City of Basketball Love

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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Shanette Lee was taken aback when she stepped into Agnes Irwin’s gym for the first time. 

There was very little evidence of the basketball program she was taking over.

“This school has been in existence since 18-something and you have no banners. I took some kind of offense to it,” Lee said. “We got a championship, a Commonwealth Cup. I know that doesn’t mean anything, but I think we're building towards something bigger and my goal is to get a banner in the gym period.”

Lee was a standout point guard locally at Merion Mercy High School, graduating in 1995. She played four seasons under Harry Perretta at Villanova, where she still holds the records for assists in a game (14), season (185) and career (526).

She stayed with the program after graduation as an assistant, spending 21 years under the tutelage of Perretta until she finally left the program in 2020 in search of a head-coaching opportunity.

“I wanted to be a head coach, and I wasn’t getting an opportunity at the college level for whatever reason,” Lee said. “I was like, ‘I think my skillset will help these young kids get to the next level,’ and I want to do that.”

Lee got the job at Agnes Irwin in October 2021, a month before the typical start of the high school hoops season. Her team went 2-15 with a 1-11 league mark, finishing last in the Inter-Academic League. The Owls were a combined 0-19 in the Inter-Ac in the two years prior to her arrival.

Last season wasn’t a banner year, but Anges Irwin showed significant improvement during a 10-12 campaign that included a 4-8 mark in the Inter-Ac, placing it fifth in the seven-team league.

And the Owls ended up adding to a barren trophy case with a Commonwealth Cup title, essentially the NIT for the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association programs.

“It definitely did (build confidence) because our school isn’t really known for basketball and winning in that area,” freshman Simone Harvey said. “It felt good to win something for our school in basketball.”

Harvey, a Phoenixville-area native, was the team’s top player a season ago, earning All-Inter-Ac second team honors as an eighth grader. She’s a building block for Lee over the next four years as she tries to grow the program.

“As soon as I walked into the gym to watch Simone play, I was like, ‘That’s the one,’” Lee said. “I felt like she was a player I could build around. Being a point guard myself, knowing what it looks like to be able to lead. Do all the little things, she has all of those qualities. That’s why I was so excited when I got her. Then, bonus, little sister, too? Come on now.”

Harvey’s younger sister Milan joins the program this season to reunite the sisters. Having a coach who can show them the ropes was a big plus for the young point guards.

“Just knowing that she’s been in that higher expectation, in that higher level of basketball, she knows what she’s doing,” Simone said. “It feels good to have a coach who knows what she’s doing.”

Two senior centers, Chloe Costello and Caroline Antik, will likely flip flop in the Owls’ starting lineup this season. Along with the Harvey sisters, junior Gabrielle “GiGi” Seibert, who was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, and classmates Amelia Bagnell and Grace Getz are some of the other significant returning members of the rotation.

Incoming freshman Audrey Comly and Olivia Lynch have both played with Simone before and could carve out roles as well. This is the deepest team Lee has had since she took over.

“What I want our team to play like is hard-nosed basketball, not afraid to get up into you, solid defense because I want to do a rotation,” Lee said. “Kids can get more minutes if we play a certain style of defense. I’m going to press more this year. I’ve always wanted to do that, but I just haven’t had all the players to be able to do what I want to do.”

Agnes Irwin last shared a piece of the Inter-Ac championship in 1989-90. 

The Owls likely aren’t ready to compete with programs like Penn Charter, Germantown Academy and Notre Dame just yet, but Lee foresees another jump for her program in Year 3.

Agnes Irwin, which hasn’t had a winning campaign in a long time, has goals of adding a few more wins to its record this season and earning a spot in the PAISAA tournament with the top independent school programs.

“This could be a really good season,” she said. “I think we have good character kids, kids that really care about each other, too. We’re trying to build a culture. It’s very similar to the culture that I come from at Villanova. It’s family oriented and caring about each other, more than anything. Basketball has a space, but if you love what you’re doing and play as hard as you can, good things happen. That’s kind of what I’m trying to create.”