Andrew Rogers
is the Maine man

By Joe Mason
For the Times

Andrew Rogers’ winter was almost perfect.
The senior point guard on Archbishop Ryan High School’s basketball team helped the Raiders get to the Northern Division playoffs.
Then he guided the team to the Catholic League championship game. The Raiders lost to North Catholic, but it didn’t diminish how others viewed Rogers’ season.
He was named the most valuable player in the Catholic League Northern Division, then was selected as the league’s Markward Award winner, an honor handed to the season’s best player.
Now, as his fine high school career comes to a close, Rogers took the next step last week. After a weekend trip for an official visit, the 5-foot-9 playmaker signed a letter of intent with the University of Maine.
All along, Rogers said he would have been content to play Division 2 ball, but that’s no longer an issue.
He’s going D-1.
“It’s great, I’m really excited about it,” Rogers said. “I really liked the campus, I loved the coaches. Last weekend I had a chance to play with the guys, get on the court with them, and it felt right. It seemed like a great fit for me.
“Obviously I have a lot of work to do, but they said that I can come in and compete. They have good players, but they’re looking for a point guard. Hopefully I can go up there and play right away and show them what I can do.”
Rogers ran Archbishop Ryan’s Princeton-style offense to perfection. A four-year starter, he was never the biggest guy on the court, nor was he always the fastest guy out there. But nobody looked more comfortable with the ball, and as his teammates always insisted, he made the guys around him better.
“I’m not that tall, but height isn’t everything,” Rogers said. “I’ve known that for years. My brother (Ryan coach Bernie Rogers) is smaller than I am and he was great. I’m the tallest one in my family, and my brother and sisters were great players, so I knew you could play well without being the tallest.
“I just try to run the offense, the same thing I’ll try to do at Maine,” he continued. “Just try and help them win.”
That’s what he did during his days at Ryan, and it’s the reason the Division 1 school contacted his brother.
“They liked the way he handled the ball, they liked the way he ran the team, and they liked the fact that he was a winner,” Bernie Rogers said. “They had a late opening at point guard and they were happy to see he still hadn’t committed yet.”
While Rogers’ position will remain the same, the offense will be much different. Ryan’s Princeton-style offense called for patience and passes. At Maine, the team likes to run on fast breaks and use motion sets.
So will that be a challenge?
“Basketball is basketball, you just have to put the ball in the hoop,” Rogers said. “It will be different, but it’s still the same idea. You have to take care of the ball, set up your teammates and play smart. It’s different, but I don’t think it will be a big deal.”
As for academics, Rogers had hoped to study physical therapy or education in college. His brother Bernie, besides coaching basketball, is a physical education teacher. Their father Bernie works as a physical therapist.
At Maine, Rogers is getting the best of both worlds.
“I’m going to study kinesiology and physical education,” said Rogers, who is ranked among the top 10 percent of his graduating class. “That was really important to me because I know I want to do one or the other.
“Now, once I graduate, I can either go to grad school and get my master’s or I can come out and teach. It’s really setting me up for what I want to do.”
Rogers is excited about making the trip to Maine, which is roughly nine hours from Philadelphia.
“I’ll miss everything here, but I’ll still talk to everyone all the time,” he said. “And we play (at) Princeton next year, so that looks like a chance where everyone will get to see me play. That will be a fun game for me.” ••
Joe Mason can be reached at joemason70@hotmail.com