Freshman Endyia Rogers is excelling on the hardwood — just as expected

USC women’s basketball associate head coach Aarika Hughes knew recruiting Endyia Rogers was going to be difficult from the get-go.

Hughes, who has been in contact with Rogers and her family since essentially the beginning of her recruitment, noted the freshman guard can be tough to read given her occasional reluctance to express herself.

“The relationship with Endyia was one I had to work hard on and work with,” Hughes said. “She’s not a kid that opens up really easily.”

Coming from an athletically gifted and basketball-driven family, Rogers has been refining her skills from the earliest days of her childhood. Dating back to years of backyard basketball games with her brother and grueling summer training sessions with her father, Jerome, the court has always been Rogers’ playground.

Given her father’s dedication to helping her improve as an athlete, Rogers is no stranger to hard work.

Both Rogers and Andy Zihlman, who was Rogers’ head coach at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas, cited specific memories of Rogers’ father, who played college basketball at North Texas, and the demanding summer workouts he put Rogers and her brother through.

The dreaded Rogers summer workout routine included pushing tractor tires and running full-court sprints for conditioning along with skill workouts for technical refinement.

“I really never wanted to work out with [Jerome] because the workouts were hard, tiring,” Rogers said. “Four laps around the track. Ten sprints across the field … agility work. Then go into the weight room and have us jump over a bench 100 times. Then go up to the gym and do our workout.”

“She was putting in almost a four-hour workout sometimes,” Zihlman said. “Not every day, but a lot of those during the [summer] season.” 

The 2018-19 Gatorade Texas Girls Basketball Player of the Year, the tournament MVP of her state champion team and a member of the state all-academic team, Rogers is one of the most accomplished players to come out of the state of Texas in recent years — both on and off the basketball court. Her confidence has risen as her widespread recognition has increased, but much of Rogers’ self-assurance comes from the trust she has in her abilities, a trait that has stuck with her from a young age.

Zihlman recalled one of his first interactions with Rogers when she was in eighth grade on a visit to Bishop Lynch High School and wanted to go one-on-one with a member of the junior varsity team at the time. 

Zihlman allowed the match to commence, and to the surprise of everyone except Endyia, she won. From that moment on, Zihlman knew he had a special player on his hands. 

Rogers’ athletic success was well-documented throughout her career at Bishop Lynch, but many aren’t aware of the level of academic excellence demanded by Rogers’ parents and maintained by Rogers herself throughout her high school career. She maintained a 4.0 grade point average in four years at a well-respected private prep school,  and her academic achievements didn’t come without hardship. 

Zihlman remembered a specific anecdote from before a game in Rogers’ underclassman years in which her pre-calculus teacher showed up prior to the game to speak to Rogers regarding her performance in class. 

Upon hearing the news of Rogers’ difficulties in class, her mother Brandy confiscated her phone immediately, demanding Rogers improve her grade if she wanted said phone back. Judging from her final grades, Rogers took it to heart.

“She’s really smart, she works, she studies,” Zihlman said. “We’d be on the bus and she’s studying by herself or with other kids.” 

This kind of “no-nonsense” attitude instilled into Rogers by her parents has transitioned well into her collegiate life, as Zihlman noted he’s heard encouraging things regarding Rogers’ academic and athletic performance so far at USC from head coach Mark Trakh. 

“She’s definitely the best player we’ve ever had,” Zihlman said. “We love what she does.”

A player of immense athletic skill and exceptional maturity, Rogers was always going to be one of USC’s most sought after recruits for Trakh’s most recent recruiting class. 

“I got to the point where [she] and I were talking daily,” Hughes said of recruiting Rogers. “When you get a kid like that, that comes from the family that she does, it truly connects.” 

Hughes noted one of the most difficult parts of recruiting Rogers to USC was getting her family’s approval and assuring them their “princess” would be taken care of in her transition from Texas to Southern California.

“Endyia perceives herself as royalty,” Hughes said jokingly when asked about a tweet she posted referring to Rogers as #PrincessinLA. “I gave her the nickname Princess Endyia throughout the recruiting process, and it’s kind of stuck. She expects me to call her that and I joke around with her.” 

