City of Basketball Love

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
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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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Dan Marsh’s 18 seasons running the Abington girls basketball program have been filled with success, including last year’s run to the PIAA Class 6A tournament and 23-7 finish.

Abington has won two and been to three championships in the always-tough District 1 since 2010. The Ghosts won in 2010 and 2017 and appeared in 2015. They’ve been a mainstay in the PIAA tournament.

There’s no doubt the Ghosts were a good team last season; the bar is just set extremely high. Not many programs will look at a fifth-place district finish and second-round loss in states as room for improvement.

“The goal is to compete for districts and states every year,” Marsh said. “We normally do that and with almost everybody back I think we should be in a similar position. We have our top eight or so back. We lost one of our starters to a transfer and another to an ACL but we’re still pretty deep.

“We still go about eight or nine deep where we can replace those kids. So yeah, we should be competitive again.”

The Ghosts fell in the state tournament last year to District 3 champion Central Dauphin, which featured seniors in 6-3 post Caroline Shiery (Liberty) and 5-11 guard Marlie Dickerson (Niagara). Abington’s tallest player was 6-0.

“Their point guard was 6-0,” Marsh said. “That's the thing. The only way we can negate size like that is by pushing the pace and [Central Dauphin] did a really good job of not letting us do that. So we have to make sure that we're a little bit more prepared for that kind of size once we get into districts and states.”

Cire Worley, a 6-0 guard committed to UMass Lowell, returns after surpassing the 1,000-point threshold and receiving first-team all-league and third-team all-state honors in her junior season. The Ghosts will go as she does.

Losing 5-11 wing Jaida Helm, who covered Shiery in states and transferred to Lansdale Catholic for her senior season due to a family move, is a blow. Sophomore Dani Brusha, who impressed as a freshman, is out for the season with a torn ACL, which hurts too. 

It’s the third season in a row the Ghosts have lost a starter due to a torn ACL after Khalis Whiting (Stony Brook) went down last year and Krysten Brown the year before.

“It just sucks,” Marsh said. “It’s like the third year in a row that we’ve lost a starter to a torn ACL. It’s just one of those things that happens. We still went 23-7 last year. So it’s just a next woman up kind of thing. That’s where we are at with Dani going down.”

The Ghosts have players capable of filling in those spots.

Senior guards Abril Bowser, a second-team all-league selection, Maura Day and junior guard Jordyn Reynolds are all back.

Piper McGinley, a 5-5 junior guard, and 5-10 junior forward Sarah O’Leary will both have more opportunities.

Marsh said sophomore guard Maya Johnson has improved through the offseason and looks forward to an increased role for her.

Two freshmen, 5-7 Flo Ajunwa and 5-5 Mikiaya Durham, are names to watch.

The goals remain the same and that starts in a loaded Suburban One League Liberty Division that has made its mark on the district and state levels in recent seasons; two teams from the SOL Liberty have claimed state gold and two have won district gold in just the past six years.

“Our league is always super-competitive,” Marsh said. “I don't even think people understand that we've had two state champions and two district champions from our league in the last five or six years. I'm just talking about our conference. I'm not just talking about [the whole] SOL. We won districts in 2017, Plymouth Whitemarsh won the state championship last year and the district championship, and Upper Dublin won the state championship in 2018.”

The Colonials and Cardinals figure to be the Ghosts’ main competition in division again and Marsh mentioned Souderton, Spring-Ford, and Perkiomen Valley as a few other district opponents that will be challenging to face down the line.

Abington has plenty to manage before playoff season rolls around as it starts the season against West Chester Rustin Friday at Souderton’s Jim Church Classic before Plymouth Whitemarsh visits on December 8. 

Recent history suggests the Ghosts will be seen come late February, early March.