Prospect Spotlight: Faith Boulanger 2021
One of the biggest, yet not very talked-about storylines out of the Los Angeles area this season is the emergence of Faith Boulanger. The junior with the versatile skill-set has become a driving force behind Burroughs High School and has…
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Continue ReadingOne of the biggest, yet not very talked-about storylines out of the Los Angeles area this season is the emergence of Faith Boulanger. The junior with the versatile skill-set has become a driving force behind Burroughs High School and has developed into a legitimate college basketball prospect.
To this point, she has yet to receive an official offer from a school, but she has heard from a few different programs at both the Division 1 and Division 2 level. Some of the schools that she has heard from include Cal Baptist, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal State San Bernardino.
As she continues to grow and develop as a player, more schools will likely register interest and the offers will start to come in. It’s something she thinks about, and she has a few things she’ll be looking for on and off the court when it comes time to make that decision.
“I want to stay near my family, that’s a big important part,” Boulanger told Prep Girls Hoops. “Also, I don’t know what I want to major in yet so I can’t say I want to go to a school with a good ‘such and such’ program. But I’m interested in video production so a school that involves movies and movie making is something interesting.”
This season, behind Boulanger, the Indians finished 22-6, and 12-2 in Pacific League play. In their final game of the regular season against Burbank High School, Boulanger finished with 28 points and seven steals. On the year, she was Burroughs’ leading scorer at 14.4 points per game.
She also pulled down 8.2 rebounds per game and nabbed 2.4 steals. She’s developed into one of the best shooters on the team as well, knocking down 40 percent of her attempts from behind the arc. She’s able to put the ball on the floor and make plays off the dribble, she can score in the paint, and she can shoot from the outside.
It’s her versatile skill-set that she believes will enable her to play at the college level and make her that much more marketable to potential schools.
“That’s big, that’s able to show schools that I can do what they need me to do. You need me to be a post player, I can do that. It opens up my range of schools,” Boulanger said. “A school needs a small-ball forward, I can do that. They need, not so much a point guard, but someone who can handle the ball a bit, I can do that. It helps more schools look at me.”
With an eye in mind to playing at the next level, Boulanger has identified one key area of her game that she wants to improve upon. Her defensive ability is already strong, but she wants to be able to expand her range on that end of the court.
Against high school competition, she acts a big on the defensive end. She can cover the middle and be a defensive anchor in the paint, deterring opposing players from attacking the rim. But in college, she knows things are going to be different. She probably will be playing more on the wing rather than in the post and to be able to switch on perimeter players defensively is something she’s been working on.
“Once I get to college, I’m not going to be a post or guarding the post. There’s going to be girls on my team who are 6’4 and up,” Boulanger said. “I’m going to be needing to guard the perimeter and all of that. That’s one thing I’ve been trying to work on since freshman year. And each year I can see myself improving, just getting faster with my defensive slides and getting back.”
Boulanger is no different from most top high school players who use AAU basketball in the summertime to get better. However, one of the things that’s set her apart from other players is that she doesn’t play on a big name AAU program with big-time sponsors.
She suits up for Balboa Hills; that’s where she honed her skills during the offseason. She was a focal point for the team, something that she believes helped her play her role at Burroughs.
“Honestly just how big my role is. On that team too I have a pretty big role,” Boulanger said. “It’s carrying that over to this season. I think my aggressiveness on Balboa carries over to our season here.”
With the regular season now over, Burroughs will open CIF playoffs on the road against St. Bonaventure. They lost to St. Bonaventure to open the season, in a game that Boulanger was on a minute restriction due to a hamstring injury.
She is looking forward to leading her team and trying to help them win in the playoffs, but she does have some goals she is hoping to accomplish as she wraps up her junior year.
“I want to get better, that’s the goal throughout the rest of my basketball career. I just want to get better. But a big goal for me this year is to be one of the top players in the CIF,” Boulanger said. “The past two years I’ve gotten second-team All-CIF, I want to be able to get first-team this year. Maybe even MVP of the league. Those are pretty big goals, but it’s something I really want to work to achieve. In order to do that, I really need to step it up and do more for my team to get where I want to be.”