New Bishop Guertin girls basketball coach Olivia Orlando likes what she sees from the Cardinals during a recen preseason scrimage. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – She had never done it before.

But there was Olivia Orlando, sitting in the Bishop High School cafeteria performing the most difficult task any head coach from the middle or high school level all the way to, believe it or not, the pros.

Delivering the good or bad news to players on cutdown day.

“It was hard, I’m not going to lie,” said Orlando, the new head girls basketball coach at Bishop Guertin High School. “A lot of these girls have been coming to open gyms, whether it was summer open gyms, fall open gyms. We’ve participated in fall league, jamborees, I’ve seen them all. We’ve had really, really good numbers. It’s hard when you have a varsity squad and you’re taking 12, 13 for numbers purposes, how things kind of flow, getting into a rotation, that sort of thing. So to take a small number of kids and have over 30 kids in the gym, that’s really hard. … You never want to be the bearer of bad news or crush somebody else’s dreams.”

Luckily for Orlando, she didn’t have to make complete cuts with three teams (varsity, JV, freshemen).

But this was something she’d only experienced being on the other end. And she certainly remembers it.

“I do, I do,” she said, experiencing that process at Tilton School. “I went as a freshman, I’ll never forget. There were all upperclassmen on the team, juniors and seniors. Of the players was like 6-foot-4, really tall, really skilled. Her am I, a scrawny freshman wearing braces, I don’t know what I’m doing, really.”

And that year, she had a conversation with the head coach, Tara Brisson, who told her the varsity was really talented, that Orlando was very young – just 13 years old — and that the experience would only make her better. So she made it

“Luckily, she took a chance on me,” Orlando said with a grin. I was able to compete against some really, really talented players, and it only made my game better. … But it wasn’t easy.”

And now Orlando, who went on to play four seasons at Tilton and then compete in the Big East at Providence College, takes over a program that the now retired coach Brad Kreick built into something with elite status. It’s been the most dominant girls basketball program the area and perhaps the state has seen since the days of the late John Fagula at Nashua High. But after six Division I titles in eight years, the program with Kreick stepping down and its nucleus all graduated will take on a different look this winter with virtually no varsity returnees. And a new coach, who makes her debut when the season opens next week.

That makes this her team, completely.

“It’s obviously a challenge, having everyone be brand knew, myself included,” she said. “I think the really exciting thing about it is we’re all learning, and we all get to grow together.

“We have a couple of seniors, a couple of juniors, but the bulk of our varsity lies in the freshmen and sophomores. Yes, we’re so young, but what have we got to lose? We all enjoy the game of basketball because we love it, but we’re here to grow. To get better. You know, if we lose this game, how are we going to turn it around to get a win the next game. What could we do better? The wins will come, but more so the focus this year is what kind of culture are we going to build to help us get there, develop our skills, and get those wins.”

THE PROVIDENCE EXPERIENCE

“It was incredible,” Orlando said. “I loved every second of it. I was surrounded by incredible teammates, an awesome coaching staff, incredible weight lifting coach, training staff. The resources there were just insane.”

If Orlando thought things were intense at Tilton, she was in for an eye-opening experience at Providence, especially after UConn returned to the Big East.

“You’re thinking, ‘It’s a really different ballgame out here,'” she said. “The pace, you think it’s fast in high school, it’s even faster. The physicality, you think it’s tough in high school, it’s even tougher in college. Things like that, as athletes it’s in our nature (to say) I’ll either run with the bulls or get run over by the stampede, right? It was challenging.”

What made it even more challenging was Orlando was recuperating from knee surgery at the start of her freshman year at PC. She didn’t really see much playing time since toward the end of that season as she worked to get her timing down and get in game shape.

Orlando had choices. She was recruited by schools like Northeastern, Boston University, Merrimack, but being a “huge competitor” the draw of the Big East was too good to pass up. “To be able to compete at a really high level was always a dream of mine,” she said.

But the recruiting was fun for the Georgetown, Mass. native. In her mind, there is nothing better than the visiting/recruiting experience. She met with the coaches at Providence, saw film, met the players, saw how practices were run, etc. “When you know,” Orlando said, “you know.”

