Roark Senior Focus - February 17

February 17, 2018

Maddie Roark was a force playing basketball and soccer at Seymour and Trinity Lutheran high schools the past four years.

She was a two-year starter in basketball her freshman and sophomore years at Trinity.

Upon transferring to Seymour her junior year, she was limited to junior varsity by the IHSAA. Then this winter, she was a starter for the Owls and topped the team in scoring.

She finished her career with 1,307 points. Her high-point games this season were 28 against New Albany and 27 against Rushville, and her career-high total was 44 against South Decatur her sophomore season. At Trinity, she scored in the 30s four times.

“I enjoyed all of it,” she said. “Whenever I got the ball, I thought, ‘Drive first before I shoot.’”

Roark said she thought the Owls had a lot of success facing both zone and man-to-man defenses. Late in the season, she said the team practiced against a 2-2-1 defense a lot and did really well with that in games.

If the Owls had trouble scoring, she said they would go into a man offense.

“We would tend to do pretty well with that, too,” she said. “I liked both.”

The style of defense the Owls played depended on how the game was going, she said.

“If it was a close game, (coach Jason Longmeier) would usually push us up and see if we could get a turnover,” she said.

Roark said the Owls were serious when it came to practices.

“Coming up to sectional, we didn’t miss a day of practice. It’s really important to get those in,” she said. “In practice, coach Longmeier has us working fast-paced, just get it and go because we’re also fast.”

That made a difference when it came to games because the Owls played a competitive schedule.

“It’s definitely good to get off to a good start because if you start off really slow, they can get ahead of you real fast, and you can dig yourself a big hole that it’s hard to get out of,” she said of games.

Roark began playing soccer at an early age in Ypsilanti, Michigan, but she didn’t start basketball until fifth grade at Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour.

She helped Trinity’s coed soccer team win a sectional title in 2014 and was named most valuable player of the girls team at Trinity in 2015 and MVP at Seymour in 2017. She also earned all-district honors her sophomore and senior seasons.

For Roark, it didn’t matter from what angle she attacked the goal.

“I can kick with both of my feet, but I prefer right,” she said. “Whenever I get the ball, when I’m going down the field, it’s such an amazing feeling. If I score, it’s amazing. I just love it.”

Scoring the first goal is big in soccer, she said.

“It definitely creates momentum for our team when we get the first goal, so it gets us ahead a little bit,” she said.

Seymour’s soccer schedule was a lot tougher, and Roark said she loved the challenge.

“It was definitely a lot of conditioning,” she said. “You had to be in really good shape to run all those minutes.”

Roark plans to play soccer at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

She said she liked playing for her soccer coaches, Jeff Nolting at Trinity and Greg Musser at Seymour, and her basketball coaches, Mike Lang at Trinity and Longmeier at Seymour.

“I think they’re all great coaches,” she said. “I learned a lot from all four of them. I miss my coaches at Trinity, too. They all taught me a lot of things.”

Roark said she has good memories of her athletics career.

“Coming into Seymour, everyone was so accepting, the coaches were so accepting and so nice, and I just came to really loving it,” she said. “I’m going to remember all the teachers and how they really set aside to help me in my studies, and all the good times with my teammates when we won a game. That’s definitely nice.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Roark file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Maddie Roark

School: Seymour High School

Parents: Kris Slevin and Keil Roark

Siblings: Katy, Lance, Alivia and Maddison

Sports: Basketball, four years; soccer, four years

Athletic highlights: Basketball: Most valuable player freshman and sophomore years; soccer: MVP sophomore and senior years, all-district first team senior year, all-district second team sophomore year, all-Hoosier Hills Conference senior year

Roark Senior Focus – February 17

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