Fearless and an absolute bulldog of a player, that is how Scott Nemecek, Girls’ Varsity Basketball Head Coach, described the team’s four-year varsity starter and DePaul University basketball commit, senior guard Gina Davorija.

Davorija has been on the varsity team since her freshman year, where she has accumulated numerous accolades, including making the York Thanksgiving Tournament All-Tournament team this November and scoring 1,000 points by the end of last year’s season. All of these accomplishments have made Nemecek confident that Davorija will be able to succeed playing at the
Division I (DI) collegiate level.

“[Competing DI] is going to be hard because everybody [is] good,” Nemecek said. “So [my message to her is] never give up; throw yourself out there to be vulnerable [because] you [did not] become a good player by being quiet, soft, [and] timid.”

While this season will be all about gearing up to play collegiate basketball next year, Davorija will take on another challenge of filling in the footsteps of the senior captains from last year, Nemecek said. Entering this season, the varsity team lost eight of their graduating seniors. Nemecek hopes that Davorija will fill the legacy that these seniors left behind and become an outlet of inspiration for the new varsity members.

“Clearly [Davorija] is in that spot where people will listen to her,” Nemecek said. “I’ve heard her [channel being a leader] more now. I’ve seen her go help more people and talk about what they could do [to im-
prove their game].”

Davorija spent her summer with the Serbian National Basketball team, where she traveled across Europe to compete against top basketball teams in the world. Davorija hopes to take her newly acquired leadership skills to the court, where she can take the lessons she learned from playing with the Serbian team into game to game situations. Averaging 9.9 points and 0.9 assists per game, Davorija and her team took home the bronze medal after a 72-56 win against Israel. Finishing the tournament, the team had a record of 3-4, ending their season with a semi-finals loss against Spain, 68-45.

“European basketball is very different in a way that they focus a lot more on fundamentals,” Davorija said. “I got better with my fundamental skills, while also learning how to communicate better because I [had] to speak [Serbian].”

Senior guard Mac Lathrop has played basketball with Davorija since elementary school. Lathrop has seen Davorija grow into the player she is today. Davorija will rise up to any challenge, she said.

“[Davorija] has grown as a leader by communicating with teammates and always looking for the best available opportunity to [help] the team,” Lathrop said.

As Davorija and her team are almost two months through their season with a current record of 5-3, she has high hopes to finish strong. Davorija has already checked a goal off of her list of goals this season with their first win against Maine South in over four years; 52-44 on Dec. 6.

“Beating [Maine South] for the first time was huge [because] every year we came second to them in conference,” Davorija said. “Now I hope we can beat the other teams to be [the] first [place] team in conference.”