So did Kreick. He asked Orlando after she had worked out at various BG open gyms if she was interested in coaching.

But years before that, Orlando had a couple of friends playing for the Cards that she had met playing AAU ball, and watched BG games growing up when she was younger, including BG’s 2012 title win over Londonderry. That was pre-Kreick, but years later she was in college and knew of the Cards’ open gyms in the summer.

“We would just make a bunch of teams and all just play,” Orlando said. “And I remember after one of the nights Brad came up to me and said ‘Have you ever thought about coaching?'”

But Orlando was still playing at Providence and going to school, so she told him that was something she wanted to do down the road. But the seeds were planted.

“I had thought about it before,” she said, “but I hadn’t started to think about it (again) until he asked me that question.”

Fast forward a year, Orlando had graduated, her college career done, and she was in grad school for elementary education. But that was still in the Providence area, and she obviously didn’t want to commute.

But a year later, the stars aligned. Kreick asked for the third time, and she began coaching the Cards’ fall league team’s games at Rivier. Of course that’s different; no practices, etc., and not much non-game contact with the players at all. But certainly not laid back.

“It was intense,” Orlando said. “And a little bit intimidating. If you think about it, you have these upperclassmen who have really built this really strong, talented team together over the course of three or four years. They’re familiar with each other and they’re probably going ‘Oh, who’s this new lady trying to step in and coach us here.’ So it’s challenging when you have that boundary. They’ve kind of developed their team, their culture, their chemistry, and here I am kind of the outsider stepping in.

“It was super exciting. Relationship building is super important in the game of basketball. The Xs and O’s are obviously super important, but you have to know your players, what makes them go, what makes them tick, how are you going to reach them, right?”

She found a way. Orlando got the experience of running a game,and enjoyed the experience. She got some great advice from Brisson, who taught her that it was important to be a good person “outside of basketball” plus have that internal fire. “She said, ‘You have to hate losing more than you love winning,'” Orlando said. “But she also said sometimes it’s bigger than the game of basketball, how are you building relationships, how are you encouraging and molding these really young kids to be good people of society.

“At the end of the day, you’re tying the laces for the last time. What are you or who are you going to be in the world? She was a really, really good coach who knew how to get to her players and get the most out of her players, but also took the time to get to know us as people.”

And that, Orlando said, is one of her goals in coaching the Cardinals. “I want you to reach your potential as a player and I’m going to do everything in my power to help you get you there,” she said, “but I want to know you first. Like how are we going to get you there, together, right. That’s been always my mindset.”

Orlando then worked to get to know the players over the summer in workouts.

Growing up in Georgetown, Mass., Orlando gave just about every sport a try – including ice hockey. But she always came back to basketball.

“I immediately fell in love with it,” she said. “I loved every part of it. I’ve always loved competing, but definitely found my skill set best in basketball.”

New Bishop Guertin girls basketball coach Olivia Orlando goes over a play during a time out in a recent scrimmage. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

New Bishop Guertin girls basketball coach Olivia Orlando goes over a play during a time out in a recent scrimmage. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Of course, Orlando is learning a lot about the coaching world as she’s now leading a program.

“There’s a lot of things that go into it,” she said. “In the back of your mind, there’s a few things you go ‘Oh that makes sense’ but you don’t consciously think about (them).”

Things like transportation, got a med kit/trainer, what’s the practice plan, etc.

“There’s so many things, you think basketball, and you’re on the court and you’re playing and competing against a team, x’s and o’s and go win the game. But there’s so many other things that go into it.

“All really exciting things, but you don’t know what you don’t know. But we’re finding our rhythm and it’s working.”

Orlando made it through the process of establishing the varsity and JV teams. Players sat in the runway up from the caf to the gym either waiting to be called down to talk and get the news, or waiting for their friends.

It was a long process, but all survived with smiles, including the head coach.

“None of them are broken from this,” Orlando said. “They’re using that to fuel their fire.”

And the match has been lit to begin the Olivia Orlando Era for BG girls basketball.