Stacy Contraguerro Bordas was a three-time all-state ladies basketball player for Wheeling Central Catholic High School and became a member of the program’s 1,000-point club before she was graduated in 2001.
The “three” was her thing, and it seems her oldest child, Alexis, has adopted the trait now that she has risen to the ranks of high school basketball following several years of participating on lower school levels and in AAU leagues. In fact, following her first season on Wheeling Park High’s varsity ladies’ team, she was named a Class AAAA all-stater as well as the captain of the Big School All-Valley by the local newspapers and All-OVAC, too.
The honors followed a frosh season for head coach Ryan Young during which she averaged 21.3 points, 6 rebounds, and 2.7 steals per game while leading the Lady Patriots to a 22-5 regular-season record.
Oh, and let’s not forget she scored 50 points against Parkersburg South in December, and Bordas dropped 35 in her very first high school games a couple of weeks earlier.
But Alexis inherited a little something else from her mother and father, Jamie, and that is a competitive streak that is so strong the 15-year-old actually loves to do sit-ups after school.
Square Up and Shoot
The local media caught wind of her talents a few years before high school, and one television headline even stated the game of basketball had become her “lifestyle.” Alexis was in eighth grade.
And there was that newspaper article that referred to her as a part of a “perfect storm,” and an online piece that insinuated she’s a “wolf in sheep’s clothes” once on the hardwood. Smack-dab in the middle of the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, Mike Hughes from LEDE News penned a feature, “Alexis Bordas: Ball Is Life.”
Oh, and head coaches from three Division I women’s programs (Youngstown State, Xavier, Stetson) already have extended invitations – and full scholarships – to “oh-yeah-she’s-only-a-freshman” Alexis Bordas.
It’s on purpose, too, because playing on the next level is one of her goals just as are a near-flawless grade-point average and becoming a surgeon, and scoring point after point when her teammates help her do so is the path to the promised land.
“When I score a lot of points in a game, I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates because that means we have a lot of ball movement, and they are working really hard,” Bordas said. “Anytime one player is scoring a lot of points, they aren’t doing it alone because there are a lot of other players on the court at one time, and they aren’t all on your team. Half of them don’t want you to be scoring anything, but my teammates take care of that.
“No matter what team I am playing on, we have people who can score a lot of points, and if I am shooting well, I am one of them, so as a team we figure it out, and that usually means everyone is scoring, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” she explained. “There are those games when my shot is really on, and my teammates feed me a lot because they realize it, and the same thing is true when they are playing really well. That’s how a team is supposed to play, and that’s why I really have loved the teams I’ve been on so far.”
When Bordas is on, she’s on, so what’s sharpshooter’s secret?
“Some coaches have told me to shoot for the front of the rim, but I quickly found out that didn’t work for me. I was coming up short,” the left-hander said. “I have gone back and forth with it, honestly, and sometimes it’s been one way one day and the other way the next day, but then I figured it out. I finally decide what works best for me, and that’s why it’s all about the back of the rim.”
“Now, I definitely have had some shooting slumps over the years,” Bordas admitted. “I know in middle school there were a couple of months when I was struggling with my shot a good bit, and even during this past high school season, I experienced a little bit of a slump. When I realize it, I always find other ways to get to the basket so I can still help my team with ball movement and scoring.”
Unfinished Business
Her team did not win.
Wheeling Park entered the Class AAAA bracket as the state’s No. 3 behind defending champion Huntington and rival Morgantown, the same team that edged the Lady Patriots, 49-48, for the OVAC title.
In the first round, Park set records in a 70-19 victory in which Bordas scored 24 and grabbed 12 rebounds.
But the fun in Charleston ended once Morgantown defeated them once again, this time 46-31.
“Going into my freshman season, I had set pretty high expectations for myself because doing that makes me work harder to make those goals reachable. There were days when I spent my entire day in the gym because there is always something, some part of the game, that I want to address. But see, that’s what I find to be fun for me,” Bordas said. “Losing is not fun, though, and the state championship was the ultimate goal. That’s what was most important to all of us. We had a really great season, and we were really excited when the postseason started because we had a great team, and we all thought we had a great chance to take it all of the way. Of course, that didn’t happen, and that was really disappointing for all of us.
“Our two seniors, Zariah and Jai’lah, were awesome teammates to have, and they were terrific leaders, and that is something we’re going to miss next year. I know I learned from their experience and their leadership because when they needed to be vocal, they were definitely vocal,” she said. “The best part about their leadership is that they did it by example most of the time, and we all learned to follow in their footsteps. Of course, they were great players, but they were great people, too, and I believe that’s the most important thing of all.”
