Mott Community College women’s basketball coach Ryan Trevithick wants the program he oversees to reflect the Flint community and its proud basketball tradition. At its core, that means grit and toughness. And two of his incoming recruits for next year, Maddie White of Lapeer and Ella Mangett of Davison, embody that vision.
“They’re determined, tenacious, and just 100% relentless,” Trevithick said. “It’s really cool to be able to have players that kind of embody what that Flint, blue collar, hardworking mentality is and both of them do.”
Mangett just wrapped up a successful career at Davison, where she helped the Cardinals win a district title this season. She averaged 6 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game and was one of the top defensive players in the Saginaw Valley Conference. She was named to the All-SVL Second Team this season.
Davison coach Lauhnna McMahan said that the best thing about Mangett is that she plays with maximum effort and intensity at all times.
“She has no turned down volume,” McMahan said. “She’s just 110% all the time. She’s always all over the floor, competing the hardest. She’s so deserving of this opportunity to be a Mott Bear and I’m really excited to support her in the future here.”
It’s exactly that intensity that made Trevithick want to recruit Mangett to Mott. As the girls’ basketball coach at Powers Catholic, he had an up-close view of both Mangett and White as they were conference opponents throughout their high school careers.
“Ella is one of the best defenders that we ended up playing this season,” Trevithick said. “She’s just tough and disciplined and responsive.”
Mangett’s defense-first mentality stems in part from practical advice her dad gave her.
“My mindset has always been, and he’s always helped me, just to hustle,” Mangett said. “If you hustle and play hard, it’ll keep you on the court. I was always a little shorter, so scoring was sometimes hard. I want to stay on the court so the way to do that is to be a good defender. And in my opinion, it feels better to stop someone from scoring than scoring yourself. I love defense.”
She’s loved the game since she was young, and credits her dad with sparking that interest for her.
“My dad played basketball and I’ve been playing basketball since kindergarten,” she said. “He was the first person who introduced it to me and I just love it. It’s not like any other sport.”
Mangett’s focus on defense has also led to more opportunities on offense for her by creating extra possessions and getting easy baskets from steals, deflections, and offensive rebounds. She showed that off on her future home court by scoring 8 points in the Bruin Club Classic all-star game for area seniors last month. She’s also already familiar with Mott academically – she’s started taking classes there as a dual-enrolled high school student. Her goal is to continue to develop her game and continue playing basketball for as long as she can.
“They (the Mott coaching staff) are focusing on developing my skills, which is something that I definitely want,” Mangett said. “They’re focused on me as a player and like building my confidence in my skillset so that I can move on to a four-year school after my two years. The coaching staff was very welcoming and I just felt like it fit me well.”
For White, Trevithick did see her play for Lapeer while coaching Powers, but their connection actually goes back further than that. She actually used to babysit for Trevithick. White plans to pursue a premed track in her education and initially hadn’t planned to continue playing basketball post high school, but the opportunity to play for him at Mott was the right fit for her.
“I really value that he coaches us as people first,” White said. “He cares about us as human beings care and our wellbeing and that really stuck out, how much he cared.”
White’s been part of a program in Lapeer that has been building over the past few years. The team went from just three wins during her sophomore season to 11 her senior year. That is obviously due to her on-court contributions, but she also takes her role as a leader and positive teammate seriously.
“I am a teammate first,” White said.
White’s speed and ability to fill up the stat sheet was a major reason Trevithick wanted her in the program. There were times she was a go-to scorer for Lapeer and others when she was a facilitator. She also impacted the game by being an effective rebounder, defender, and shot blocker.
“Maddie’s one of the biggest game changers as far as tempo goes,” he said. “She can go from start to stop so quickly and she can cover a lot of ground.”
The tenaciousness and versatility both play with are key elements that Trevithick plans to make hallmarks of Mott’s program as he enters his second season as coach.
“It’s just really exciting to see what they’re going to bring to the brand of basketball at Mott moving forward,” he said.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to catch up on all of our headlines every Tuesday.
