City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)

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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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Unionville girls basketball coach Fred Ellzy had to wait a decade to guide the Longhorns to the state playoffs for the first time last season.

He and his team are ready to play their way right back.

“It was great, and these girls earned it,” Ellzy said. “They played hard, and they played well together and they started to get that hunger. Things just started clicking as the season went, and they started playing stronger at the end of the year.”

“I think the confidence level they had from the end of last year, it’s carrying over,” he added. “They’re excited.”

The Longhorns have reason to be excited.

Unionville put together a 21-8 campaign last season that marked the program’s most wins by far since 2003 and also included the team’s first state playoff appearance since that season.

“I think it was just a very good experience,” senior Milana Amoss said. “We hadn’t made states, the girls team, in 20 years. Seeing that we could make states kind of gives us the feel for this season to get there again.”

Ellzy’s team graduated first-team all-league guard Riley Angstadt, but the Longhorns bring back four other starters, including returning all-league players Amoss, senior Shannon Megill and junior Elle Johnson.

“We haven’t lost a large amount of people like other teams have, and it’s been cool to see as we get older our team gets better,” Johnson said. “Hopefully we’re even better this season.”

“I think having four of our starters back, we can just kind of finish what we were doing last year and hope we can make it to states again.”

Amoss is ready to step into Angstadt’s shoes at the point guard spot. The 5-foot-6 guard likes to penetrate and kick. Megill is a 5-9 forward who Amoss described as being deadly in the short corner. Senior 5-10 wing/forward Savannah Lang is the fourth starter slated to return.

Johnson, a 5-10 guard, is primed to turn into one of the best players in the league after a strong sophomore campaign. The athletic lefty can drive to the hoop and step out and hit shots, and like the rest of her teammates embraces making an impact on the defensive end.

Ellzy hasn’t had too many players come through his program with aspirations of playing at the next level, so it’s been exciting to watch her develop over the last three years.

“I think last year everyone assumed it was Riley’s team, and I think Elle is ready to put the team on her and she shows it in her play,” Ellzy said. “Her play has definitely grown, but she’s a hard worker. She puts the time in. When you put the time in, only positive things can come from that, so I’m excited to watch her play the next two years.”

Senior 5-10 forward Kerri Menninger looks like she will give Unionville four seniors in the starting lineup. Sophomore Allie D'Angelo (5-9) hopes to be fully healthy in December after an ACL injury kept her out all of last season. Ellzy mentioned there could be some young players in the program who push for time as well.

The Longhorns like to play with pace, and that starts with defensive pressure.

Before his time at Unionville, Ellzy was an assistant for the Downingtown boys team under West Chester University men’s head coach Damien Blair, which is where he developed that style of play. 

“Having relentless defense, pressuring and running and working with each other and getting each other looks,” Amoss said are some of the team’s keys.

“Defense is definitely a big part of the team,” Johnson said. “If you don’t play good defense, then you don’t play.”

The Longhorns went 8-2 in the Ches-Mont American division before a loss to Bishop Shanahan in the league semifinals. They haven’t hoisted a league title since 2003.

Unionville has perennially looked up to league rival West Chester Rustin during Ellzy’s tenure, losing 13 of their last 14 matchups to the Golden Knights, including their two meetings last season.

The two-time defending Ches-Mont champs graduated star Laine McGurk and a large senior class, opening the door for Unionville and the rest of the league. 

“We had to be behind Rusin for a long, long time now,” Ellzy said. “And now that McGurk is gone and the rest of those seniors, I think it opens it up for these guys and they see it as well. They’re getting more excited knowing that we have four returning starters, and knowing how well they did last year. They know what the expectations are. As long as they stick to it, I think they might be pretty competitive.”