SEATTLE — It could be said that Regina Rogers has been fighting since the day she was born.
Born a few weeks premature, along with twin brother Reginald, she fought through health problems for most of her young life. Then came the need to break out of her father’s shadow, to fit into a world where girls her size aren’t always accepted, and to find that she could go home again.
And then, of course, there are the two, three and sometimes four bodies with which Rogers has to contend in the paint on game nights.
The University of Washington sophomore center has had plenty of reason to feel the weight of the world upon her, and yet Rogers has found a way to carry herself without a hint of self-pity.
“She’s so much fun to be around, and she makes things easy,” teammate Kristi Kingma said. “She’s such a good teammate that you want her to have success. She’s very positive, and she’s very open with us about how she’s feeling. … It’s just her light, goofy personality that makes it fun.”
A former star at Seattle’s Chief Sealth High School, Rogers has made quite an impression on her teammates since transferring from UCLA 18 months ago. She sat out the 2008-09 season under NCAA transfer rules but has quickly become a focus of the Huskies’ offense this year.
“It’s been a huge improvement for us inside,” senior Sami Whitcomb said of Rogers, who ranks second on the team in scoring despite playing limited minutes.
The first thing people notice about Rogers is the size. The 6-foot-3 sophomore describes herself as a female version of father Reggie Rogers, a longtime NFL defensive lineman who was listed at 6-foot-6, 280 pounds.
She spent part of her youth trying to escape her father’s celebrity shadow, from which she was able to break free after falling in love with basketball in the eighth grade.
“I feel like in high school, I made a name for myself,” she said. “But I’ll probably always be in his shadow because I have his name and people say I look like him with a wig.”
The shadow became more apparent when Regina Rogers transferred from UCLA to her father’s alma mater in June 2008. She made the decision to leave Los Angeles after spending most of her freshman year feeling homesick.
Her family — Regina’s father and mother, Sheila Winston, are no longer married — supported the decision.
“My dad loves it,” she said of being a Husky. “My Uncle Chester (Dorsey) also played (basketball) here. So it’s big for them.”
Since returning to her hometown, Rogers has had some family misfortune. Reggie Rogers was involved in an alcohol-related, hit-and-run accident in Nov. 2008 and went to court after being charged with his fifth DUI. He was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this year.
Regina Rogers is still close to her father but spent most of her teenage years with her mother and stepfather, Sheila and Edward Winston, while calling twin brother Reginald her best friend.
“They always hung out, all the time,” said Christina Nzekwe, a UCLA basketball player who went to Chief Sealth and has known the Rogers family since the eighth grade. “Regina really cared about her family, you could tell.”
Despite Regina’s intimidating size, Nzekwe said she never had any trouble fitting in at Chief Sealth.
“She was one of the popular kids,” Nzekwe said. “She was friendly to people. She’d open up to people.”
On and off the basketball floor, Rogers draws inevitable comparisons to former University of Oklahoma star Courtney Paris — for a variety of reasons. They are both the offspring of NFL players (Courtney’s father, Bubba, was an offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers), both have twins (Courtney’s sister, Ashley, played with her at OU) and both have unique size.
Rogers’s success at the high school level made her one of the nation’s most sought-after recruits as she led Chief Sealth to back-to-back 3A state titles. She followed Nzekwe to UCLA but had modest averages of 6.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as a freshman part-time starter.
Since transferring to UW, Rogers has become an immediate focal point but has yet to become the dominating inside force that the Paris twins were at Oklahoma. While her numbers have increased — she averages 9.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game — Rogers commands so much attention from opposing teams that the Huskies have trouble getting her the ball.
“It’s something we haven’t had before,” head coach Tia Jackson said. “We’ve got veteran players who haven’t played with her, so we’re still getting used to it.”
The biggest thing holding Rogers back right now is conditioning. She contracted pneumonia last winter and couldn’t shake it for three months, due in part to a low blood-cell count that resulted from her premature birth. The condition also leaves her susceptible to strep throat and leaves her laid up in bed every time she gets the common cold.
Rogers blames her lack of stamina on the bout with pneumonia, and she has only played more than 20 minutes in two of the Huskies’ 10 games.
“I have a lot more to do as far as playing the way I want to,” said Rogers, whose 18.3 minutes per game rank sixth on the team. “But as the games go on, I feel more comfortable.”
Despite limited action, Rogers has already won over her teammates — both on and off the floor.
“She definitely has that fun personality,” said Whitcomb, the Huskies’ leading scorer. “She’s fun off the court. On the court, she draws so much attention that it’s fun for the guards.
“… People assume she’s slow, that she can’t move that well, but they’re wrong. She’s pretty nimble.”
And in more ways than one, Regina Rogers is something else.
“She’s definitely a full package,” Whitcomb said.
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