Joe Whalen

Following a season in which he guided St. Rose to the Shore Conference Girls Basketball Tournament championship and was named Shore Sports Network Coach of the Year Joe Whalen has resigned as the Purple Roses head coach.

Joe Whalen did not take over the St. Rose girls basketball program to turn an also-ran into a competitive team or even a competitive team into a championship contender. He took over a championship team in order to keep it a championship team year after year...

TRENTON - A valiant effort by St. Rose, a seesaw game that came down to the final minute on Monday night, it was all a prelude to a simple, immutable fact: Marina Mabrey was not going to let Manasquan be denied an NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title...

TOMS RIVER - When the St. Rose girls basketball players say they trust anyone on the court to hit a big shot, that is not just lip service. With the seconds ticking away in the biggest game in program history, the Purple Roses ran a play for a freshman reserve guard who had taken only two shots in the entire game, while using senior star Jess Louro as a screener...

TOMS RIVER - St. Rose senior guard Kat Phipps has all the key attributes of a talented scorer - deep range, a quick release, the ability to get into the lane off the dribble and perhaps the most important one - a short memory. After a tough shooting night in the sectional final, Phipps got back to lighting it up from all over the floor in the Purple Roses' biggest game of the season...

JACKSON - Thanks to the spark from a freshman off the bench and the veteran poise of senior standout Jess Louro, St. Rose's girls basketball team defended its NJSIAA Non-Public South B title with a 45-34 win over Roselle Catholic on Wednesday night at Jackson Liberty...

Before every St. Rose girls basketball practice, senior guard Kat Phipps gets shot at by a gun and then returns fire more than 500 times.