COLFAX, N.D. — When Richland girls basketball coach Bruce Scheie first saw Megan Roob play basketball she was in elementary school, and he thought the ball probably weighed as much as she did. That didn’t stop her from making an impression.
“She could shoot the 3," Scheie said. "She just threw it up there and it was a beautiful arch. And I just thought, ‘Wow, we’ve got a girl who can shoot the 3.’”
The coach knew Roob would make an impact when she made it to the varsity squad. And he wasted no time getting her onto the team, making her only the second eighth-grader in his more than 40-year coaching career that he played on varsity.
Ever since she worked her way into the rotation, Roob has proven she deserves to be there. Now a sophomore, she surpassed the 1,000-point threshold for her career last week.
"You could see that she had the tools,” Scheie said. “You just know it when you see it. She had the ability to be a true guard and get the ball to people. So you get her nose wet and from that point on, you could just see she was a good court awareness player. All her skills and fundamentals were there. There were not too many weak points on her.”
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The Colts have a 7-4 record this season, including a 51-29 home victory against Fargo Oak Grove on Monday.
While Roob said team performance is more important to her than personal achievements, hitting the 1,000 points mark was a big deal for Roob, who has been a captain for the Colts the past two seasons. It puts her in the same category as former Colts player Olivia Johnson, a player Roob looked up to when she was younger. After high school, Johnson had a successful college career with the Concordia Cobbers.
“I always looked up to Olivia Johnson, she coaches for the Cobbers now,” Roob said. “She hit her 1,000 in high school here and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to be just like her. I want to get 1,000 too.'"
Roob is a pure shooter with the ability to drive either direction and make baskets with either her dominant left hand or her right. Scheie said she has tremendous court awareness and solid skills and fundamentals.
Roob has averaged 24 points per game this season, and earlier this year, she set a school record with 47 points in one game, breaking her own record of 41 points, set during her freshman season.
“The first play of the game, we got the offensive tip and I was just open,” Roob said. “They were running a 2-3 zone and it was just really easy to shoot out of. I just let it fly and they kept falling for the rest of the night. It’s just a feeling you get when you’ve been playing for a couple of years. You just know when you’re on and keep shooting.”
Even in her third year on varsity, Roob is still one of the youngest players on a roster that features five seniors and two juniors. But she said her age was never an issue, even going back to eighth grade, her teammates always supported her and made her feel like part of the team.
“I got along pretty well with the seniors that year, they’re still pretty good friends of mine,” Roob said. “They just took me under their wing and so did coach Scheie. He said, 'You’re going to get people yelling at you in the crowd. You’re going to have people talking about you behind your back, but you’ve got to rise above it.’ He told me, ‘You know the player you are and you’ve got to keep believing in yourself. Nobody’s opinion matters because you deserve to be on the court.’"
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Roob grew up around basketball. Both of her older siblings — a brother and a sister — played basketball, as did her dad. She said she's had a basketball in her hand as far back as she can remember.
The 5-foot-9 guard fell in love with the game in third grade when she played on a traveling team with players from this year’s junior and sophomore classes. She said the team probably didn’t win a single game, but that didn’t stop them from having fun.
“We were absolutely terrible,” Roob said. “I don’t think we won a game. But just coming into the gym on Sunday nights and getting to be with all my friends playing the sports I love.”
Roob has carried that love for basketball with her ever since. She stays on the court year-round, playing volleyball in the spring and fall, and has made it a routine to get into the gym on weekends to work on polishing her basketball skills.
“She has spent time and effort on getting better at basketball,” Scheie said. “As you can see as the years go on, she uses both hands equally well, she’s getting taller, her defense has really improved which is going to help her if she decides to play in college. “
Scheie said the sky is the limit for the sophomore guard. With two more full seasons and the rest of this year ahead of her, there are still plenty of achievements Roob can reach for in her prep career.
“I think she’s probably headed for 2,000 (points) for her career,” Scheie said. “She’ll have the rest of her sophomore year and her junior and senior years. She can only get better.”
