City of Basketball Love

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
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Penn Charter girls basketball had last won the Inter-Ac in 1998 and watched as Germantown Academy dominated the league, winning or sharing the title in 20 of the 22 seasons to follow. The COVID-19 pandemic caused no official champions to be named in 2021.

“Since freshman year, it’s always been our goal to beat them,” senior and Fairleigh Dickinson commit Bella Toomey said of Germantown Academy. “It wasn’t even to win the league. Obviously that would be awesome but we just wanted to beat Germantown Academy.

“We didn’t get that freshman year. Then we did sophomore year for the first time and it was like, ‘Now we want to win the league.’ We want to take the league over.”

Penn Charter’s time is now; the Quakers have won back-to-back Inter-Ac titles, going a perfect 12-0 in the league to win it all by three games over Notre Dame and Germantown Academy.

“It feels amazing that we set a goal for ourselves and accomplished that goal,” said senior Aleah Snead, the Quakers’ leading scorer, league MVP nominee, and St. Joe’s commit. “Going back-to-back is history and I am proud to be a part of that.”

The Quakers could not get over the Germantown Academy hump when these seniors were freshmen. Penn Charter had a good team that went 25-4 and lost in the state championship, but lost to GA twice.

“It was a mental hurdle going into those games against Germantown,” eighth-year Penn Charter head coach Joe Maguire said. “We had a really good senior class that year and we lost four games, twice to Abington Friends and twice to GA.”

Penn Charter cleared that hurdle the next season.

“Beating them twice that COVID year kind of got us over that mental hurdle,” Maguire said. “I don’t think they looked at them as, you know, this unbeatable team anymore.”

The Inter-Ac dynamic began to change during Snead, Toomey, and Gracie Shoup’s sophomore season as Penn Charter defeated GA twice. The Quakers went 7-1 in that pandemic-shortened season and were unofficial co-champions of the league with Academy of Notre Dame. Those Quakers — led by seniors Ava Coyle, Laila Hamiter, Kate Haughey, Kate Hnatkowsky, Jamie Kubach, Molly McMahon, and Janae Stewart — paved the way for future success.

That hit a crescendo when Penn Charter broke the 24-year championship drought last season. The seniors last year — Maddie Shoup, Amani Rivers, and Kayla Bradby —  provided guidance to this season’s talented crop of seniors. Snead, Toomey, and Shoup are now showing the younger players — namely key contributors in sophomore Kaylinn Bethea and eighth grader Ryan Carter — what it takes to keep Penn Charter atop the Inter-Ac.

“The leadership last year’s seniors had was so great,” Snead said. “I’ve tried to grow and develop more of a leadership role like the previous seniors. I really worked on myself and leadership, not only for myself, but to show the future leaders of the team.”

Snead (16.2 points per game) leads the way with Toomey (10.6), Carter (10.2), Bethea (9.1), and Shoup (5.4) contributing their fair share. It goes beyond scoring as each player also averages at least 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals. Everyone just wants to win.

“They’re way beyond their years already with everything,” Toomey said. “It’s still just like the little things. Sometimes you have to go over and be like, ‘What’s wrong?’ Just pick them up. I’ve just tried to teach them the culture of Penn Charter, which is a culture of high-level basketball. 

“[Snead, Shoup, and I] are seasoned players and we know how it’s supposed to be done. I think we’re doing a good job of trying to teach them. Then they’ll turn around and teach the next kids.”

Penn Charter is 68-20 overall and 40-4 in the Inter-Ac during these seniors’ careers.

The Quakers now shift their focus to the PAISAA Tournament; they are the No. 2 seed and will host either George School or The Hill School in the quarterfinals Saturday at 2 p.m. The Quakers lost 51-50 to Westtown in last year’s PAISAA final, unquestionably some added motivation heading into the tournament.

The first goal was winning the Inter-Ac; it’s a whole different level being able to claim the title of best in the state.

“I know we can win the title,” Toomey said. “I think the biggest thing is that we know we were in there last year and lost by one. We know what it’s like to lose. So we almost have an advantage in that sense because we don’t want to have that feeling again.”

Penn Charter dusted off the Inter-Ac championship banner donning the walls of the Graham Athletics and Wellness Center and have rebuilt a program with the potential to sustain its success. Now the goal is to hang a state-title banner. And to never let those banners get dusty again.