Little Flower

The Sentinels lost Honorable Mention All-Catholic Alana LaCombe as well as fellow senior Megan Trasser. Buchter will rely on 5-8 senior forward Kelly Bauer, who has been in the rotation since her freshman year and will be “a big force underneath, according to her head coach. Brooklyn Grant, a 5-7 junior forward, “has really come into her own, as Buchter noted and should be a nice complement to Bauer up front. Three seniors in Maura Budd, Natalie O’Neill and Amy Owen should also be key contributors.

The move to a division with comparable teams should help Little Flower establish a building block in Buchter’s second year.

“It can motivate them to realize at their own level they can compete,” Buchter said. “It will be better competition and they’ll be better. There’s more to work and fight for.”

Senior Kiyann Peterson stepped in and had a strong year on her way to Honorable Mention All-Catholic. She had a 16-point game vs. John W. Hallahan and 17 against Harry S. Truman. The 5-3 guard will be one of the top scoring options in the Eagles starting lineup. Kylie Maroney, a 5-8 senior forward, had her season cut short due to a concussion. She only played in 10 of the team’s 22 games. She had 15 points against William Tennent last season and she strengthen Conwell-Egan’s frontcourt. 5-5 senior guard Angel Crowell is the Eagles sole captain. She had a 14-point, seven-bound game vs. Little Flower a year ago. 5-3 junior guard Gia Brennan, Chris’ daughter, “and Kiyaan took on bigger roles in the point department with injuries,” according the head coach. 

Greenberg is hoping to return the Lancers program back to one of the top in the league like it was the late 1980s when head coach Tom Lonergan won four Philadelphia Catholic League titles in 15 years including two led by Cindy Griffin, the Saint Joseph’s women’s head basketball coach and a high school classmate of Greenberg’s.

Lonergan won 500-plus games between his time in Wyncote and Central Bucks East and Greenberg is hoping he can duplicate that success after working under boys coach Will Chavis.

“It came about by surprise,” Greenberg said. “A couple of people had asked me if I was interested and I was happy because the boys program has been doing a lot of good things under Coach Will. I decided it was time to make a change, jump in and help rebuild the program at McDevitt.”

The Lancers advanced to the league playoffs but fell to Lansdale Catholic, 46-43. They rebounded to claim the District 12 Class 2A title and advanced to the PIAA 2A Tournament, where they bowed out to York Catholic in the opening round.

Two accomplished members of that team are gone in Nyah Johnson, now at Roberts Wesleyan College (N.Y.), and Dana Mizelle, an 1,000-point scorer now at East Stroudsburg, both of whom were Honorable Mention All-Catholic's last year.

He’ll look to Amiyah Dixon and Caroline Cunnane, both seniors captains who have been with the program for a few years, and Kate McNally, a volleyball and lacrosse player who Greenberg has helped develop into a key piece this season.

St. Hubert

Another program under a second-year head coach is hoping to show improvement. Dave Schafer leads St. Hubert’s (4-18, 3-9) for his second season. The team showed flashes of improved last season including a three-game winning streak following an 0-4 start in league play. He’ll be without Sarah Hartigan, an Honorable Mention All-Catholic who is playing lacrosse at Holy Family after breaking the Bambies all-time scoring record with 160-plus goals. Returning is 5-4 junior Alex May, who had six points against Souderton, 5-8 senior forward Cassidy Ruk and 5-8 junior Payton Pugh, who each had 19 points vs. Little Flower last year.

The Patriots will be without Harlem Jennings (USciences), who had 15 points in the league title game, and Mary DeSimone (West Chester).

Drexel commit Erin Sweeney, a 5-10 senior forward, is back after averaging 18.4 points per game on her way to being named First Team All-Catholic. She had 37 points in a game against West Catholic and 19 in the state title game. She also surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the second round of the PIAA 5A playoffs vs. Gettysburg.

She’ll be joined by 5-4 sophomore guard Grace O’Neill, who had 13 points and converted the go-ahead basket with 1:28 remaining in OT of the Philadelphia Catholic League title game. The Second Team All-Catholic selection, who Shields said has a “willingness to step on the court and a presence. She now better understands what we’re asking her to do and how to be more vocal as a point guard,” had 15 points against the Vikings in the state quarterfinals. 

Hope Syron, 5-11 senior forward, returns as well as 5-7 junior guard Karli Dougherty, who hit a game-tying three-pointer and the go-ahead basket to down Cardinal O’Hara last season. She also had six points in that PIAA 5A title game. One new addition is junior Maggie Grant, a transfer from Bishop Shanahan, who was an Honorable Mention All-Ches-Mont League and had five points against West Chester Henderson in the District 1 Class 5A quarterfinals.

McDonald has several options to replace what the Class of 2019 did. It starts with 5-8 senior guard and Holy Family commit Lindsay Tretter and 5-8 junior guard Noelle Baxter, who had eight points against Archbishop Carroll in the state playoffs. The player who should make the biggest jump is 6-0 sophomore guard Ryanne Allen. Allen was an Honorable Mention All-Catholic and already has offers from La Salle, Drexel, St. Joe’s and Rider while Boston College and Penn State are also showing interest. She had 11 points against Cardinal O’Hara in the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs and 12 vs. the Patriots in the PIAA 4A quarterfinals.

A big addition is 6-1 senior and Northeastern commit Izzy Larsen. A transfer from Wesleyan (Ga.) where she helped her team win two Georgia High School Association A Private titles. Larsen, who had 16 points in the state quarterfinals a year ago, “makes us a lot tougher. She gives us a post-up presence and can play with her back to the basketball. She can give us an inside-outside presence,” according to McDonald.

