Bingham basketball: Madison Aulai-Roe profile

In mid-March, I went to Bingham High School and interviewed its four girls basketball taem captains. I wrote this article about Madison Aulai-Roe and it will be published in the team's post-season yearbook.

Madison
Aulai-Roe:

Thrilled to be a captain, she also
developed her role as the ‘stopper’

By Bruce Smith
Matchup

The Bingham girls basketball team is all about chemistry. Opponents may marvel at the Miners’ talent, but even the best players aren’t guaranteed a championship run.

After Madison Aulai-Roe was voted to be a team captain just prior to the 2011-12 season, she began to recognize that. It’s rare for a junior to have a captain’s role. But with this year’s varsity squad made up of one senior, nine juniors, seven sophomores and a freshman, the usual rules were broken.

“The girls voted for them, but I have the final say,” said coach Rand Rasmussen. “All of them (the captains) were good role models and upheld the image of a Lady Miner.”

Rasmussen was the teacher. An early riser, this meant a lot of 5:30 a.m. practices and grumbles from the players. The captains were the glue that held them together.

“I’ve played with a lot of these girls since the fourth grade and we played a lot during the summer,” Aulai-Roe said. “We never expected there to be an easy games.”

With their talent and depth, Bingham could always compete. However, reducing the strife created among 18 (varsity) girls vying for playing time, attention, friends, schoolwork and their families was a full-time job itself.

This year’s team had all of that, plus a season-ending injury to its best player late in the season. Aulai-Roe said there were a lot of captain’s-only meetings to discuss it all.

“I felt like the team ‘mom,’” she said. “The players came to us with their problems. We’re still one huge family – on an off the court.”

Aulai-Roe gained anotjer role a few games into the season. To help manage Bingham’s depth, Rasmussen created two separate teams and usually substituted players five at a time. Aulai-Roe started on “Team 2.” Although she wasn’t a starter, the two squads usually had a similar amount of playing time.

An injury to sophomore Shelby Richards prior to the Cyprus game moved to her to “Team 1.” It worked out well for everyone, too, because one of Aulai-Roe’s favorite roles was to be the defensive stopper.

“That was my best game,” she said. “I played point guard, but my game was all about defense.”

Aulai-Roe grew up in Torrance, Calif., before moving to the Salt Lake area. She was coached by her dad, and often played against two older sisters, who ended up making the varsity teams at Highland and Copper Hills.

Against Cyprus, she defended guard Julie Caputo, who was one of its top players. Cyrpus was undefeated at the time, and ended up having one of its best seasons in school history. But in this game, Caputo finished with just five points, and was scoreless in the second half.

“I felt like I shut her down,” Aulai-Roe said.

After that, Aulai-Roe was often paired against an opponent’s top perimeter player. She scored 35 points all season and had a high game of six points against Brighton. Her niche, however, was defense.

“I’m told that I’m fast and I move my feet,” she said. “I usually guarded their point and tried to corrupt their game.”

Aulai-Roe said she was happy with Bingham’s season, and how the team bounced back from various inner-team issues, including Summer Yack’s injury. She said the team came together at the 5A state tournament, when they surprised Taylorsville in the first round.

“All the girls needed that,” she said. “We didn’t have any team unity issues. We knew that if we lost, we were out.”

Aulai-Roe felt that team chemistry should be a lot easier next year, but every player will be required to work hard. Because the Miners will lose just one senior, and have another talented group of younger players coming up, there is no guarantee anyone – even her – will make the team.

“We had nine juniors, but Rand said he probably won’t keep all of us,” she said. “We need to keep getting better and go out on top next year.”