Whitley Rogers isn't necessarily trying to fill anyone's shoes at Little Rock Christian. Yet, there's a reason why she has taken giant steps to becoming one of the best to ever lace up a pair of sneakers for the Lady Warriors.
"Her work ethic, man, is unbelievable," Little Rock Christian Coach Ronald Rogers said. "She works her tail off. A lot of people are like 'Well, she's the coach's daughter, he's making her do that.' Nope, it's not me at all.
"It may be 9:30 at night, and she may be like 'Hey dad, you want to go in at 6:30 in the morning and get some work in?' I'm like 'Absolutely.' There's been so many times where she wants to go put up some shots, go work on her ball-handling, wants to stay after school and put work in. It's all her."
That kind of self-motivation is why Rogers has quickly ascended to the upper echelon of her class. It's also why colleges will continue to clamor for her services.
"I worked a lot on my shot because I knew I was going to have to hit a lot of them this year," explained Rogers, who's the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps Girls Underclassman of the Year. "I worked a lot on ball-handling, coming off screens, passing the ball out. ... I just put in a lot of work on my game in general."
That work was evident throughout the season for Little Rock Christian.
The sophomore averaged 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals for the Lady Warriors, who went 21-11, finished second in the 5A-Central Conference and reached the second round of the Class 5A state tournament. Little Rock Christian accomplished all of that with just two seniors on its roster.
But for Coach Rogers, the way his team played boiled down to their willingness to learn and improve.
"The kids, they just bought into what we were doing," he said. "Honestly, I attribute a lot of that to our schedule as well. I know we got blasted in a couple of games, but I'm a firm believer that if you play high-caliber competition, the kids see it, feel it and understand what it takes to get to that level.
"If that means taking a butt whipping here and there, that's just a part of it. The young guns, they had to grow up fast."
Vilonia and Greenwood, which were Class 5A finalists, Class 4A champion Farmington and Class 6A semifinalist Cabot were just a few of the highly ranked teams the Lady Warriors battled during the season. While they endured their share of losses, Coach Rogers pointed out that it only fueled his team's desire to compete.
That's precisely what Little Rock Christian did once the calendar year flipped. The Lady Warriors went 13-2 over their final 15 games, including an impressive eight-game winning streak.
Naturally, Rogers had her imprint all over the team's success.
Even before Little Rock Christian began that string of victories, the 5-10 guard had already pocketed noteworthy performances, namely a 35-point outing in a close loss to Rogers in late December.
Once league play began, she had to elevate her outings in more ways than one because teams geared up to defend her. The long hours of preparation worked in her favor.
"Playing against some really tough teams helped get us ready, too," Rogers said. "We're young, and those games taught us a lot. For me, I knew going in that I would have to take on a leadership role and lead us.
"But we all had to step up and play better as the year went on. There were some times when some of us would get down because we lost a good amount of games early. Those were to good teams, and of course, we don't like losing."
The Lady Warriors were 8-9 before their hot streak. Over that final span, Rogers went over 1,000 points for her career and notched her first triple-double.
"She grew up a lot, especially mentally," Coach Rogers said of his daughter. "That part of her game really took off, and I told her that she's just got to keep it up. You have to watch film, you have to see where things are coming from, you have to study the game, and she did that. To me, that had a lot to do with her overall growth because she knew teams would be trying to key in on her."
That growth is expected to continue and not just with the younger Rogers, who was also an all-conference, all-state and all-state tournament pick.
"Just to see how the team grew as the season progressed, it was great," he said. "Going into next year, man we're excited. We feel like we'll have a legit shot, and we've got some good pieces that we're going to add, too. So we're very, very excited."