Lone Senior Jenna Larose Excels in Her Career as Lady Lion. By: Brad Davis
The Manila Lady Lions had a magical season led by lone senior Jenna Larose. The All- State guard provided leadership and a big spark on both ends of the floor to guide the Lady Lions to an undefeated conference championship, district tournament championship, regional tournament championship, and an Elite 8 finish in the 3A State tournament. A heavy favorite to win the 3A-3, Manila cruised to conference and district tournament titles before battling in the grueling 3A-2 regional in Melbourne. Larose and her teammates would earn three hard fought victories in one of the state’ s deepest regions to bring home the title and earn a number one seed in the 3A State Tournament in Harrison.“ It felt awesome!” Larose described.“ We knew we would win conference and district, but winning regional was surreal. We weren’ t supposed to win, but we proved ourselves! Going from our district to our regional was a huge jump we had been preparing for since the beginning, but after winning regional, we knew we would have tough teams in state. We practiced very hard every day, even in Branson for state. I wasn’ t expecting my last game to be my last game, but I left everything on the court and played hard.”
Manila Lady Lions head coach and Jenna’ s father, Chad Larose would earn 3A-3 Coach of the Year honors thanks to his squad’ s dominant conference run. Jenna first started playing for her father when they made the move to Manila.“ When first moving to Manila and hearing that my own dad would be my coach, I was skeptical, but he is the best coach in the entire world,” she said.“ He has taught me to be a better player and I couldn’ t ask for anything less than what he gave me. I love him so much.”
Larose knew she had to take on a leadership role and felt she has grown as a player in her time with her father.“ Well, I was also the oldest last year as the only junior, and I felt pressure last year, but this year I knew it was my last year so I just left it all on the court,” she said.“ I would say I’ m proud of how far I’ ve come. I went from being terrified of touching the ball in a game, to wanting the ball to score for the team. My dad gets all the credit though, he made me a tougher player.”
Larose said her move was seamless and one of the best things for her.“ Luckily, I moved after my ninth grade year which is still technically junior high, so I went in just hoping to make good friends and play volleyball, basketball,