Overlooked, but appreciated

By JOEY KNIGHT

NEW PORT RICHEY - She's a venerable authority on thankless tasks.

Gulf senior Nicole "Coley" Allison's life during basketball season is an alternating succession of box-out drills and check-out lanes. During the week, she's sealing defenders, stretching for rebounds and starting fast breaks that one of her sleeker Bucs teammates ultimately will finish.

On weekends, more grunt work awaits at Publix, where Allison often spends her entire Sunday - 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. - scanning groceries and getting the occasional earful from a grumpy patron.

"They yell," Allison said. "And I have to be so quiet and like, smile. It's hard."

Allison admits that, occasionally, such anonymous toil bums her out. In terms of individual recognition, the best she can hope for is an employee-of-the-month plaque, or to see her name sneak into the county rebounding stats.

"I've had, like, a bunch of blocks [12] and a lot of steals [31] and rebounds [9.0 per game], but it's really not in the paper," said Allison, who ranks sixth on Gulf's nine-player team in scoring (6.7 ppg). "It's not the first thing that people open the paper to see."

Fortunately for her, there are people in Allison's life - her mom, Julie; employers; and Gulf teammates and coaches - who know her worth.

In fact, she and the third-ranked Bucs (24-1) are about to embark on a playoff stretch in which the value of her unappreciated work could … well … appreciate.

While there's no denying Gulf's state title hopes rest predominantly on University of Tampa signee Tiara Cook (17.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg), fellow 1,000-point scorer Turquoise Sampson (10.6 ppg), fleet defender Santana Lennon (102 steals) and Division I prospect Dominique English (8.4 assists), the Bucs can ill afford to have their 5-foot-8 part-time cashier check out.

"I know I can't be a post player," Sampson said. "Sometimes we don't even know how she gets the rebound because we don't even see her. And then all of the sudden, she has the ball and we're like, 'Wow.' "

Thursday night's 61-28 rout of ranked 6A rival Mitchell might have been the perfect illustration of Allison's inconspicuous contributions.

She finished with two points, but according to Coach Mike Quarto, was able to move defenders enough down low to create open lanes through which Sampson and English could penetrate for easy layups.

"Nicole knows how to use her body right," English said. "She'll get down and she knows how to rebound. She's real physical."

It's a talent honed out of necessity. Since abandoning cheerleading for basketball as a seventh-grader, Allison has played alongside Cook, occupying the left side of the post to allow her 6-foot teammate to remain on her strong side.

As a result, Allison has become not only adept at establishing position, but also nearly ambidextrous.

"Nicole has a really good ability to be one of the few kids that's right-handed that plays better on the left side of the court," said Quarto, whose club enters this week's Class 4A-District 8 tournament as the top seed and overwhelming favorite.

"She can finish with either hand around the basket, and as a post player, that's absolutely huge."

Huge, at least, in the eyes of her coaches and cohorts.

If only the left side of the low post wasn't so low-profile.

"Nicole ... is overlooked," English said. "But we as a team appreciate her, so she knows that she's doing good."