Still, the mainstay and focal point of the offense is 5-10 junior guard and two-time First Team All-Catholic selection Kaitlyn Orihel. She avg. 17.1 ppg last season which included a career-high 31 points (16 in the fourt quarter) and league postseason record 19-for-20 from the free-throw in the semifinals against Neumann-Goretti.

 Orihel has already established herself as a dominant scorer and an elite player in the Philadelphia Catholic League but McDonald feels she could be poised for her best season yet with the amount of talent around her.

Sixth-year head coach Andrea Peterson has Johnson evolve in someone who can carry a team by themselves.

“She’s our leader and only senior,” Peterson said. “She makes it a lot easier for a coach when you have a point guard who sees the floor, can make decisions, sees matchup issues and can single handedly take over a game herself.”

Peterson has had success as both a coach with four state titles and as a player. She won two league crowns with Archbishop Carroll in 2003 and 2004 while also being a two-time First Team All-Catholic. She was also the starting point guard for Drexel, where she led the Dragons to the 2009 Colonial Athletic Association championship and the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.

Joining Johnson will be 5-7 junior guard Jonelle Price, who “saw minutes last year and has really matured tremendously,” according to Peterson. She had seven points against Warrior Run in the PIAA 3A second round. Omoiye Jordan, a 5-8 junior, is the best shooter on the Neumann-Goretti roster and Prunelle Mungo, a 6-2 junior forward, will be an option in the frontcourt.

Cardinal O’Hara

Chrissy Doogan begins her second season overseeing Cardinal O’Hara (15-12, 8-4). The two-time Philadelphia Catholic League MVP took over for storied coach Linus McGinty last season. In Doogan’s first season, the Lions fell to Archbishop Wood in the league quarterfinals, failing to advance to the title game for the first time since 2016. They bounced back to win the District 12 Class 6A title, their 10th straight district crown, over Central, 76-29. They made a run to the PIAA 6A quarterfinals before falling to Neshaminy. The only key player lost from last season was Kerry Patterson, a two-year starter playing at USciences.

Doogan returns a young roster and it starts with sophomore Sydni Scott, the only freshman named First Team All-Catholic last year. She had 17 points in a game against Conwell-Egan and 11 vs. Spring-Ford in the second round of the PIAA 6A Tournament. Sophomore Maggie Doogan, Chrissy’s daughter, had 11 points in the opening round of the state playoffs against Plymouth-Whitemarsh and should only expand her role in year two. Sophomore Siobhan Boylan had nine points vs. the Vikings in the league quarterfinals and will be one of the Lions options down low.

Additionally, they also fell to another champion, Archbishop Carroll in the league semifinals a month prior to that. Head coach Tom Stewart, in his 27th season at the helm of the Pandas, must replace Maeve McCann, who avg. 11.5 ppg and is now playing at Jefferson University, Ariana McGeary (Cabrini  University) and Dakota McCaughan, who transferred to Ridley High School for her final season. McCaughan had 22 points against Bishop McDevitt (District 3) in the state quarterfinals.

The Pandas are hoping to make another run in the state playoffs but also return to the Palestra. Senior Alexis Gleason (West Chester) returns for her third year as a starter. 

The Burrs have become a program that consistently makes the league playoffs and has become a regular in the state playoffs under Osueke. She has developed a way to prepare her team for each part of the season including a potential trip to multiple postseasons.

“The number one thing I’ve learned as a coach is pacing,” Osueke said. “In my first three or four years, I think I was trying to make us respectful. I wanted us to respect each other, develop talent and challenge them. After a while, the regular season come postseason time felt like preseason. I always say we have three separate seasons: regular, the Catholic League tournament and the state tournament. I try to space it out and not harp on everything right away.”

Destiney McPhaul, a 5-8 junior guard and a First Team All-Catholic, will be a go-to option for the Burrs. She was a Second Team All-Catholic as a freshman when West Catholic advanced to the state title game.

Archbishop Ryan

While Archbishop Ryan (12-10, 7-5) was the only Red Division team not to make the state playoffs last year, Mike McCusker’s team will have to replace one of the most accomplished players in program history. Monee Moore, who McCusker emphasized, “you can’t replace people with her,” was a three-time First Team All-Catholic now playing at Holy Family. She scored 1,003 career points, becoming only the third player in Ragdolls history to score 1,000 joining Jen Snell, who played at Villanova, and Jess Koci, who led Archbishop Ryan to the PIAA 4A title game in 2010 and played at La Salle. Another missing piece will Shayne Glenn (Delaware Valley), who was a Second Team All-Catholic last year.

The Raiders fell to Neumann-Goretti, 67-61 in the Philadelphia Catholic League quarterfinals. Without Moore and Glenn, the roster is fairly young as there will be only three upperclassmen on the 11-player roster. Tori Nigro was a Second Team All-Catholic as a freshman. The 5-4 point guard had 14 points in a game against Bonner-Prendergast.

 McCusker will look to her to not only run the offense but take it upon herself to score a lot more than her first season.

“We inserted her right away,” McCusker said. “She has very good knowledge of the game and she’s a terrific point guard. Teams will be a little more focused on her because she’s a returning All-Catholic and we lost two, great scorers. She’s got a lot more on her plate this year.”

She’ll be joined by seniors Gabi Deluisi and Cait Geiger, who was a starter last season, as well as junior Luca Verello.