Soccer,Basketball,Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Ryan Arcidiacano
Favorite team: Villanova Basketball
Favorite memory competing in sports:Beating Cheltenham in basketball my junior year, it reminded me why I love playing so much
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: All the times I tripped over my own feet, the front of my shoes would always get stuck on the wood floor
Music on iPod:All kinds
Future plans:Attend Temple University next year
Words to live by:Play with love and joy for one another- Coach Krewson
One goal before turning 30:Have a family and a job that I enjoy
One thing people don’t know about me:I am really superstitious. I would have to eat a green apple before every game.
By Mary Jane Souder
Molly Dugan’s senior season was following the perfect script.
The Springfield senior surpassed the 1,000-point plateau – the first female basketball player to reach that milestone since 2011, and her Spartan squad appeared destined to earn a postseason berth.
Not a bad way for the senior standout, who will not play collegiate basketball, to close out a memorable chapter of her high school experience.
“If someone would have told me this was going to be my senior year, I would have laughed at them,” Dugan said. “It was awesome scoring the thousand points.
“I think I had more fun once it was over, and I stopped worrying about it. Afterwards, I kept thinking, ‘Oh no, this is the end of my season, this is my last time playing basketball.’”
The last time playing basketball came seven games sooner than anyone expected when Dugan went down in the opening minutes of the Spartans’ game at Cheltenham.
“I was going to the basket, and one of the girls on their team fell on my leg at a weird angle, and it just bent my knee in,” Dugan recalled. “I went to the doctor the next day, and I pretty much knew (my season was over) because we only had a few more games.”
Dugan – who had avoided injuries her entire career – was right. The prognosis: a partially torn MCL and some ligament damage.
“I would still be unrealistic and say, ‘I’ll be back by Senior Night,’ hoping, but they said definitely at least six weeks before I would start running again,” Dugann said. “My whole basketball career I have never had anything like this. My dad said the same thing. He said, ‘How have we gone all these years and now when you have your last (seven) games, it happened.’ I guess it’s part of playing, but it drove me crazy. I was a mess.
“I was in this terrible ugly brace for the end of the season. I’m not going to lie – I could not watch the games at first. I was pretty upset and moody about it. Toward the end, I tried to pull it together and be a leader for the team and support everyone as much as I could.”
Dugan’s biggest regret is that she spent so much time focusing on the fact that she was coming down the homestretch of her basketball career.
“I wished I didn’t do that because I feel like I wasted some games worrying about it,” she said.
Although it was painful for Dugan to watch from the sidelines, she never missed a practice or game.
“That tells you what a great kid she is,” coach Bill Krewson said. “Even the day she went for her MRI, she came to the practice late.
“She was actually upset when she had to leave early or come late. She was there supporting, coaching, running the clock, doing whatever she could to help out. It was a heartbreaker. She’s one of the greatest team players I’ve ever coached.”
And that, according to Krewson, will be Dugan’s legacy. A four-year varsity player, Dugan was a fixture in the starting lineup since she was a freshman.
“To me, she was the smartest basketball player I have coached since I was working with the girls,” Krewson said. “By her senior year, she was directing traffic and telling people where to go.
“We’d come into huddles, and she would say, ‘Listen, this is open, that’s open,’ so she was not only playing the game, she was reading the game, reading the other team and helping other players along as far as what was going on.”
While Dugan was a prolific scorer, that’s not what set her apart according to her coach.
“You play a trap defense or a zone press, she’s kind of the quarterback,” Krewson said. “I always put her in the spot where she’s reading it and going for the ball.
“In the beginning, she was a shooter and that’s all she did. Her second year, she started going to the basket and getting to the foul line, and she was just incredible from the foul line. She was 18-for-19, 19-for-21 and 17-for-19 from the foul line during a four-game span. I think that was one of her best attributes.”
Making Dugan’s ability to get to the basket even more impressive is the fact that she measures in at just 5-4 or 5-5.
In addition to having a knack for getting to the basket, Dugan was fiercely competitive.
“She would bring the practices to another level,” Krewson said. “As a senior, people were afraid of her.
“As nice as she is to them and as nice as she is off the court – on the court, she’s not letting you win.”
Krewson knows that from firsthand experience.
“If we didn’t have enough players, my assistant coach or I might have to get involved and play,” the Spartans’ coach said. “Towards the end of the game, it would be me versus her.
“If you ask her, she’ll say she won most of the time, but I’ll say it was pretty even.”
*****
Dugan grew up playing both soccer and basketball, but basketball was always her passion.
“Soccer I just tried it on a whim, and I loved all the girls I played with, but basketball was more my family thing,” she said. “My aunt Carol has been to every single one of my games – she’s my biggest fan.
“She got me started. She went to Villanova, so we loved Villanova basketball.”
It was under the tutelage of her aunt and father (James Dugan) that Dugan learned the sport.
“They never played basketball seriously, but they learned all about it,” she said. “My dad taught me how to use my left hand, ball fakes. He taught me everything.”
Dugan, who played basketball for St. Genevieve’s CYO, never went the AAU route, opting instead to play different three different sports year round. In eighth grade, she added lacrosse to her repertoire and played all through high school. Although her injury will keep her off the playing field this spring, Dugan is staying involved.
“I never thought I would ever manage a sport,” she said. “It’s funny, but I just want to hang out with the team.”
This past fall, Dugan was a captain of her soccer team.
“Molly is a superb athlete who leads by example,” coach Suzette Wolf said. “She is admired on and off the field. She was one of our captains this year and she was able to really keep the girls focused during practice and motivated during games.
“Her ability to read the game made her an asset to our team. She dominated in the air all season long, winning every 50-50 head ball. She will definitely be missed.”
On Monday night, the Spartans held their end-of-season basketball banquet. The final good-byes were by far the hardest.
“All of the emotions that I stored up towards the end of the season came out all at once,” Dugan said. “My coach’s daughter is a senior with me. Jamy (Krewson’s) been through it all with me, every up and down of my four seasons.
“The Krewsons are unbelievable. They’ve become a second basketball family to me, and Mrs. K (assistant coach Laurie Kristiniak) cares more than anyone I know, so saying good bye to them was worse than saying good bye to basketball.”
An honor roll student, Dugan has been a member of Student Council all four years of high school. This fall she will attend Temple University. She is undecided on a major.
“I want to go down there and get used to it,” Dugan said. “I know I’ll figure it out once I’m there, but for now, I’m going in with an open mind.”
She has not ruled out the possibility of playing club basketball. Dugan will leave Springfield with nothing but fond memories of her playing days and says it’s the little things she’ll miss most.
“The smallest part of the games when someone looks at you and says, ‘You know what, it’s going to be good. You’re playing bad, but let it go,’” Dugan said. “The tiniest little interactions with people that you never get back.”
