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.

Here’s Pt. 2 of our recruiting notebook off the weekend; CLICK HERE for Pt. 1:

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Olivia Nardi (2025 | Lady Runnin Rebels 17U Red)

Olivia Nardi has seen her role change year after year at Archbishop Carroll and it’s no different preparing for her senior season.

Nardi spent the summer doing a whole lot of different things for her Runnin’ Rebels Red team, which the Patriots will need her to keep doing this winter. She’ll still be counted on as a knockdown shooter, but there’s plenty more Nardi is hoping to contribute this winter.

“I’ve been expanding my game, I feel like I’ve always been mostly a shooter, so I wanted to drive to the basket more,” Nardi said. “I also want to make an impact on defense and with my rebounding too.”

As a sophomore, Nardi played off the bench for Carroll’s PIAA 6A title team, hitting a couple big shots in the postseason. She moved into the starting five as a junior, a frequent target of Brooke Wilson’s kick-out passes for spot-up threes.

With Wilson and Felicity McFillin graduated and Maddie McFillin likely out for the year after injuring her knee earlier this summer, Nardi knows a lot more will be asked of her.

“We’re chasing that PCL title, especially coming off that double overtime loss last year,” Nardi said. “As soon as I found out Maddie got hurt, I knew I had to really step up to help my team win.”

Nardi’s also looking to the next level. She’s talked with Immaculata and Ursinus and said a few other D-III programs have shown some interest.

“I’ve been getting stronger,” Nardi said. “I’m definitely more confident in my game.”

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Grace McDonough (2025 | Lady Runnin Rebel 17U HGSL)

Grace McDonough has moved on to the next stage of her recruitment process, actually seeing some of the schools she may call home for the next four years.

The 6-foot-2 post, a rising senior at Lansdale Catholic, had plenty of eyes on her all summer as evidenced by her list of offers growing from three in April to 24 by the end of May. McDonough said she even had some new programs looking to get into the mix in July, but was overall pretty content with the list she had and is now working to narrow down some finalists.

“It’s definitely nice to finally meet all the coaches in person, get to see how the players fit in and I’ve gotten to meet a couple of them too,” McDonough said. “I’m starting to narrow down my choices.”

McDonough, who was a third team all-state selection in Class 4A after her first season at LC, has already visited Northwestern, Villanova, James Madison and Richmond. Her trip to Evanston, Illinois was a chance to reunite with Casey Harter - her teammate for two years at Souderton - the rising sophomore guard playing host on her visit.

“She tried to get me to commit when I was there,” McDonough said with a laugh.

Having the opportunity to be on campus, McDonough said she’s looking mainly at the chemistry of the teams she’s visited, how their players interact and overall feeling. The forward, who is a skilled scorer around the rim and a strong rebounder, is also weighing what path will best fit her as a player.

“The hardest part for me is figuring out whether I want to make an impact my freshman and sophomore year or if I’d rather focus on development and maybe not play as much right away,” McDonough said. “I can be patient if it’s at the right place.”

McDonough has a few more visits lined up in August and September, then she’ll take some time and is aiming to make her decision later in the fall.

After that, she’ll be preparing for her senior season at Lansdale Catholic. While she had a good individual year last season, the Crusaders fell short of their expectations so McDonough and her veteran classmates are eager to get back to work.

“I think we have a really good chance to make it pretty far this year,” McDonough said. “When we play the teams like Wood, O’Hara and Carroll, those are all really big games but we’re definitely motivated.”

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Elle Johnson (2025 | Lady Runnin Rebels 17U HGSL)

Year after year, Elle Johnson just keeps finding ways to get better.

The 5-foot-10 guard, a rising senior at Unionville, has been a mainstay in the Longhorns lineup since her freshman year but she tends to keep coming back with something new or refined each season. This summer playing with the Runnin’ Rebels, Johnson continued to light it up on a deep team with plenty of future college players and she ended her summer quite content with the results.

“Our team played well and I thought I’ve played pretty well, so I’m pretty happy with how this season turned out,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who won’t be idle for too long before she starts fall preseason as a striker for Unionville’s soccer team, is coming off a junior year where she earned First Team All-Ches-Mont honors. The lefty not only continued to be one of the best scoring players in the league, she committed to the defensive end but naturally, didn’t settle on those laurels heading into the summer.

“I’ve definitely been trying to work on my three-point shot and I think it’s been helping a lot,” Johnson said. “I’ve been gaining a lot of confidence shooting, so that’ll definitely help.

“It’s just me being ready to shoot and wanting to shoot that helps it go in a lot more, at least, that’s how I feel.”

