New Bedford Standard Times: "Basketball Is Family Affair For Charettes"

Basketball Is Family Affair For Charettes

February 22, 2010

Ed Collins - Standard Times Staff Writer

It's a little after 9:30 a.m. on a Friday and Kara Charette is getting ready for a practice session at Fairhaven High School. A 5-foot-11 sophomore center for the Blue Devils, Charette is a shy kid, but there's one subject she's more than happy to open up and talk about: basketball.

"I play all year as much as I can," Charette said. "It's a great sport, because you have to push yourself and you also have to be able to work with your teammates."

Charette, who helped lead the Blue Devils to a 12-8 record, the 10th seed in the Division 3 South Sectional, and tonight's 7 p.m. first-round game at seventh-seeded Ashland, has followed in the footsteps of older sister Kaleigh.

A 5-foot-7 sophomore guard at Worcester State College, Kaleigh started playing at the New Bedford YMCA when she was five years old. She moved on to play CYO basketball at St. Joseph's Church in Fairhaven and make the AAU roster of the Bristol Stars.

In high school, Kaleigh teamed up with Erin Baldwin and Maggie Rossi to form a Big 3 that led the Blue Devils to South Coast Conference championships their last two seasons and the 2006-07 South Sectional final in Division 3.

Kara has taken just about the same basketball path as Kaleigh, but she's four inches taller. With coach Jeff Perry's team in need of a post player last season, the freshman was thrown to the wolves in the very competitive and rugged SCC.

"She got a baptism by fire," Perry said. "We knew that she was ready to play at that level, and her post play has been phenomenal."

Kara, who picked up a lot of experience playing AAU basketball for the Stars and the Westport Warriors, said her two seasons of high school ball have been a learning experience.

"It was a tough transition, but I grew up watching my sister play and I knew how tough it was going to be. Kaleigh played out of position in high school. She had to play down low and she was always going up against bigger players," Kara said. "I saw how hard she worked and that made an impression on me. I've always looked up to her and that's made me work harder to become a better player."

A key to Charette's success this season — she's averaging 20.1 points and 12.0 rebounds/game — came after she and Perry sat down to watch film after her freshman year.

"We noticed that I was always going to my right with the ball," Kara said. "My opponents picked up on that, so I had to work on going to my left a little more and using both hands. I also worked on improving my footwork and taking the ball harder to the basket."

Charette has been one of SouthCoast's most consistent scorers, and it all started with 22 points in a season-opening loss to New Bedford.

"After that game, I knew Kara was going to be hard to stop, because New Bedford has some pretty good players," Perry said. "As good as they are, they had no answers for her in the paint."

Charette has blossomed in a starting lineup alongside seniors Liz Morris and Morgan O'Neale, junior Brittany Teixeira, and sophomore Kelsey Perron-Sovik.

"This is only their second season playing together as a group and they've made some big strides," Perry said. "We're not big, but we play hard and we play together at both ends of the court."

Heading into the state tournament, Kara said she's happy for the support that Kaleigh, who scored a team-high 15 points in Worcester's 67-60 overtime loss to Salem State on Saturday, has given her all season.

"We like to stay in touch and talk about each other's games and how we did," Kara said. "Neither of us likes to lose and it's nice to have someone to talk to when things don't go well on the court."

Playing her natural guard position, Kaleigh is averaging a team-high 10.4 points/game for the Lancers (13-12, 7-5), who will host Westfield State in a 6-vs.-3 matchup in the first round of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference tournament.

Playing in college has been a whirlwind experience.

"The pace is a lot quicker and everybody knows how to play the game," Kaleigh said. "It's a lot of fun and I'm getting a chance to play with some really good players, just like in high school."

Kaleigh, who's majoring in health science (and says hot-shooting 12-year-old brother Cameron "could end up being the best player in the family before he's through"), will be keeping a close eye on the Blue Devils in the playoffs.

"I'll never forget what it was like playing in the state tournament," Kaleigh said. "There was electricity in the air and the games were intense from start to finish. Playing with my teammates was an incredible feeling and that's carried over into college."

And one that will carry into the coming spring and summer, when Kaleigh says the Charette sisters play against each other plenty.

"We're very competitive and we like to challenge each other," she added. "Basketball has been very good to the both of us."

South Coast Today Article