How could a basketball season that started with such promise end so dismally for Susan Robinson Fruchtl?

In her first head coaching position, Robinson Fruchtl, a former Penn State star and later an assistant coach to Rene Portland, was frustrated by the ending of her season as head coach of the St. Francis women. The Red Flash finished with a 3-15 record (tied for last) in the Northeast Conference and were 6-23 overall, losing 10 consecutive games to end the season.

This was the third consecutive season that St. Francis did not make the NEC tournament, a league that it dominated with nine tournament championships and nine trips to the NCAA tournament in 10 years from 1995-2005.

Robinson Fruchtl and her team appeared to be starting out on a positive note in the 2007-08 season by winning three of their first five games, including an overtime upset of Duquesne at the Maurice Stokes Athletics Center.

What went wrong? The list is lengthy.

Asked after the final home game of the season against Wagner on Feb. 25 whether the St. Francis rebuilding job was more difficult than she envisioned, Robinson Fruchtl said, “I just would have liked to have more kids buy in earlier. As a coach, you feel that you have failed if you can’t motivate kids. I think as a coach I have failed because I couldn’t get everybody on board. You are always optimistic, always hopeful.”

Every coach blames herself or himself, so Robinson Fruchtl’s reaction is understandable, but she obviously lost some of her players during the season as the losses mounted.

However, much of the blame for the demise of the Red Flash can be traced back to former coach Jill Poe and former Athletic Director Jeff Eisen, who hired Poe after Robert Morris, then one of the worst programs in NCAA Division I, turned her down in its job search.

Simply put, Poe was a horrible recruiter, and three of the classes that she recruited were seniors, juniors, and sophomores at St. Francis this year.

Robinson Fruchtl believes that she is taking the right steps back to respectability by bringing in a recruiting class that she believes is strong.

“We are going to bring in some different personnel, so our game – hopefully – will change, more an up-tempo style,” Robinson Fruchtl said. “So, we are going to have to work a lot on that. The whole team’s defense has a lot to be desired. That’s not where I want to be. It was very disappointing. It is extremely disappointing for the entire team. Our scheme in defense will change drastically next year. (We will have) more quickness, more size at the guard spots. More speed.”

The Red Flash were woefully short on depth this year, with fewer than 10 players on the bench at times. However, the speed and athleticism of the team were not what the program had featured under former coach Jenny Przekwas, who built the program from the ground up, and Myndi Hill, who continued that with some outstanding recruiting classes the first two years she was in Loretto.

Then came Poe, who decided to cast what Przekwas and Hill had built to the wind as she recruited junior college players for two years instead of players right out of high school. If those JUCOs had been players who could compete in the NEC, then the program would not be where it is right now.

Robinson Fruchtl realizes that her talent level was not sufficient to play in the NEC, but she also understands that the players who competed for her this year did not display what she had hoped of them.

“We are competitive, but there’s a big difference in being competitive and winning,” Robinson Fruchtl said. “It’s a mind-set. We have to have an attack mentality next year, both offensively and defensively.”

With some good recruits, Robinson Fruchtl could build a good foundation for the future.

“The class coming in, we are excited,” she said after the Wagner game on Feb. 25. “The kid from Ohio (Quintessa Johnson) is still in the semis (on Feb. 27) and they have an opportunity to win the state championship in Ohio.”

The class is rated by All-Star Girls Reports, a Web site that evaluates and ranks Division I recruiting classes, as the second best in the NEC. Guards Quintessa Johnson (Lakota West High School, Ohio), Sarah Thorn (Pennsbury East) and Brittany Lilley (Severna Park, Md.) are each ranked in the top 950 players in the country.

The other two players that Robinson Fruchtl has recruited are post players, Najah Prescott (Cardinal Dougherty) and Kelsey Caruthers (Penn Manor)

The Red Flash return four of five starters, including sophomore guard Britney Hodges, who led the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game and junior post player Whitney Robinson, who recorded 7.9 points and 5.6 rebounds a game.

Two freshmen showed promise: Samantha Leach (8.4 ppg), who started 21 of 23 games this year, and Allison Daly (3.0 ppg), who started seven of 25 games this year.



Hugh Conrad is a freelance writer who covers St. Francis for The Tribune-Democrat.