City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2022-23 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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There’s a phrase the ears of Taylor Gurysh, Reese Zemitis and Lola Ibarrondo have heard floating around the halls of Neshaminy and around the Suburban One League. It’s a reference to the trio of Neshaminy players around whom the team will center its 2022-23 attack, three all-league candidates who will all be playing at the next level.

“We’ve heard multiple different people in our league saying it, or people outside, like ‘these are the Big Three that we have to watch,’” Zemitis said. “It’s definitely something that we’ve heard.”

“The ‘Big Three’ is a phrase I think has come from other teams and rightfully so, they’re three of our better players,” Neshaminy coach John Gallagher said. “We don’t really discuss it in a one-on-one or one-on-three situation — we do discuss performances, [and] game-to-game, practice-to-practice, those three seem to lead us.”

Zemitis, Ibarrondo and Gurysh don’t call themselves the ‘Big Three,’ too modest to make it their own boastful slogan — but they don’t hate it, either.

“It’s a great feeling,” Zemitis said, “but we have to just stay focused, and — I don’t want to say live up to it, but (the) job’s not finished.”

Whether Gurysh, Zemitis and Ibarrondo call themselves the ‘big three’ or not, there’s no doubt the trio will have a lot of responsibility this year. 

Gurysh, a 5-foot-10 wing and Kutztown commit, is the anchor of the three, the team’s most experienced senior and a third-year captain. She’s a solid outside shooter and won’t hesitate to take advantage of driving lanes, showing off her scoring acumen in a 28-point outing in the Kutztown preseason showcase earlier in October.

Even though Gallagher coached both Zemitis and Ibarrondo on the AAU circuit for a couple years before becoming their high school head coach, he singled out Gurysh for being his “go-to” connection between the team and coaching staff each of the last two years, calling her “very mature” in her way to understand the way the team felt and communicate that to the coaching staff.

“He kinda started relying on me for things and I would always be there, if he needed something I’d always say something, like oh I can do that for you,” Gurysh said. “I honestly love being that person that people can go to all the time.”

Ibarrondo, a 5-7 junior guard, is in her second year at Neshaminy, coming over after a freshman year at Conwell-Egan. She was more familiar with Gallagher, having played for him on the AAU circuit with the Mid-Atlantic Magic since eighth grade — with Zemitis as one of her teammates — but it took her a little bit to get adjusted to going from a small Catholic school to a large public school.

“At first, she was very nervous, and I get it — a big school, a huge change,” Gurysh said. “She was very nervous and kind of shy, but as the year went on last year, she really developed good connections with every player, and I think it showed through her performance, too. She’s getting more confident, and this year she’s doing so well.”

“She’s awesome for us,” Zemitis said. “Her ability just to see the floor, she’s such a slasher and you can see her shot is improving [...] she’s able to get the ball up, get us points when we need it or get someone open. She’s been a huge addition for us, really thankful that she came to Neshaminy.”

Zemitis is the biggest name on the squad, a 6-1 junior wing with more than a dozen Division I offers, all of those schools in love with her shooting ability at the ‘4,’ not to mention her ever-increasing skill set. Zemitis has been one to watch for her first two years at Neshaminy, but the flurry of offers this offseason has drawn even more attention to her whenever she’s on the court.

Half the Ivy League or more is after Zemitis, including Penn, which offered this summer; Harvard, Niagara, Manhattan, Loyola (Md.), Columbia and Bucknell are among her other more recent offers.

“She’s an amazing teammate to play with,” Ibarrondo said. “She’s never going to put you down, she’s always rooting for you, she always has your back, and she’s just an offensive threat anywhere on the court.”

Of course, it’ll take more than just three players to win a Suburban One League title and accomplish their bigger goals. 

Senior guards Jess Purdy (5-7) and Lindsay Little (5-6) are going to provide additional scoring pop, while senior Anna Soska (6-0) and junior Ava Irizarry (5-6) give them more upperclassmen experience. Another senior, guard Mimi Smith, will miss the entire season after tearing her ACL earlier this fall. 

Both Gallagher and his star players all also focused on sophomore Alena Cofield as someone who’s going to play a significant role this season. The 5-3 guard has made her mark in offseason workouts and events, especially on one end of the court.

“Her defense is just suffocating,” Ibarrondo said. “She will step up and defend anyone you put in front of her.”

“She’s a shorter player but she’s insanely fast, insanely athletic,” Zemitis agreed. “She’s going to be a huge asset for us on our defensive end.”

It’s a group that has hopes of knocking Pennsbury off the Suburban One League Liberty Division, after Ava Sciolla and the Falcons have finished on top the last two years, since the SOL went to a four-division format. Pennsbury’s still a threat, but with Sciolla off at Maryland, the door is open 

Neshaminy’s biggest goal is to make it further in the PIAA Class 6A state tournament after falling to Archbishop Carroll in last year’s first round. The “easiest” way to do that is to earn a higher seed in the District 1 6A tournament than the No. 10 seed they were a year ago, which would help them end up with a better spot than the 1-11 spot in the state bracket.

Getting a better seed, of course, only happens with a better regular season, which means bettering their 16-6 regular-season record of a year ago. 

And who better to start the season with than that very Pennsbury squad? On Dec. 8 at Pennsbury, Neshaminy gets a major chance to start off on the right foot.

“We really want to go out and get a nice victory over them, and possibly take the SOL,” Ibarrondo said. “We feel like we have a really good chance of taking our division, if we take down Pennsbury [in] the first game.”