Lauren
Staats is an example of how Mike "SHOTMAN" Lanza has
helped many girls basketball players over the years. Staats starred
at Dunellen
High School until she graduated from the school in 2007. In the
2005-06 season, Staats was selected third team All Middlesex County
by the Newark Star-Ledger.
Her senior season, 2006-07, she was selected for Fourth Team all county.
That season, the Dunellen Lady Destroyers were finalists in the NJSIAA
Central Jersey Group I State Tournament, where they lost to Highland
Park by a score of 50-35. Dunellen, which was seeded fourth in the
tourney, got a bye in the first round, and then routed Piscataway
Tech by a score of 62-24 in the Quarterfinals. In the semifinals,
DHS faced another familiar foe as the Lady Destroyers hosted Middlesex.
The Lady
Jays, which were seeded ninth in the tourney, knocked off top seeded
Florence (42-40) in the Elite Eight after going on the round to defeat
eighth seeded Keyport (65-51). In the sectional semifinal, Dunellen
earned the berth in the Championship Game by edging its neighborhood
rival, 40-33. Staats reflected on that win as her most exciting sports
memory from high school With the loss to the Lady Owls in the CJ Group
I Championship, Dunellen finished the season at 13-8
overall including a 6-2 mark in the GMC
Gold Division, which was good enough for a second place finish
behiind St. Peter's of New Brunswick. The Lady Destroyers split their
two season series with their chief rivals, the Lady Cardinals, and
the Lady Governors of South Amboy. Following the 2006-07 season, Staats,
who also participated in Track at DHS, was honored
with the GMC Sportsmanship Award.
Staats
then moved on to Georgian
Court University, where she is on the roster along with another
player from the GMC in Ashley Lobbato of Monroe High School. The 5'8"
freshman guard/forward, who scored the team high in points four times
this season for the Lions, played in 27 games this season, and started
in 15 of them. In those 27 games, Staats averaged 27.4 minutes per
contest, and scored 8.7 points per game. She connected on 84 of 266
shot attempts for 31.6 percent including 38 of 130 from long distance
for 29.2 percent. At the line she was even more astounding by netting
28 of 32 attempts for a blistering 87.5 percent. Staats also averged
2.7 rebounds per game, 1.4 assists per game, and 1.0 steals per game.
One of her best games of the season
occurred on January 18th, 2008 against Philadelphia, where she scored
a team high 18 points. Her season high happened in the school's first
win of the 2007-08 season against Columbia Union. In the victory on
November 18th, Staats scored 19 points.
Georgian
Court University, which finished the season at 7-20 overall including
a 4-14 mark in conference play, is a member of the Central
Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The league is split into two divisions:
North and South with the Lions competing in the South Division. The
team's performance in 2007-08 earned them a sixth place finish in
the seven team division with a tenth place finish out of the 13
school league. GCU, which is located in Lakewood, New Jersey,
is a Division II School. Academically speaking, Staats is majoring
in English/Elementary Education, and has a goal of being a Kindergarten
teacher when she graduates. Her enthusiasm, hard work, and determination
has paid off with fine shooting from the perimeter and the foul line
as well as going from one of the smallest schools in Middlesex County
to getting considerable playing time on a Division II college team.
