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Westtown girls in Florida for GEICO Nationals

03/30/2023, 8:30pm EDT
By Owen McCue & Josh Verlin

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

Grace Sundback thought her time in a Westtown uniform was over more than a month ago when the Moose hoisted the PAISAA championship on February 26.

Then she got a call from coach Fran Burbidge a few weeks ago asking if she and her teammates had one or two more games left in them. The GEICO National Championships needed one more squad and the Moose got the invite.

“I was like, ‘Coach Fran, are you serious? Of course we want to,’” Sundback said. “We thought the season was over but once Coach Fran gave the call, we were all on board. An opportunity like this doesn’t come very often, so we have to take advantage of it. We’re all super excited to soak it all and be able to play on ESPN and play top competition and show our skills off.”


Delaware commit Grace Sundback and Westtown will play on ESPNU on Friday at 12:30 p.m. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The Westtown girls departed from West Chester at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday morning before catching a flight to Fort Myers, Florida for the prestigious year-end event that features eight of the top boys high school teams and four of the top girls teams in the country.

Westtown is seeded third in the four-team girls’ field, which also includes Montverde Academy (Fl.), its first-round opponent at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, which will be televised on ESPNU. Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.) and McDonogh (Md.) meet in the other semifinal at 10:30 AM. The boys’ quarterfinal took place Thursday, the semifinals to follow the girls’ games; the championships are Saturday at 10 AM (girls) and noon (boys).

Even before taking the court it’s been an exciting opportunity with a photoshoot, media interviews and an hour-long practice before a team dinner at Outback Steakhouse near the hotel — and hopefully a good night’s sleep to get ready for Friday’s game.

“It’s a really prestigious thing to have the invite,” Burbidge said. “Myself personally, I’m under no grand illusions that we're a top 10 team in the country at this point, but I think it’s a really cool thing that the Westtown community, Westtown girls basketball, has gotten its name out there where when they had the pool of some teams to pick from and we were in it. For them to pull the trigger and invite us will be really cool.”

“How many high school kids get to play live on TV, ESPN?”

Friday’s nationally-televised game will be the country’s first look at the Moose’s stellar eighth graders, Jordyn Palmer and Jessie Moses. Palmer, a 6-1 forward, has been Westtown’s leading scorer and rebounder on the season, her combination of size, skill, IQ and athleticism continually impressive at her age. Moses, a 5-10 guard, is averaging in double figures as well, a strong outside shooter who loves to get out in transition.

“I think because of the uniqueness of our youth that it makes for a good story,” Burbidge said. 

The Moose will be without senior guard Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick and juniors Zahra King (5-9), who both started for the team this season. But Westtown will still have plenty of talent on the floor in starters Palmer, Sundback and high-major wing Savannah Curry (5-11). Freshman guard Atlee Vanesko, another sharpshooter, came off the bench this season along with Moses and a pair of forwards, junior Michelle Olak (6-1). and sophomore Aidan Langley (6-2).


Eighth grader Jordyn Palmer is one of the exciting members of the Westtown girls basketball program. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

It’s a group that’s got talent at all five positions no matter who’s on the floor, with size, talent, length, athleticism, IQ, maturity — you name it.

They’ll have their hands full with a Montverde team equally stacked with high-major talent. The Eagles feature three seniors ranked in the top 100 by ESPN’s HoopGurlz, including 6-7 senior Lety Vasconcelos (No. 36, Baylor), 6-1 wing Sahnya Jah (No. 40, South Carolina) and 5-10 point guard Mjracle Sheppard (No. 86, Mississippi State), plus 6-3 junior Vivian Iwuchukwu, ranked No. 34 in the 2024 class.

“This is a national championship, so obviously we’re playing against the best of the best,” Sundback said. “If we want to be considered the best or considered to be a part of that group, I think we gotta play against them. So this is a great challenge for us and a great experience for us to show the world how we play and how good we are and what a great group of girls we have.” 

Westtown has been off the last month, the Moose’s last game their 20-point victory over Penn Charter to defend their PAISAA state title on Feb. 26. The school was about to go on spring break when Burbidge got the invite to nationals, but his coaching staff, athletic department, school administrators, players and parents were on board.

In the time since Westtown’s season ended, Sundback said she’d already begun the summer workouts Delaware prepped for her and many of her teammates were practicing and playing with their AAU teams to prepare for the April live periods. There wasn’t any rust to shake off when the group got back together three days ago.

Burbidge hopes his group can pick up where it left off on a dominant eight-game win streak in February.

“I thought the last month of the season, we were playing our best ball and we were playing really well,” Burbidge said. “I said that you’ve earned. You’ve got yourselves out there where people watched you and were impressed with the way you competed and the talent that you have, so you know go out and enjoy it. Have fun with this.”

That’s exactly what his group is planning to do.

”It’s really exciting and it’s a cool experience to finish out with my team and to give them an  opportunity to do really well this year and maybe get invited next year,” Sundback said.


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