City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — The girls’ HGSL season wrapped up in New Jersey July 19-22, giving players one final chance to play in front of college coaches.

For a second straight year, a Lady Runnin’ Rebels team took home a title in one of the Championship brackets, the club’s 15U side claiming the HGSL Championship trophy on championship Monday. Between the numerous brackets and age groups, there were plenty of CoBL area players in action across all four days.:

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Kennedy Coles (2026 | Team DAPA 17U)
By speeding up, Kennedy Coles learned how to slow down.

One of the fastest guards in the PAC, the rising junior at Upper Merion rarely had trouble getting up and down the floor or past a defender on a drive to the rim. It was at the basket where she’d get into trouble, still stuck in top speed, Coles often made it harder than needed trying to finish.

“Last year, I was out of control a lot more so this summer I learned to stay under control and land on two feet,” Coles said. “It’s all a work of progress.”

Coles is also a track athlete, she specializes in the short-distance sprints of the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay and the long jump, so her speed is a clear asset. She ran for Upper Merion as a freshman then took this past spring off, but she plans on competing again next year.

The guard can beat most players down the court and if she gets a step on the perimeter, there aren’t many defenders that can recover that step.

Where Coles found herself getting trouble was pumping the breaks before she got to the rim.

“When I go too fast, I don’t make it easy on my layups,” Coles said. “When I slow down and can land on two feet, that makes it easier to go back up because I can jump.”

The Vikings made the PAC playoffs and the District I 5A postseason field, giving Coles and her teammates some valuable playoff experience. She felt like she started to get a better handle on how to utilize her speed and athletic abilities late in the season, which pushed her to keep working on it this summer.

This was Coles’ second summer playing with Team DAPA and the guard said it’s been a big help in her overall development.

“Our coach (Allen Pritchett) doesn’t take it soft on us because we won’t learn from it so when he’s hard on us and honest with us, that tells us to lock back in and pay attention to what we’re doing,” Coles said. “I can get in my emotions sometimes, but I’m learning to get out of it because I know that messes my game up.”

Coles said she’s hoping to up her scoring with Upper Merion this season, which should come as she keeps honing her timing and poise around the rim. At the same time, she knows if she can get to the rim, there will be shots elsewhere and the guard wants to be a facilitator as well.

While she doesn’t have any offers yet, Coles said a few programs are interested in seeing what the next season brings. She’s also been going out to college prospect camps, listing Temple and Villanova among those she’s attended so far.

“I’m just worried about getting better, that’s pretty much it,” Coles said.

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Akeelah LaFleur (2025 | Team DAPA 17U)

After just a few possessions of watching Akeelah LaFleur play, it’d be easy to assume the 6-foot-3 post has been playing basketball for a long, long time.

The reality is almost the opposite. Lynch, a rising senior at Westhampton Tech in Burlington, NJ, has only been playing for about two years and it’s very hard to tell.

What she’s shown so far is already enough to have colleges in the picture and it seems like her ceiling isn’t even close to being reached.

“I only started playing ball a year and a half ago, so seeing how the game is evolving for me, it just motivates me more and more,” LaFleur said. “That’s what keeps me going, if I’ve made it this far in that long, imagine in two more years where I could be at.”

Delaware State and UMBC have already offered and LaFleur said she’s been in touch with a few other programs, listing Temple among them.

Travel ball isn’t always the easiest setting for a post player to show what they can do, but Team DAPA makes sure LaFleur was the tone-setter. She’s very poised in the post, with some excellent footwork, the forward is able to play with her back to the basket or face up and take defenders off the dribble.

That tends to draw attention and LaFleur’s also good at moving the ball once the inevitable hellp starts to come.

“I work on that three times a day, I work on my post moves, my shot, I do all that just so I can execute in a game,” LaFleur said. “They feed me, they go through my tempo. When everybody crashes on me, I know they're open for all the shots they want, so it’s easier to work with that.”

LaFleur didn’t play any sports before picking up basketball. She didn’t want to be typecast as the tall girl who played because she was tall, so she tried to avoid playing until she eventually gave in just so people would leave her alone about it.

“One day in gym class, I was just shooting and I had the ugliest shot but it would go in and everybody kept telling me to play basketball the next year,” LaFleur said. “I didn’t want to play my freshman year but I played as a sophomore and it was a breakout year, I became the top rebounder in the state and I thought ‘this might actually be a thing for me.’”

For LaFleur, everything starts on defense. She’s a strong rebounder and she aggressively hunts to swat shots but she can also switch onto a perimeter player and more than hold her own.

The forward noted that her block mentality can get her in trouble, especially with some officials but she’s been working to play more disciplined and use her height, size and jumping ability as a deterrent.

