City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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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 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Tracey Sterling is counting on the whispers not gaining any volume. The Phoenixville coach hopes no one is paying attention.

She has a team that would like to be clandestine out there on the periphery in their first foray into District 1 Class 6A and with the big girls of Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford in the Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division. It probably will not take that long, but other teams are bound to notice—and notice fast—Phoenixville will be a player in the PAC Liberty and possibly beyond this season.

It is a team that is collectively brimming with confidence. The Phantoms have a star in 5-foot-10 junior guard Kayden Baratta, who averaged a PAC-high 19.3 points a game last season as a sophomore. They have a strong supporting cast in returning starters 5-10 senior forward Emine Ulcay, 5-10 junior forward Riley Ford-Bey and 5-5 senior guard Ava Gnias.

The Phantoms will get back 5-5 senior point guard Neveah Latimore-Beasley, who returns after missing last season due to an injury, and considerable depth in 5-5 senior guard Jessica Meyers, 5-10 sophomore forward Allyson Turner, 5-10 freshman forward Charlie Campbell, 5-10 junior guard/forward Taylor Schneider and 5-6 junior guard Julia Chain.

The Phantoms have talent, they have size, they have a fine blend of experience and youth, and they enter the season with an abundance of certainty.

In the three previous years under Sterling, the Phantoms have gone 8-13, with no district playoff appearance, to 13-11 in her second year, winning a District 1 Class 5A playoff game for the first time in 18 years, to last year going 17-9 overall, winning the PAC Frontier Division for the second-straight year with a 10-0 league mark and winning their first home playoff district game in over 20 years, according to Sterling, when the No. 7 seed Phantoms beat No. 10 Chester, 57-42. Phoenixville lost to No. 2 seed West Chester East, 51-42, in the second round of districts and saw its season end on a 66-57 district playback loss to No. 3 seed Radnor.

The Phantoms’ success has brought them up to the PAC Liberty, where powerhouses Perkiomen Valley and PIAA Class 6A state finalist Spring-Ford reside. Two-time defending District 1 Class 6A champion Perkiomen Valley is a team on a mission this season. The Vikings are a combined 57-4 the previous two years and have been shutout of a state title, knocked out by the eventual state champion both times, Archbishop Carroll in the second round of states in overtime (41-38) in 2023, and last year to Cardinal O’Hara in the state semifinals (49-35).

It does not mean Phoenixville is backing down.

“We’ll rise to the challenge,” Sterling said. “We walk on to any court thinking we can compete with any school. We are young. We can go 10 deep. We have three starters who will be seniors. Hopefully, some people will take us lightly. We have confidence we can win. These girls have looked at some of the other teams that we traditionally lose to, and sometimes you lose games even before you step on to the court with intimidation, this group won’t be intimidated. They feel they can play with anyone.”

That attitude stems from the core group of Baratta, Ford-Bey, Ulcay and Gnias.

“The connection we have with each other makes it work,” Gnias said. “We all grew up with each other playing in rec leagues and AAU summer leagues. That built a connection. With Kayden, who can score from anywhere, with Riley and Emine, we can score inside, too. We know we have the potential to go far in the district playoffs. Everyone’s mentality is crazy. We can’t wait to get started. Being close to each other helps because no one wants to let anyone down. People will definitely see a different Phoenixville team this year.”

Sterling was not about to reveal anything, but there was a hint that the Phantoms, with their depth, may pressure teams more than they have in the past. The Phantoms will need to make up for the loss of 6-foot center Maliyah Warren (Wilkes University), though that will come in the 5-10 quintet of Ulcay, Ford-Bey, Turner, Campbell and Schneider.

Ulcay provides leadership and effective communication, calling out switches on defense. She is a three-year starter who knows the sting of walking off the court last year after the district playback loss to Radnor.

Being defensively aggressive will be a factor in the Phantoms’ success in preventing an early playoff ouster this season.

“We can pressure teams more because we will have the depth,” said Ulcay, who is a Division I track and field recruit. “We’re still putting (presses) in and we have some crazy, quick athletic people who have high motors to apply pressure. I think we’re ready to make a move. We are moving to the big side (in the Liberty). I play with a lot of the Spring-Ford girls in AAU. I can’t wait to play them. Put that down. We have a great group. This is my senior year, and we are ready to make a deep push.”

At the eye of this swirling level of confidence is Baratta. Over the summer she extended her three-point range, where she is hitting the shot more consistently. It makes her that much more difficult to defend, since she is 5-10 with a handle to finish at the rim. Baratta will probably reach 1,000 points this season against defenses designed to stop her.

With Warren graduating, who will help Baratta offensively? With her distance shooting forcing teams to come out on her, she feels that will open the inside for Ulcay and Ford-Bey. Gnias can hit the open shot, or drive and kick, and if teams collapse on Ulcay and Ford-Bey, they have Baratta, Gnias and Latimore-Beasley on the outside.

“Everyone knows where everyone likes the ball,” Baratta said. “We know each other’s playing styles. Everything flows. Defensively, we need to focus on getting stops. We will also need to control the tempo of games. Everyone on this team plays a role—and I think a strength of our team is everyone knows their role. We’ve always been the smaller team. That’s changed. We need to go into every game this season with the mindset we are the better team and have the confidence to win.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.