Boardman’s Touvelle adjusts to pace

January 12, 2011 at 12:07a.m.

Boardman

Monica Touvelle knew one thing as soon as she stepped foot onto Dom Rosselli Court lastyear: she’s not in high school anymore.

The Youngstown State freshman and Boardman graduate is midway through her first season with the women’s basketball team. And so far, the experience has been interesting.

“There have been a lot of differences from high school to college,” she said. “The first thing is the pace of the game. Everyone had told me it was going to be faster, but experiencing it, it’s really different. It took a lot to get used to it. I’m really starting to get used to it.”

Touvelle has seen action in all 15 games for the Penguins, averaging about 10 minutes per contest. She’s scored 32 points has brought down 13 rebounds thus far.

Touvelle said the transition had taken some time to get used to. But she’s adjusted for the most part, she said.

“I’m moving from high school to college, which is a step in itself with school, growing up and being an adult,” she said. “And adjusting to new people is always challenging.

“As far as the team goes, everyone is really friendly and it was really easy to get along. I felt really comfortable during the recruiting process with the team. A lot of them are my friends, and I talk to them off the court and we hang out.”

As well as dribbling and passing during practice, Touvelle has also had to learn how to juggle classes, homework and studying — all while trying to have some semblance of a social life.

“I would say the time management is probably one of the hardest things,” she said. “I really am doing better with it now. You have to set this much time aside for studying, this much time for workouts and individual work.

“Of course you want to have your personal life, too. But you need to balance it all so it equals out.”

And her favorite way to pass the time outside of school is to shop for shoes. Why? Well, because “a girl can never have too many pairs of shoes.”

And Touvelle deserved a few extra pairs after her first semester was a success. She got all As and couple of Bs while working toward her undecided major.

Decisions have been pretty big for Touvelle this year. In fact, she almost wasn’t a Penguin at all.

After all, she was recruited by former head coach Cindy Martin, who abruptly resigned in March after a 0-30 campaign last season.

“When Coach Martin told me that she was going to resign, she left me a voicemail that said, ‘Call me when you get this.’ And I called her back, and it was completely out of the blue,” Touvelle said. “Things weren’t going the best, yeah, but I just wasn’t expecting that.

“I was just kind of taken aback by it. I mean, this was the staff that sold me to this school.”

So when the school hired Bob Boldon as head coach in April, Touvelle had to decide to attend the school without the coach who recruited her or move on. She picked the option that meant the most to her: home.

“This is a great school here. Sometimes I don’t understand why everyone goes away, I guess,” she said. “I mean, this is Division I basketball close to home. You can’t really get much better than that.”

Touvelle said she hopes to represent her school and community proudly while with the Penguins. She hopes the team can turn the corner under Boldon and said she sees big things coming the team’s way.

One thing is for sure, though. She’ll have a lot of hometown fans cheering her on along the way.