“My goal is to learn how to play all five positions,” LaFleur said. “I practice things all five positions do, I want to be versatile. I want to make sure I can guard anybody.”

Offensively, LaFleur is trying to become a more consistent shooter, both at the foul line and on the perimeter. The forward said her shot’s come a long way from that day in gym class and it’s more of a confidence thing in games that she wants to get over.

Team DAPA coach Allen Pritchett gave LaFleur a green light if she was open, but the forward didn’t take it as an invitation to become jumper-reliant.

“I’m still going to take it to the rack a majority of the time because it’s easier,” LaFleur said. “I want to play to my strength.”

For her relative lack of experience, LaFleur has a good sense of what she’s good at and what areas she can improve. At the same time, the forward doesn’t even know the full extent of what she can be as a player and believes the best is still to come for her.

That’ll likely come at the next level and she’s looking for the right place and coaches to help bring it out of her.

“Once I find the right college, I think it’s going to be over,” LaFleur said. “The school I go to, I think we’re going to have a breakout season while I’m there.”

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Kathryn O’Kane (2025 | Heat Hoops 17U)

Kathryn O’Kane’s final shot in a Heat Hoops uniform was a game-winning basket in overtime.

It was an apt ending for the point guard, a rising senior at Council Rock South, who seemed to save her best for the end of the summer. O’Kane didn’t start as strong as she wanted but her club career ended on a good note.

“I’ve been with this team for a really long time,” O’Kane said. “I always felt comfortable here.”

At CR South and with Heat Hoops, the bulk of O’Kane’s impact came at the rim and as a passer. The 5-foot-8 guard, who is also a scrappy defender, is adept at getting into the lane then making a last-second pass to a shooter and either finishing or drawing contact at the rim.

She did recognize there was one thing that she didn’t do enough of.

“The biggest thing was my outside shot,” O’Kane said. “Last season, between not really taking it and a lot of girls knowing I like to drive, the outside shot was a big focus. It’s been a major change, I’m shooting a lot more threes than I used to.

“It was some reps but also a confidence issue, I was scared to shoot the ball at times. I’ve always been more of a catch and drive player, so I just needed that confidence.”

The senior is also a talented attacking midfielder and soccer preseason is right around the corner, so there’s not much time to rest.

O’Kane said she’s been talking to a handful of Division III basketball programs and will likely make a decision either during or after the high school season.

“I’m looking to go into the season and see what happens,” O’Kane said.

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Savannah Hayes & Sydney Ralph (2025 | Heat Hoops 17U)

Savannah Hayes and Sydney Ralph are aiming to double up their mark together this year at CB East.

The two rising seniors are both two-sport athletes and teammates for the Patriots girls’ soccer and basketball programs. In the fall, both bided their time as back-ups while in the winter, Ralph got her first crack at extended playing time by moving into a starting role for East’s state playoff basketball team.

They’re both hoping that’s a role they can occupy starting in a couple weeks when fall preseason starts up.

“It definitely creates chemistry between us and that translates when we’re in the game,” Ralph said.

“We push each other, not only on the court or the field, but off,” Hayes said. “We go to the gym together, we’re always pushing each other to be better.”

Hayes and Ralph spend a lot of time together even away from their athletic pursuits and their tight friendship is pretty apparent right away. The duo is hoping it translates to the soccer pitch this fall where they’ll be vying to be the starting center back pairing for CB East.

Last season, the Patriots back line was its strong point but it was also the area hit hardest by graduation. Hayes and Ralph, who are both 5-foot-9, bring good size to the role and they’re hoping the bond they’ve built up translates to keeping that defensive identity together.

“In both sports, we know we’re losing some important players,” Ralph said. “We know we have a role as seniors to step up and bring everyone else up with us.”

“It starts with giving our hardest every single game,” Hayes said. “We’re not going to be able to play together after senior year, so there’s no way we’re  not giving 100 percent.”

Both Hayes and Ralph said they tried to take as much as they could from their seniors in both sports last year and also during their sophomore year even though they weren’t getting much playing time. Hayes called it “time well spent” adding she and Ralph are both confident in themselves and each other stepping into what they hope will be their most impactful roles so far.

They’re stepping into expanded roles on two teams that have a high standard. East has made states in soccer the last three years while last year’s bounceback in basketball seemed to be a good first step for a team that had a lot of underclassmen talent.

“We were such a close group last year and I think we’ll be even closer this year,” Ralph said. “Using our bond that we’ve built up off the court is really going to translate to how we play on the court.

“It was such a ‘program’ year last year, a little history for our four-year generation that we’re definitely going to push each other to meet those standards and even exceed them.”

“It’s motivation but there’s excitement as well,” Hayes said. “I think we’re going to do really well together.”