Julianna Tropea is a junior at CB South and she is a starting guard for the girls’ basketball team. She has been on the CB South varsity team since she was a freshman and has been playing basketball since 3rd grade.

In her game against Council Rock North this past Friday her coach, Coach Mattern said, “Jules was the leading scorer of the game with 23 points. She also had nine rebounds and two steals.”

Julianna prepared herself for the game in many ways.

“I went over my game plan and watched film the day before of CR North and watched my girl I had to defend, and I noticed she was a good shooter,” Julianna said. “I also shot before the JV game to practice and warm myself up.”

After the game on Friday Julianna said, “It felt good (to score 23 points) it felt like my hard work was paying off.”

Coach Mattern said, “She is a quiet leader who is always working hard.” Julianna practices an extensive amount to accomplish what she had in that game.

“I practice every day and on Sunday I go to my AAU gym and shoot with my coach. Even if my work doesn’t show in points, it shows in other ways like assist, steals, and rebounds. I had a double double in my first game of the season against West Chester Henderson.”

Coach Mattern said, “She is very serious in practice. Her work ethic is fantastic, and she is always trying to get better.”

Julianna also practices a lot with her AAU coach, and she said, “We work a lot on ball handling and shooting and I became a lot better over the summer at those things.”

In the Cheltenham game this past Tuesday Coach Mattern said, “Jules had to defend the best player. It helps that Jules has great body control and really quick feet.”

Even though it wasn’t her best game with 13 points, Julianna said, “It’ll push me to do better next game. I had some stupid turnovers and didn’t get back on defense sometimes.”

Balancing basketball and school can be challenging sometimes. Julianna is in 3 AP classes in season, and she tries to get her homework done during lunch and in her free time.

Coach Mattern said, “I expect a lot from them like being on time and being role models and she meets all of those expectations.”

Julianna enjoyed many parts of her seasons so far. “One my favorite highlights from the season was the big win against Pennridge and I scored 21 points and defended a D2 commit who just had her 1000th point.”

In the current season right now, Julianna said the team is right in the middle of the conference with being the third seed out of six and she thinks they can get it up to second with a lot of hard work. “We just have to beat the teams we already played,” she said. “North Penn will be a big game since we lost against them and they’re above us.”

Her current goals for the season are to make more outside shots and be more confident going to the basket. She also wants to set up her teammates so they can score as well. Coach Mattern said, “She’s trending in the right direction.”

Gabby, Julianna’s twin and teammate said, “She has improved her shot a lot and has become more confident with the ball.”

In the future Julianna said she wants to continue basketball after high school with playing most likely D2 or D3 in college. So far, she said the recruiting process isn’t stressful.

“All the coaches I have talked to are very nice and I’m excited to play in college. I got an offer from Widener and Eastern, they both interest me and they both have good engineering programs.” She is also looking at a school with good academics for what she wants to major in which will either be engineering or chemical engineering.

When the recruiters come to Julianna’s games, she handles herself calmly with a positive mindset. “I don’t feel stressed, I know everything happens for a reason and it’s how you carry yourself rather than score and they also look at the little things like body language and eye contact.”

Julianna doesn’t want to pursue basketball in college just for the game, but also for the positive atmosphere it surrounds her with. “It gives me friends and it’s like a whole different family.”

Off the court, Julianna plays another sport that she started last year, flag football. She does that in the spring for South.

She also enjoys hanging out with friends and family to balance a social life with sports. Gabby said, “We are super close and spend a lot of time together going almost everywhere together.”