The Longhorns lost to West Chester Henderson in the Ches-Mont playoffs then Council Rock South in the first round of the District 1 6A playoffs last season, denying them back-to-back state playoff berths. Johnson said playing as a group unlocked the growth not only in her game, but her teammates and with a core of key returners due back, the Longhorns have a goal of pushing for a long postseason run like two years ago.

“We’ve all been playing together since middle school so we’re all excited for one more year playing together,” Johnson said. “We also just moved down to 5A, so I think that will help. We’ve all been working hard, I think we’re going to do really well.”

Johnson planned to use her break between AAU and the start of soccer season to take some college visits. She’s aiming to stay somewhat local, or at least on the East Coast and is looking mostly at the D-II and D-III level.

“That feels like the best fit for me,” Johnson said. “I don’t really have a favorite right now, I want to do a few more visits and narrow it down.”

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Grace McShane (2026 | PA Royals 16U)

After missing the biggest games of Bensalem’s season last year due to injury, Grace McShane isn’t planning on a repeat.

The rising junior guard was a breakout player for the Owls last year, earning the toughest defensive assignments and trusted to take care of the ball on offense. Her absence was missed as Bensalem made its first SOL Tournament and qualified for the District I 6A playoffs for the first time in five years, falling in the first round of each.

“It made me work harder,” McShane said. “You have to be able to pick yourself up, but also pick up and support your teammates and always keep playing no matter what.”

This summer, McShane was able to play on and off the ball while filling several different roles on both ends of the court. That was fine by her, the 5-foot-9 guard always putting her trademark energy into whatever task she  was given in her time on the floor.

“I want to be able to do everything,” McShane said. “My goal is to be an all-around player. I already kind of can, but I wanted to work on all the little things I need to do to be that player.”

“I just try to keep my head in the game. Sometimes it does get to me, but now that I am going into junior year, you have to show the younger players how important it is to always work hard.”

McShane said she’s excited about the group coming back at Bensalem, which does lose Amber Howard to North Carolina A&T but otherwise returns a group that’s gotten plenty of experience the last two years. The SOL Patriot division they compete in also has a lot of change in general, so it should be a competitive year across the board.

“You just have to never give up,” McShane said. “If you keep working, it will eventually fall your way.”

McShane picked up some of that mentality from her older brothers Danny and Matt.

Matt realized a dream this summer when he was selected out of St. Joe’s by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 13th round of the 2024 MLB Draft. In three years with the Hawks, Matt McShane made 53 career appearances, most as a reliever, with a career record of 14-2 and six saves, both marks in the top 10 all-time for the program.

“He’s one of the main people I look up to,” Grace said. “He’s always worked hard his whole life and I just tried to follow his example.

“I grew up on a baseball field because both my brothers played. They were both always working hard, I’d never see them sitting around doing nothing.”

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Addelyn Lefever (2027 | Lady Runnin Rebels 15U HGSL)

The Runnin Rebels’ run to the HGSL 15U Championship Bracket title certainly felt gratifying for Addelyn Lefever.

The 6-foot forward, a rising sophomore at Downingtown West, made her return to the court just in time for the final tournament of the summer and to help her team win a championship. It didn’t erase the six weeks spent sidelined with an ankle injury, but it help make up for some of it.

“I had a tear on the inside and a bad bruise on the outside,” Lefever said. “I’d never had an ankle injury before.”

It was a routine practice drill backpedaling up the court, but a wrong move ended up putting Lefever on the bench for over a month. The combination of a sprained ankle and torn ligament left Lefever in a boot for two weeks and out until championship weekend.

“It was in the first three minutes,” Lefever said. “I was backpedaling and as I transitioned into running, it twisted.”

Lefever understandably said the most frustrating part of the ordeal was not being able to play and watching her teammates having fun on the court. Sitting on the bench in a walking boot is never really an enjoyable experience and while it was a prolonged absence, Lefever was diligent in her rehab with the goal of getting back before the end of the summer.

“I rested it a lot, I did PT and I’m still doing PT to strengthen it,” Lefever said. “I should be fine now, it’s definitely getting better.”

A mobile forward who can run the floor, Lefever said she felt a little rusty her first few games back but had gotten more comfortable by the end of the weekend.

Losing most of her summer wasn’t in the plans, but Lefever said she doesn’t want to let the injury hold her back from getting better.

“I’m definitely trying to be more aggressive,” Lefever said. “I need to work on my offensive moves. I’m looking forward to playing more basketball and training now that I’m back from this injury.”

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