BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Township Council made a proclamation Monday for the Bloomfield Recreation Department’s eighth-grade girls’ traveling basketball team. This past season, it had a 14-1 record and won the Essex County Suburban Basketball League championship. The team members were coached by Wolfver Jean-Pierre, who announced he will not be returning for another season.
Jean-Pierre, 29, grew up on Berkeley Avenue and attended Fairview Elementary School, Bloomfield Middle School and Bergen Catholic High School. He was an All-State football player, as a running back. Recruited by James Madison University, he played as a receiver.
“When you first get girls, there are so many hoops,” he said. “They come in with a carefree attitude and then they see their potential.”
About 60 girls try out for 20 spots on the traveling team. Those that make the team aspire to play in high school.
“I tell every girl if you make the travel team, no doubt, you’ll make the high school freshman team,” he said. “But your goal is to make the JV or varsity team. Never short-change yourself.”
He said the difference between coaching girls and boys is the difference between a girl’s emotions and and a boy’s ego.
“You can always break an ego,” he said. “But emotions are deeper. You have to see a bigger picture with emotions.”
Jean-Pierre, whose college major was psychology, said to make an emotion into a positive force, a coach has to “spin it.”
“How to do it is difficult,” he said. “You’re trying to get her outside of that. And I’m talking about teenage girls.”
But to get winning results, the goal is teamwork.
“You have to put each kid into the right position to win,” he said. “Or give them the opportunity to try. That’s the goal, to have everybody on board to buy into it.”
Jean-Pierre has a girls’ basketball team playing at the national level. It is located in Oakland.
“A few of my Oakland girls got letters from colleges for basketball,” he said. “They’re in eighth grade. It’s very emotional and they get confused.”
Jean-Pierre said he went through the same confusion.
“I tell them it means someone is watching,” he said “It’s a positive stepping stone.”
The championship team: Katherine Bretz; Megan Carter; Samantha Columna; Alexandria Corio; Femi Epps; Kendra Lawrence; Azatha Lawrence; Mia Lopez; Elizabeth Nucci; Jariah Patterson; Gina Perrotta; and Dajae Stokes.
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