Hoops Without Hoopla

This has been kind of a quiet season for Roz Goldenberg.

Last season, the trail-blazing Goldenberg, 28, worked amid the hoopla generated by being the first woman in the state to coach a high school varsity boys basketball team.

An article in The Times was followed by appearances on three local television stations, one of which carried the story nationally. She had dinner with a screenwriter, who wanted to make her story into a movie.

It was a lot of fun--”I got nice calls from people all over the country,” she said--but the notoriety took time away from her coaching. Her Oakwood School team was 11-11 and made the Southern Section Small Schools playoffs, but Coach Roz thought she could do better.

“I was very unfocused because of the distractions,” she said last week. “It’s kind of like the Iowa football team coming out here and not wanting to do the Disneyland bit and all that. It’s fun, but at the same time it takes away from what you’re trying to do.”

This season, without the intrusion from the media, the Gorillas are 6-3. Between them, senior Josh Feder and freshman Mitchell Butler are averaging about 50 points and 30 rebounds a game. Goldenberg believes Oakwood can challenge for the Liberty League championship.

She’s having fun again.

Would she recommend this line of work to other women?

Said Goldenberg: “If you have a good school that really supports you, and a good family, and if the parents of the players support you, it can be a really positive situation. It has worked out really well, especially now that we’re winning.”

If they continue to win, that screenplay may be worth something.