City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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KING OF PRUSSIA — Olivia Smith holds it all together for Upper Merion.

The senior isn’t the Vikings’ best player, often she may not even score a point, but UM coach Jen (McCarthy) Stilwell can’t begin to imagine her team without the captain. Smith takes a role most others wouldn’t and doesn’t bat an eye and that’s enough to make her invaluable.

UM downed visiting Pope John Paul II 40-32 Thursday night to wrap up PAC play and gain some ground as the Vikings chase a District 1 5A playoff berth.

“We lost to them earlier in the season in overtime, a heartbreaker, so it was really important for us to get this win tonight and it keeps our district hopes alive,” Smith said. “It’s big for us, our goal this whole season has been to make districts.”

Smith didn’t score a point Thursday, the senior a bit frustrated that a couple of shots rolled out during the game but not letting it stop her from defending, rebounding and orchestrating. By the time the game ended, she didn’t care about the zero next to her No. 21 on the side scoreboard showing points of players in the game, only that UM had picked up a win.

The senior is certainly one to savor wins. Her freshman year, which was the Covid-altered 2020-21 campaign, didn’t come with any wins in basketball as Upper Merion went 0-15.

Next week, Smith and the rest of her team will be playing in the opening round of the PAC playoffs as Upper Merion returns to the league postseason for the first time since 2018.

“We didn’t win a game, so throughout the four years, it’s been awesome to see the way we’ve progressed as a team, it’s really good to see the work keeping those hopes alive right now,” Smith said. “I could sit here for hours and talk about how awesome it’s been to watch us grow as individuals, watch the team grow and everything fall into place. This was a huge game tonight, a game we needed to win and it speaks measures to how much we’ve matured.”

Upper Merion has a pair of talented sophomores in Kennedy Coles and Levayda Fuqua and a junior in Devon Maiden who are capable scorers. Smith, alongside the rest of the senior class, recognized and collectively have stepped back to let those three lead the way on offense.

As she was trying to sum up the senior’s impact on this year’s team, Stilwell stopped mid-thought to point out Smith exiting the team locker room carrying the bin full of uniforms that needed to be washed. Things like that, simply saving the coaches an extra trip to clean up, make Smith as important as anything she contributes on the court.

“I don’t need her to score, I need her to be the glue that holds us together,” Stilwell said. “We can be a young, immature team that gets chaotic, gets crazy and she’s the one that wraps them in. I have had to lean on her so much these past three years, I say not all heroes wear capes but she’s a hero because she does it all.

“She’s so special and you can’t recreate that. She can do it any sport she plays, she's that player any coach dies to have.”

Smith is also far from just a basketball player. In the fall, she was the soccer team’s starting goalkeeper and this spring, she’ll be a key piece of the Vikings attack in lacrosse.

“Pretty much total opposites,” Smith said with a smile.

While she had some interest at the college level to play lacrosse, Smith ultimately made the tough choice not to continue at the next level and instead, she’ll be going to college to pursue broadcast journalism. This year, she’s helping out with the Viking Channel broadcast club to call some of the boys’ basketball games when her schedule allows.

As if all of that, the three sports and calling games, wasn’t enough, Smith is also a National Honor Society member and the student council president.

“I spend a lot of time here, it’s really become my home,” Smith said. “Once a Viking, always a Viking.”

Stilwell came to Upper Merion off the bench at Jefferson University, where she was an assistant coach for 11 years at the CACC powerhouse. Rams coach Tom Shirley jokingly told her she was leaving to take over the Bad News Bears, but Stilwell was up for the challenge.

The impending playoff berth has made the build worth it, but worth just as much is being around people like Smith.

“Those girls just needed someone to believe in them,” Stilwell said. “She’s one-in-a-million. Her parents did one hell of a job raising her. Her parents are coaches so they know exactly what it takes to be a coachable kid, Kim and Pete, they’ve also been some of my biggest supporters.”

The three seniors who saw the court on Thursday in Smith, Avery Fox and Chloe Kokenberger have all faced their own ups and downs in four years with the program. Fox battled adversity through injuries but has been a starter all season, her defense under the rim a major factor in helping the Vikings pick up the important win on Thursday.

Kokenberger, aside from four years with the team, has been a member of the school’s Best Buddies program since her freshman year. For her senior project, she brought the team and members of the program, which is dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, together to tie-dye socks that all the Upper Merion players wore for Thursday’s game.

The two other seniors on the roster, Adele Easton and Zanyiah Edwards-Boone, have accepted their roles outside the spotlight and have been there for the reward of a PAC playoff as a result.

“It takes a lot of time to grow and mature, but they do listen and look up to us a lot,” Smith said of the team’s underclassmen. “It’s hard to be a young player and be the star. As much as it seems easy to be the star, everyone wants to be a star but it is hard once that pressure’s on you and all three of them have gotten a lot better at keeping their heads and locking in on the game when we need them to.”

Smith contributed a game-high 12 rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals Thursday. She linked her goalkeeping to her tenacious rebounding and the senior added it's a pride point for her.

If she can outwork someone on the other team to get a couple more rebounds, then it means a couple more chances for Coles, Fuqua or Maiden to get scoring opportunities.

“I love, I call them my kids, they’re like our little sisters,” Smith said. “When you have talented kids, you have to find them, you gotta get them the ball. None of this success is without them, they’re our best players, our best shooters. My job is to work hard and run the floor and when we need to score, I have to get them the ball.”

PAC results were still coming in after the Vikings win on Thursday, but it looked like they could get a rubber match with PJP II, the teams now 1-1 against each other this season. Last year, a stunning Panthers rally against the Vikings at the end of the regular season helped leave UM on the outside looking in, so finally getting it this year made it feel that much better.

Even in just two years with Fuqua and Coles, who both earned All-PAC honors last year, Smith has enjoyed every bit of the climb with them. For her and her fellow seniors, they’ll always know what their role was, no matter the final score next Thursday in the opening round.

“We really started from the bottom with an 0-15 season our freshman year,” Smith said. “We worked this hard to earn this spot and regardless of how that game goes, it was so important for this team to know it all came from hard work and dedication.”

Upper Merion finishes the regular season with games against Mount Saint Joseph Academy and Interboro. The Vikings came into the night No. 13 in the 5A rankings, with the top 12 teams qualifying, so they still have a chance to add one more game to their time together.

Smith might not score a point in either of those games, or next week in the PAC playoffs and it won’t matter. Her impact goes well beyond numbers and Upper Merion isn’t where it is without her.

“I know I’m a big part of this team,” Smith said. “Maybe not in certain areas, but it’s easy for me to accept that. I know how talented they are and one thing I’ve learned in my time here is how to be a team player.”

By Quarter

UPPER MERION 4 | 14 | 10 | 12 || 40

POPE JOHN PAUL II 5 | 8 | 6 | 13 ||32

Scoring

UM: Kennedy Coles 20, Devon Maiden 14, Chloe Kokenberger 3, Avery Fox 2, Levayda Fuqua 1

PJP II: Katie Nilles 14, Elena Collilouri 6, Grace Fitzgerald 4, Brooke Albeck 3, Jen Todd 3, Rylee Derecola 2