Maddie Ogden’s leadership, scoring take Cinnaminson girls from winless to playoff bound

Maddie Ogden’s year is split into four sections:

“The winter is basketball; the spring is soccer; the summer is a little bit of both, but more so basketball; and the fall is soccer,” says the senior point guard for the Cinnaminson girls’ basketball team.

It was clean way of summing up how, in the midst of earning a Division I soccer scholarship at Monmouth University, Ogden also found time to develop into one of the area’s top girls’ basketball players.

She recently became the sixth player in Cinnaminson girls’ basketball history to score her 1,000th career point.

And, coach Bret Jenkins says, her leadership helped turned an 0-4 team into a 16-8 team primed for a deep run in the South Jersey Group 2 playoffs.

“She really does everything for us — scoring, assists, rebounds. When we pressure, she comes and gets the ball. She’s just done a ton for us,” Jenkins said. “And her success comes down to the fact that she just puts a ton of time in.”

Ogden’s game has taken marked steps forward each year of her high school career.

She went from averaging seven points a game as a freshman — serving as something of an understudy to superstar Marisa DiLeo — to leading the team in scoring with 15 points a game.

As a senior, Ogden is an agile 6-foot guard who can shoot the three pointer and guard any player on the court. It’s difficult to believe basketball is not her best sport.

“Over the past four years, I’d say I’ve worked really hard to take on that role of being the person you can look to at the end of the game or to bring up the ball up or to make a play on defense, and Coach Jenkins has helped me come into that role,” Ogden said. “I’m fortunate to have great teammates and coaches surrounding me — and I do think that’s a big reason I was able to score my 1,000th point.”

Playing goalie in soccer has helped her in basketball, Ogden said. It has primed her for big moments, and it has gotten her used to performing with a spotlight shining on her.

It also has helped keep her focused.

Her father, Greg, is a soccer lifer and former head coach of the Rutgers-Camden mens’ and Riverside High School girls’ programs. He also has coached basketball, including a stint as an assistant for the Cinnaminson boys’ team.

Ogden talks about how hard the two have worked together in both sports, whether it’s by themselves or when her father would drive her to Washington Township for club soccer practice or to work out with the Ocean City girls’ basketball team while vacationing at the Jersey Shore.

To Ogden, it’s not a question of balancing both sports — it’s more finding out how hard she can push herself in each one.

That’s part of why she’s been such a fitting leader for a team that started 0-4 — a tough start for any team, even considering the fact that three of those losses — to Moorestown Friends, Sterling, and Trenton Catholic — were to some of the best teams in South Jersey.

The Pirates kept pushing and went on to win their next eight games. They later advanced to the Round of 8 in the South Jersey Invitational, where they gave Bishop Eustace a scare.

They enter the postseason as one of the top teams in South Jersey Group 2. Ogden, set for a high-level college soccer career, knows this could be the last meaningful run of her basketball career.

She’s determined to make the most of it.

“My dad, before every game, reminds me that these are my last few games, and I need to make them count,” Ogden said. “How our team has developed throughout the season — especially through those tough games — it’s going to help us in the postseason.”