City of Basketball Love

By Antonello Baggi (@AntonelloBaggi)
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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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A PAISAA championship for the second year in a row, a Friends League title for the third year in a row and a last minute invitation at the GEICO nationals. Last season brought a lot of success for Westtown coach Fran Burbidge’s program, but the Moose were just getting started. 

The 58-51 loss against top ranked Montverde Academy (Fla.) was a learning experience and another reminder that this team can compete with the best of the best in the nation.

Burbidge is not looking back at last year’s 21-5 record. He wants to approach the upcoming season game by game, without thinking too far ahead.

“We kind of go year to year in the sense of looking at the personality, looking at who we have and just trying to get better as individuals and better as a team and we kind of let whatever comes along with that show itself,” Burbidge said in a phone call last month. “We don’t really go into the season with like winning this, winning that [...] all teams have goals, winning championships, but we don’t talk a lot about that, we just talk about just getting better [...] working hard and in the end we’ll take our heads up and see where we are at. ” 

The Moose lost a key piece in captain Grace Sundback, who is now at Delaware and was considered by Burbidge a very valuable leader on and off the court. They will also be without the experience and points of Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick, continuing her career at Seton Hall. 

Even though the roster is filled with young players, many of them already gained tons of experience and played crucial minutes last season, including sophomore Atlee Vanesko and freshmen Jordyn Palmer and Jessie Moses, who were key contributors as eighth graders last season .

Palmer is entering her freshman year, but she was already dominant last year.  The 6-1 forward was a starter and led her team in scoring (15 ppg) and rebounding (8.5 rpg) while also adding 3.0 apg and 3.0 spg.

She’s one of the nation’s top 2027 players and was a finalist for the USA basketball U16 squad this summer. She will certainly have her pick of DI programs to choose from when it becomes time for that.

“She is a versatile, highly skilled kid, has great demeanor, plays with a great pace, toughness, she is now extending her game,” Burbidge said. 

“She has worked really hard and continues to work really hard and that’s gonna be a big asset of hers as far as shooting the ball from the perimeter too. She has the ability to get to the rim and rebound the ball and put it back. She is a really, really good passer, really good teammate, so we are blessed in the sense that she is not only a really talented kid but she is a really really good teammate, who not only plays hard in games but also practices really hard too.”

Senior guard Zahra King is a high-major talent who averaged 13.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.8 apg and 1.5 spg, while shooting 52 percent from the field last season and scored 21 points in the PAISAA championship game.

She narrowed her list of schools to seven over the summer but is still trying to figure out where she’ll play after this season.

“She has a handful of skills, [...] a highly skilled, athletic left-handed player who has the ability to create her own shot,” Burbidge said. 

Another experienced senior will be Temple commit Savannah Curry, a 5-11 sniper who averaged 9.1ppg and 5.0 rpg last season. 

“Be a leader on and off the court by doing whatever is necessary for our team to get most of our potential and hopefully get my 10 threes in a game, a goal I had for a while,” Curry said about her goals.Her record is eight threes in a game.”  

Senior 6-foot-1 forward Michelle Olak is another returning piece from the 2024 class.

Junior 6-1 forward Aidan Langley, who received an offer from Temple this summer, could be more of a factor this season. Classmate Olivia Jones, a 5-10 do-it-all wing who played with Palmer and Vanesko for Philly Rise 16U this summer, transferred this offseason after she was named the Pennsylvania Class 6A Player of the Year as a sophomore at Cedar Cliff last season.

Moses averaged 9 ppg, 3 apg, 3 apg and 2 spg and Vanesko averaged 6 ppg, 6 rpg, 4 apg and 2 spg as young players on a loaded squad last season. This year, twins Ishana and Radhi Sundararajan and Trinity Ingram join the program as eighth graders.

“We were very young last year and we are young again this year,” Burbidge said. 

The Moose struggled to find a tough test locally last season as highlighted by a 75-35 win over Friends’ Central in the FSL title game and a 74-54 win over Inter-Ac champion Penn Charter in the PAISAA championship.

Westtown played terrifically against Montverde last season on the biggest of stages on ESPN and had matchups against the likes of Paul VI (Va.) and Paul VI (N.J.) on their non-conference slate last season.

This season’s schedule includes the Art Turner Memorial in Virginia in early December, the Capital Invitational and She Got Game Classic in D.C. and a host of other featured matchups where all eyes will be on them. Burbidge doesn’t expect that to be an issue.

“We had a lot of college coaches coming to these open gyms for the kids, so pretty much most of the time they are playing in front of college coaches watching them,” Burbidge said.  “They are learning how to stay within that circle, worry about themselves and not that it affects them or be a disruption to them and they are [...] doing a great job.”