Jessica Roque’s hard work has finally paid off as the Waterloo Warriors women’s basketball team won three games in a row last week.
On Oct. 14, the Warriors women’s basketball team won against the Laurentian Voyageurs by a score of 66-54. That was followed by a second win on Oct. 15 against the York Lions by a score of 69-60 and a third win on Oct. 16 against the McMaster Marauders by a score of 57-52.
Roque, the University of Waterloo’s new head coach for the women’s basketball team, previously spent four seasons as the full-time assistant coach for the Ryerson Rams women’s basketball program.
The women’s basketball team currently has 14 players on its roster, many of whom are new additions. Roque noted that during the pandemic, she was able to bring in six new faces. Among them are guards Summer Pahl and Frankie Bowels and forward Jaime Newell.
“As a coach, recruiting is a huge priority. We’re looking to be good for a long time and that requires myself and my staff to look for the future student athletes that can bolster this program,” Roque explained.
Roque said her team had worked extra hard and trained during the summer months in preparation for this year’s season.
“We had a good bulk of our student-athletes here for the summer due to co-ops and just living locally. We were on court twice a week and lifted almost daily. For those at home, we have an app that tracks workout progressions. So whether here or home, we were able to be together as a team,” Roque said.
Since the start of the fall 2021 term, Roque noted that her team has increased their on-court time to four to five times a week in addition to lifting two to three times a week.
“Preparation in the preseason looks very different from the summer preparation. So much of our training sessions required longer warm-ups and cool downs to make sure we were training safely to prevent injuries. We also played quite a bit. Being a new team, we wanted to make sure we got that experience in early to help build connection and chemistry,” Roque said.
Next up, the Waterloo Warriors women’s basketball team will play Humber College on Oct. 23 and the Rams on Oct. 30 to close out the pre-season of exhibition play. After that, they will kick off the regular season at home on Nov. 10 against Western University.
For the 2021-2022 season, all tickets can be purchased online but there will be limited seating for the Physical Activities Complex (PAC) and Columbia Icefield (CIF) Arena. The UW Athletics website notes that all tickets will be assigned seating to meet social distancing guidelines and those in attendance are asked to pay special attention to the COVID -19 Fan Protocols for the season, which include proof of vaccination. The website also notes that e-tickets — either mobile or printed PDFs — are highly encouraged to enter a game.
