Cheerleading or basketball?
That was the decision that Columbus East sophomore Maeleigh Roberts faced when she was in elementary school. Her mother wanted her to cheer and her father, once a basketball player himself, pushed her toward the court.
After watching her brother Noah Feltner play in elementary school, the decision for Roberts wasn’t so tough. She sided with her father and chose basketball.
“My dad (Ricky) pushed me a lot to play basketball just because he knew that I was going to be a very athletic kid,” Roberts explained. “All my sisters cheered, and my mom wanted me to cheer. When my dad and brother pushed me to play basketball, I just knew that I wanted to play.”
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Roberts has been one of the biggest bright spots for the Olympians in the first half of the season. She’s done most of her damage from behind the arc, shooting 46 percent (23 of 50) for the season.
One of the first persons to figure out that Roberts had the potential to be a good jump shooter was her father. She took in hours and hours of practice working with Ricky on improving her jump shot. Needless to say, it’s paid dividends.
“He was like, ‘You’ll be a really good shooter if you just work on it,’” Roberts said. “We worked really hard on my shot to get it better for games and stuff. That’s when we kind of knew that’s what I needed to work really hard on because that’s what I was going to excel in.”
Ricky was Maeleigh’s coach in the fifth grade at CSA-Lincoln and in the seventh grade at Central Middle School. Maeleigh said her father didn’t cut her any slack in games or practices being her coach.
“He pushed me a lot, maybe a little bit harder than the other girls just because I was his daughter,” Roberts said. “So it really pushed me to do better just because I wanted to live up to his expectations, but also do good for myself, too.”
Maeleigh played junior varsity her freshman year.
The Olympians didn’t have much time to practice together during last year’s offseason due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but during the one month the team was together in July, she caught the attention of coach Danny Brown.
“Her shooting is just really, really good,” Brown said. “It was always good, but she’s taken it to the next level. Her range is longer, and she gets it off quicker, and she’s just been deadly. She just lets it go, and you pretty much think it’s going in.”
Roberts came off the bench to begin the season for East. That didn’t stop her jump shooting, however. She hit a season- and team-best six 3-pointers during a win against Brownstown Central.
Needing a spark after the team got off to a slow start against Bloomington North, Brown made the decision to insert Roberts into the starting lineup for the Dec. 5 game against Orleans. She didn’t make Brown regret the decision.
Roberts said it was an adjustment for her transitioning from off the bench to starting, but she also isn’t afraid to admit there is a little bit more pressure as a starter because they’ll be ones that have to set the tone for the game.
“It does make me feel I have a lot more pressure because I’m starting,” Roberts said. “Coming off the bench, it was easier to see how the game was going to go before I went in. Now, I’m starting the game, so I have to step up and dictate what the rest of the game is going to look like.”
Brown said he was concerned how he was going to fill the void left from last year’s wing players, Whitley Rankin and Katie Dougherty. He mentioned that having Roberts in the lineup helps to take the load off of the Olympians’ top player, point guard Koryn Greiwe. As long as Roberts keeps nailing her perimeter shots, Brown might have found the answer to the complementary piece.
“To be a balanced team, you have to have inside and outside. We knew we were going to be tough inside, and then outside with Koryn, and losing Katie and Whitley, we needed somebody to step up,” Brown said. “Maeleigh’s done a heck of a job. If she can knock down the shots, she can take some of the pressure off Koryn… She’s deserves everything she’s gotten here as far as being in the starting lineup as a sophomore, and she continues to improve in her other areas. She’s had an impressive start to the season.”
Roberts is grateful of Brown for giving her the opportunity to start, and she’s hopeful the 7-4 Olympians can make a strong run in the second half of the season.
“We’ve come a long way from the beginning,” Roberts said. “I would say we weren’t really working as a team. It was more of a one-on-one ballgame. Now, during practice, we really work on team stuff and working better as a team.”
