City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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HORSHAM — For nearly 30 years, the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s Basketball League has offered an outlet for local college players — and a few alumni — to get in some competitive runs during their summer.

The current iteration of the league is underway with twice-weekly game nights at the Kelly Bollish Gym in Horsham, leading to a playoff wrapping up with the championship game on Aug. 7. Six area Division II and III programs have entered their teams, with three teams featuring a mix of players from different squads rounding out the field. 

From incoming freshmen getting a first look at their new teams to some local legends still lacing up the sneakers for the fun of it, the league lives by its mantra that all players should be given the opportunity to hone their skills for the upcoming collegiate season, have fun and stay fit.

Here are a few notes from last week’s games:

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Kaitlyn Carter (Sr. | Chestnut Hill College)

Being a college athlete in any sport at any level is a major accomplishment and takes a committed individual to make it work.

What Kaitlyn Carter pulled off this past year at Chestnut Hill College then is above and beyond that. Carter, a Penn Charter graduate, was already plenty busy balancing a chemistry major on top of playing basketball and lacrosse but when the Griffins’ soccer team needed a goalkeeper, she was up for it.

Carter pulled off the trifecta, playing a sport in all three seasons and appearing in 61 games between soccer, basketball and lacrosse for CHC.

“I didn’t know that’s how many games I played, that’s a lot,” Carter said. “Soccer was pretty hard on my body just diving all over, basketball is a transition back to the hard floor and then going to lacrosse, my body definitely went through it. But I got through it with the help of our athletic trainers.”

At Penn Charter, Carter started out as a soccer and basketball player before she was talked into giving lacrosse a try, liked it and just became a three-sport athlete. Going into CHC, she signed on to play hoops and lax and pushed soccer to the side just with how physically demanding playing goalkeeper can be.

However, she’s known Griffins women’s soccer coach Jonathan Geist for a long time and when his team needed a keeper this year, she was willing to take it on. All Carter did was end up starting all 20 matches in goal, boasting a solid 1.66 goals allowed average and posting six shutouts.

“They needed a goalie,” Carter said. “I just hopped right in there. I was a little nervous. I think it was harder mentally because I was nervous but during the summer when I knew I was going to play, I worked out with the goalkeeper coach from the men’s team so it felt a little more natural.”

The high school calendar is a little more forgiving to multi-sport athletes, but Carter said the transition from college basketball season into lacrosse season isn’t too tough and the lax season is pretty compressed anyway. Adding a third sport this year did prove to be a little more of a challenge, especially for someone who is big on effort and dedication, there were some sacrifices that had to be made.

“The seasons do overlap, I had to miss some soccer practices, some basketball practices,” Carter said. “Our first official day of basketball practice was on a Saturday, and I had a soccer game, so I had to miss my practice and that’s very hard for me because basketball is my main sport.”

Carter played in 28 games in the basketball season, starting 13 of them as she filled a defensive and stat-stuffing role that featured some strong scoring games and others where she did a little more in the margins as needed. The 5-foot-11 rising senior guard/forward averaged 5.2 ppg, 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.1 steals, but those numbers don’t fully show the different roles she can fill.

In lacrosse, she’s a defensive player as well but one in front of goal and not between the posts. Playing all 13 games and starting 12 this spring, Carter did tally three goals and an assist but most of her work came on defensive and possession stats with 28 ground balls, 15 caused turnovers and seven draw control wins.

“I love defense, defense wins games,” Carter said. “In high school, the lacrosse coach told me I should play defense because it was basically the same thing as basketball.”

Carter said the three-sport marathon was a one-year deal, as she starts studying for dental school this coming school year and won’t be able to fit in soccer again. She’s in for hoops and is most likely going to play lacrosse again while fitting in extra study work in what qualifies as her spare time.

There will be some changes for Carter and her teammates this winter with Reggie Daniels taking over as the new head coach and some new faces coming into the program. So far, the team is off to a solid start in the summer, which Carter hopes keeps building once everyone is back together when classes resume.

“Our team chemistry from this summer league is already really good,” Carter said. “We’re hanging out on and off the court. We had great team chemistry last year and (Daniels) seems like a great guy and great coach.”

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Delaney Finnegan (Fr. | St Thomas Aquinas)

It took a little longer than Delaney Finnegan was anticipating, but the defensive stalwart has found a place to play at the next level.

The stopper for Archbishop Wood announced her commitment to St. Thomas Aquinas at the end of April, a program that didn’t need long to prove it was a good fit for her. She’s got an impressive resume of opposing players held well under their scoring averages, it was just a matter of time until the right program came along to make use of it.

Finnegan is competing on one of the three “draft” teams of players from mixed colleges, but that hasn’t slowed down her usual active playstyle.

“They liked my aggression, my motor, the fact I can keep running and keep defending for an entire game,” Finnegan said. “Hard work, unselfishness, those were all things they said they liked from me.”

Finnegan said she first heard from the Spartans late in Wood’s postseason run and liked everything the program had to offer. St. Thomas Aquinas, located in Sparkhill, NY, is a Division II program that competes in the East Coast Conference.

Even as a key piece of Wood’s three-straight PIAA titles and playing AAU with the Philly Belles, Finnegan didn’t have many college options going into her senior year. She kept working hard and the right opportunity came along as a result.

“I was really grateful that someone noticed me and noticed my value,” Finnegan said. “They saw the little things I can do well. The coaches really care about the girls, and they look at that in recruiting, who would fit where and what they do well.”

Wood’s players have dotted the Philadelphia/Suburban league’s rosters for years and this summer is no exception. Finnegan will face off with fellow 2023 Wood graduate Kara Meredith and her Holy Family teammates (including 2020 Wood alum Lindsay Tretter) on July 11.

Finnegan and her teammates picked up their first win in the league on Thursday, the recent Wood graduate playing the same energetic defense she always does.

“I’m just happy to have somewhere to play this summer,” Finnegan said. “I try the same as I would in a regular game. I’m keeping up how I’d always play, getting back used to it and getting some practice for my next season.”

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Mia Stock (Fr. | Bloomsburg)

Once this league ends, the next time Mia Stock sees most of her teammates it’ll be as opponents.

Stock, who spent her senior season of high school at the Perkiomen School after playing three years at Council Rock South, committed to Bloomsburg in February. This summer, she’s on a team that features five players from future PSAC rival Kutztown, but they’re all getting along for now.

A 5-foot-11 forward, Stock has a versatile game that the Huskies coach Alison Tagliaferri liked quite a bit.

“When I went for my visit, she talked about how much she loves posts and the way I played in the post, so that’s how I knew it was the right fit for me,” Stock said. “That’s my position, so I knew they’d be able to use me.”

Stock, who resides in Richboro, lived on campus at the Perkiomen School this past academic year. She said it was a big change, but one that was overall a positive experience.

“It benefitted me a lot because I was able to put more work in with my coaches,” Stock said. “I was always with my team, so we had a really strong bond.”

With the Perkiomen School playing an independent schedule and in the PAISAA tournament this past season, Stock said it was a chance to play different types of competition. That’s something that’s carried over into the summer league matching up against some more experienced college players, older players or teams that are able to play with more structure due to having a majority of their roster together.

So, even if five of her teammates will be foes in a few months’ time, Stock is fine with putting aside the PSAC rivalry for right now.

“I thought it was funny when I saw who else was on my team,” Stock said. “I like playing with those girls, even though I’m going to be playing against them at Kutztown the next few years.”