When Travonne Berry-Rogers played basketball at Lynn English High School and Merrimack College, he was a dynamic, crowd-pleasing player.
Berry-Rogers is now bringing that on-court energy to the Lynn English girls basketball program, carrying on the great work done by former coaches Mackenzie Charles and Fred Hogan.
Berry-Rogers has unveiled a new team motto for his first season as head coach: “JUST US”. The players had the new motto on their warm-up jerseys at the Paul Duchane Jamboree Saturday.
The motto appears as one word as the letters “US” are highlighted inside the word “JUST”.
Berry-Rogers explained the motto’s significance in an interview following his team’s scrimmage against Bishop Fenwick in the jamboree.
“That’s our motto that we’re living by this season,” said Berry-Rogers. “The focal point on that is anything that happens on the outside that doesn’t happen with us – we can’t focus on it. If we win, we lose, it’s just us. We can’t blame it on anybody else. We’re responsible for all the things that we do and that we’re going to accomplish.”
Lynn English opened its season Tuesday with am 85-11 win over Chelsea. Makenzie Acevedo led the way with 19 points. Amara Flores (12 points) and Maddy Laurino (11 points) also paced the Bulldogs in the rout of the host Red Devils.
“I think it looks really good in the GBL,” said Berry-Rogers. “We’re going to be alright. We’re going to bring a lot of pressure to every single team that we play. We have a lot of talented players. We’re still building. We’re still adapting to our new culture and our new system, but we’re going to be just fine.”
Berry-Rogers, who is in his seventh year as a coach (he was an assistant on the two-time Division 1 state champion Lynn English boys basketball team) is being assisted on the English bench by coaches Lashaunda Hogan, a former Lynn English basketball standout and daughter of Ward 6 Councillor Fred Hogan, and Angel DeLeon, who has several years of coaching experience in the English program.