When Rogers announced her final five schools in July prior to her senior year of high school, there was no immediate trend among her preferred schools.

In fact, Rogers’ final five schools included Ohio State, Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi State. Hughes knew selling Rogers and her family on USC would require more than just a pitch about athletics.

“I think, honestly, for her, this was the full package,” Hughes said. “You’re not sacrificing academics. You’re not sacrificing city. You’re not sacrificing conference because we have the best conference in the country. And then the ability to come in as a freshman knowing there was availability, not anything promised, but an availability for her to play. And clearly she’s come out there and she’s earned her spot.” 

When weighing USC over other prestigious programs she received offers from, Rogers stressed the importance of what USC brings off the court as well as on it. 

“I wanted something different,” she said. “I didn’t want to stay home. I thought that I could make an impact on the program here as a freshman. I had a great relationship with the coaches.” 

Upon first interaction, Rogers appears more introverted than her nickname would suggest. She has spent much of her first year at USC adjusting to life on her own, away from her family and friends in Texas.  

USC’s staff is hoping it can get Rogers more comfortable with media attention as she continues to settle into student-athlete life at USC. 

For Rogers, the most difficult part of her transition aside from being away from her family was the responsibility that comes with independence. 

“You have to figure stuff out on your own,” Rogers said. “I was struggling for a bit after I realized that I still need to work out and stop being lazy.” 

Her teammates have noticed her growth, speaking highly of Rogers’ contributions despite having such a short adjustment period. 

“She’s just a competitor and she’s gonna put the ball in the hoop,” freshman teammate Alissa Pili said of Rogers. “She could play with all these top players in the country … She just makes it look effortless sometimes.”

What Rogers misses most about home is “the food” she said half-jokingly.

Now that she’s had time to properly settle into life as a Trojan and get over the initial homesickness of leaving her native Dallas and most of her family, Rogers has begun to shine like many knew she would. 

Ranked in the top 40 of her recruiting class and earning the label of “five-star” recruit, Rogers didn’t surprise anyone when she scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in her college debut Nov. 5, as she’s proven she’s no stranger to the big stage. 

In high school, Rogers scored 39 points in a state semifinal, only to top the aforementioned performance with a 40-point outing in the championship game.

Rogers made her presence known in a three-game stretch in late January in which she averaged 26.7 points per game against a conference gauntlet featuring home games against Washington and Washington State along with a trip to Tempe, Ariz. to face Arizona State.

Along with her scoring contributions, Rogers racked up a career-high nine assists in the overtime win against Washington. In the same game, Rogers scored 24 of her career-high 29 points in the final 25 minutes of the contest, taking control of the game with her scoring and passing vision.

Rogers’ breakout week earned USC two wins — which would have been three if not for a triple-overtime loss on the road against Arizona State — and ultimately led to her being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, the first individual honor of Rogers’ short collegiate career. 

“I was proud when I finally started stepping up a bit when we played the Washington [teams] that weekend. I felt my team rallied in behind me,” Rogers said. “That Freshman of the Week was a big accomplishment.” 

As she continues to progress and grow within her role on Trakh’s young team, Rogers and those around her have high expectations for her development as a student and player. 

As for her long term USC goals, Rogers aspirations go beyond qualifying for and making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament or even winning a national championship. 

“First of all, I hope to get a degree,” said Rogers, who majors microbiology and hoping to pursue a career in plastic surgery. “I hope to come out a great young woman and just learn a lot about life.” 

Likewise, her coaches, both past and present, agree that she has an incredible opportunity at hand as a student-athlete at USC.

“When she goes back to [Bishop Lynch] school, she’s like a superstar,” Zihlman said. “I’m excited to see what she’s going to do the next three and a half years at USC.” 

Fortunately for the Trojans, it appears they’ve found the perfect player to lead them for those three and a half years. 

“I want the best for her academically, her experience here at USC and of course athletically out on the floor,” Hughes said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better kid to come here and help with a rising program. She’s been awesome.”