Girls basketball: Morgan Township’s Coleman calm, cool and collected

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Morgan Twp's Trina Coleman brings the ball upcourt with Whiting's Citlali Lopez defending in the second quarter Tuesday evening at Morgan Twp. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 18, 2012 8:19AM

One of the first names Kevin Krieger heard when he took over as head coach at Morgan Township was that of Trina Coleman. Coleman, though, was only entering sixth grade at the time.

That was five years ago. And it’s evident now why Coleman’s name was muttered back then. Now a sophomore with the Cherokees, Coleman has emerged as one of the area’s most promising young players.

“The first game I ever saw her play was at the Courts in a fall or spring league,” Krieger said. “She hit about a 25-footer at the buzzer to win the game. She was calm, cool and collected down the stretch even then.”

Coleman leads a young Morgan Township team into Saturday’s Class 1A Caston Regional, where the Cherokees (13-10) meet 1A No. 4-ranked Oregon-Davis (20-4) in a semifinal contest.

In her two years as a high school player, Coleman, the team’s point guard and co-captain, has gained a reputation of being, as Krieger said, calm, cool and collected. She doesn’t get caught in the highs and lows of the game and rarely shows emotion on the court. The most she let out Saturday in an upset of Kouts in the Washington Township Sectional title game was a wry smile toward the end when it was clear the Cherokees would win.

“She has tremendous poise for a sophomore in high school,” Krieger said. “And really she has a very unassuming personality, real laid back most of the time. I think that helps her in pressure situations like on Saturday.”

And there was plenty of pressure in that title game. Morgan ran out to an 18-point lead and saw it dwindle to three in the fourth quarter before the Cherokees gathered themselves down the stretch.

“It gets exciting and the adrenaline is pumping and everything,” Coleman said. “But I try to not get too excited.”

Coleman has been playing basketball since a young age and also competes in volleyball and track and field for Morgan. But basketball is her passion. Her brother, Jaron, was a standout point guard for the Cherokees boys team before graduating last year. And Coleman said his influence was considerable.

“We were always out in the back yard playing basketball,” Coleman said. “He’d always put pressure on me, and he pushed me a lot. Just watching him, it kind of helped me see how I needed to be as a point guard.”

With just one senior on the team, that being Samantha Meschede, the Cherokees, including Coleman, have been forced to grow up as the season has progressed. Through the first half of the season, they were 3-7 before finishing 7-3 in the final half entering the sectional.

“Part of our struggles early on was that everyone on the team had a new role,” Krieger said. “They were either first-year players on varsity, or Trina was trying to step up as a leader, or (Meschede) was adjusting to being our only senior and being more of a vocal leader. They just needed to get the experience and needed to get some confidence.”

They’ve done that and then some, capturing the program’s first sectional title since 2006.

“I think we just started clicking a lot better,” Coleman said. “Everything just started to flowing really well. We’ve got a young group, so hopefully we can continue to get better.”