ I trusted him and we went with it.”
The results have been noticeable, but not linear. In the first two games that she used her new method, Drenik made 7 of 13 free throws, good for 54 percent. That’s not a great percentage, but certainly a big improvement.
“She is very good with it, very accurate with it,” Steadley said. “She has a very soft touch with it. In practice she’s like a machine. I call her ‘Auto’ as in automatic. She’s probably at 80 percent with it in practice. And her misses are so soft. The ball goes up there so soft, and it hangs right around the rim.”
But it’s not as if shooting underhanded was a magic elixir that suddenly made the ball go in the basket all the time. In Avon’s next game on Jan. 10, a 4946 victory over Berea-Midpark, Drenik made just 1 of 8 from the line. But it still was an improvement, as all of the attempts had a chance to go in but just didn’t. Then, on Jan. 13, she split her four attempts, meaning she has made 10 of 25 underhanded attempts for 40 percent, still an improvement over the old method.
“She just needs repetition,” Steadley said.
As one can imagine, Drenik has opened herself to a lot of criticism by shooting the ball underhanded. In this age of social media, unfortunately, there are lots of people who will find ways to tease and criticize. It has happened already.
“Molly has never said anything, but a couple of the girls came to me and said that Molly was taking some heat,” Ferrando said. “There are some boys making fun of her and there’s some stuff going around about her on the internet. I called her in, and I said, ‘Are you good?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t care. I like what I’m doing and no one’s going to bother me about it.’ I just said, ‘Molly, I am so proud of you.’ This is bigger than basketball for Molly. I’m just so proud of the courage and the bravery that she has.”
Her teammates support her as well.
“Some girls have posted things about it, but it doesn’t really get to Molly because she’s confident and she knows it’s going to help her out,” said fellow senior Makenzie Ptacek. “That says a lot about Molly. When she first started doing it, I was surprised. But it made me realize how brave she is and how confident you have to be to do that. She went up to the line and did it. I was like, ‘Wow.’”
On Jan. 6, the Eagles hosted Olmsted Falls in a boys-girls doubleheader. Playing in front of by far the biggest crowd of the season, Drenik didn’t hesitate when sent to the line, making 2 of 5 attempts while shooting underhanded. Again, not great, but an improvement.
“This is bigger than basketball for Molly. I’m just so proud of the courage and the bravery that she has,” Ferrando said. “Just the courage that she’s showing to be able to do that is really impressive. She’s being so brave, setting such a tone that it’s more than basketball. She’s doing what she wants to do and if she gets made fun of, she just doesn’t care. That’s called true leadership and bravery.”
As Steadley put it, “It says a lot about Molly. I’m going to label her a pioneer, a trailblazer. Hopefully a role model and an example for other kids not to be afraid to try something out of the ordinary, out of the norm, and have the guts and courage to do it. Molly has the courage. I am so, so impressed with her courage.”