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 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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“Meet the new boss,” Roger Daltry sings as the final line of The Who’s incredible anthem, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’ “Same as the old boss.”

Yeah, there are going to be some new faces in the mix for Penn Charter, the Quaker girls coming off back-to-back Inter-Academic League championships, as well as back-to-back appearances in the independent school state championship game. Aleah Snead (St. Joe’s) and Bella Toomey (Fairleigh Dickinson) are starting their Division I hoops careers, while Gracie Shoup is at Ohio State, now a full-time lacrosse player.

But don’t mistake the turnover for a rebuilding year. Joe Maguire’s got a group fully capable of extending that run of championships into an Inter-Ac three-peat, and they’re not coming into this season with any other goals besides winning it all once again.

“It’s still kind of weird,” junior guard Kaylinn Bethea said after an open gym workout in September. “Everyone’s like ‘Yo Kay, what’s up with the team?’ and I’m like ‘Jeeze, we lost three starters. [But] I feel good about this upcoming season.”

While the Quakers generally romped on their way to an unbeaten 12-0 league record a year ago — Notre Dame was the only team to get within eight points, and they only did it once — things aren’t going to be as easy this time around. Germantown Academy has a strong group back under new head coach Lauren Power, who knows the league plenty well from her time at Notre Dame; her previous stop has a couple impressive-looking freshmen and some experienced seniors of its own as the Irish will be in the mix yet again.

Bethea and freshman guard Ryan Carter are certainly the biggest reason for sustained optimism on School House Lane. The pair of Division I prospects are Maguire’s two returning starters, and they’re a great duo to build around.

A third-year starter, Bethea is a 5-9 combo guard with a scoring touch, coming off a summer where she won a Nike Nationals (EYBL) 16U championship with her Philly Rise squad, played at Rucker Park, and reeled in a few more Division I offers: Temple, George Washington and Lafayette, adding to a list that already included Penn, St. Joe’s, and half the Ivy League.

Carter, a 5-11 guard, is one of the nation’s top freshmen, with high-major offers pouring in throughout the summer and into the fall: Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Arizona, Pitt, Georgia, Florida, Harvard, Penn State, and more, in addition to multiple Big 5 programs. 

“When you have guards like Ryan and Kay, you’ll be in a lot of games,” Maguire said. “Those two have been in big moments already [...] they both have had the spotlight on them with their AAU and stuff like that, they’ve played under every circumstance already. Having them when we need a big shot or need a play, having them able to have the basketball in their hands, can’t ask for a better thing as a coach.”

Beyond that pair, Maguire has some returning experience in the form of senior guard Aditi Foster, a defensive specialist and Northwestern lacrosse commit, and sophomore guard Liv Vieira, who played on the Nike circuit this summer with the Jersey Gemz.  Sophomore guards Marleigh Jackson and Molly Dougherty saw a little bit of varsity action last year; seniors Ashlie Johnson and Ava Egan, juniors Ava DiBenedietto and Kendall Small and sophomore Natalia Modzelewski will all be in the mix for minutes this time around.

The multi-sport composite roster was clear at an open gym in late September, when Bethea and Vieira were two of only four girls available for a shoot-around, Carter still working her way back from an offseason injury.

“We’re looking at open gym workouts with four girls, because it’s our main sport, but I feel like over the season when we have those people who play multiple sports, they can bring different things,” Bethea said. “Like Aditi, she’s really good at lacrosse and defense is her thing on basketball…she knows how to slide her feet and she has that one quick step that I think can help us.”

His players’ lack of availability in the fall isn’t of concern to Maguire, who’s been around Penn Charter long enough to know that his team will mostly be made up of multi-sport athletes. He knows he’ll have a few weeks in November to get everybody on the same page and then a dozen or so non-league games to get ready for the Inter-Ac, whose regular season is the only thing that determines a league champion.

A loaded non-conference with the likes of Perkiomen Valley, Good Counsel (Md.), Bishop McNamara (Md.) and more will be a test for the young squad, but Maguire noted it doesn’t really matter if his team is 2-10 or 10-2 as long as they’re ready for the league. 

“With our schedule, things are going to be tough and we’re going to lose games,” he said. “How we handle that stuff is stuff we need to, as a younger team, be able to work through together.”

Handle it well, and the kids are alright.