City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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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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It’s all about March.

Perkiomen Valley’s accomplished senior class isn’t shying away from the fact their final run as Vikings will come down to how many weeks they play in March. They’ve already done plenty to stuff the program’s trophy case but there’s still one, the big prize, they haven’t yet come close enough to grasping.

It’s their last chance at a state title so PV’s seniors know, it’s all about March.

“There’s no next year, there’s no ‘one more,’ this is it,” senior Quinn Boettinger said. “We have to get it done.”

By almost any other metric, the Vikings had an exceptional season in 2023-24. Their 29-2 record came with repeat championships in the PAC and in District 1’s Class 6A, both of those wins coming after a couple classic games with rival Spring-Ford.

PV qualified for the state playoffs for the third straight year and advanced to the PIAA 6A quarterfinals before falling to eventual state champion Cardinal O’Hara. If it’s any consolation to the Vikings, and it likely isn’t, their three losses in states the last three years have all come to the eventual PIAA champion: Plymouth Whitemarsh (21-22), Archbishop Carroll (22-23) and O’Hara (23-24).

With one of the most experienced rosters in the area, the Vikings are aiming to be that team this year.

“We want to win a state championship, that’s the biggest title you can win. We’ve won two district championships, we’ve won two PAC championships, that’s the only thing we haven’t been able to do,” senior Grace Galbavy said. “That’s our goal and it’s all going to be about our postseason play.”

The Vikings return their entire starting group from last season and a top six of all seniors going into their third year as a core group. Boettinger, a Navy-bound center, is the anchor on both ends, an efficient finisher inside who can also play out of the high post and even out to the perimeter offensively, and a strong rebounder and rim deterrent defensively.

Galbavy, committed to Wake Forest, is one of the most versatile offensive players in the area with range well past the 3-point line, an ability to shoot over most defenders and good touch and control getting up shots around the rim. The senior, who played her freshman year at Upper Perk, can also be an impact defender with her length, anticipation and a knack for coming out of nowhere for a block.

Orchestrating everything is Jefferson-bound Bella Bacani, who serves as John Russo’s coach on the floor. An excellent passer, a lethal long-range shooter and a fiery competitor, Bacani’s imprint is pretty evident on everything the Vikings do.

“I think we’re always trying to get better,” Bacani said. “We’re always trying to make each other better. We play really well together, but we can always improve, always get better. All of us want to win a state championship, so we’re going to push each other through all of it.”

Rounding out the likely first five are senior wings Lena Stein and Grace Miley. Stein, committed to West Chester, is an all-out energy player who makes her mark as a stout defender and is relentless in creating extra possessions, whether that be via an offensive rebound or a defensive stop.

Miley, who missed her sophomore season with an ACL injury, was understandably working her way back to form through much of last season. She adds another option offensively 

Julia Smith completes the returning senior six from last season’s rotation. The guard, who can plug in as a starter or can play off the bench, adds floor spacing as a shooter but also has a good passing eye and can help defend on the perimeter.

For Miley and Smith, this will likely be their last season playing basketball, so they’re carrying a little extra incentive to make sure their team is playing in the last weekend of March.

“This is it for us, so we want to leave everything we have on the court this year,” Miley said. “This is our last year, so there can’t be any regrets.”

“We all have a common goal, these girls are like our sisters,” Smith said. “If the coaches ask any of us to do something, we’d do it because it’s for the good of the team. We want to work together and win a state championship.”

Anna Stein, now playing at Kutztown, is the only departure from PV’s main rotation. While this year’s team is senior-heavy at the top, the Vikings do have a group of underclassmen who could contribute a bit this year before taking hold of the program next season.

It will mainly be the senior six most games, but sophomore guards Katie Nemic and Megan King plus freshman Hannah Evans are some of the younger players that could give spot minutes as needed. With a little more potential depth this year, the team’s veteran players see it as a benefit in the short term and the long term once they hand the program over after the season.

“It’s like looking at our class,” Miley said. “We have a bunch of freshmen coming in that are really talented, a couple girls that were with us last year, so I think they’ll be able to push us during practice. I know all those girls want what we want, so even if it’s their first year, they’re going to push us hard to go after it.”

A state title is the team’s top priority, but the Vikings aren’t overlooking the steps before that. Of the three total District 1 championships the program owns, two of them belong to this group and winning a PAC title is always a status symbol, so going out on a three-peat is a benchmark as well.

“Everybody’s going to want to beat us, that’s not going to change,” Galbavy said. “We need to do a better job of not letting up, in the postseason especially. We all have our roles on the team, we just need to do a better job of playing in those roles in the postseason.”

Stein said it’s hard to believe this season is the end of an era for a group that’s been together the last eight years. It’s why the senior is giving “no mercy” once the campaign begins and that intensity is not only something her teammates share, but that’s already been on display.

“Sophomore and junior year, you think ‘alright, we have a couple more shots,’ but this is it,” Stein said. “That’s why we’re pushing so much harder, every practice, every workout, in the weight room, we are giving it all we’ve got.”

To prepare, PV has put together a challenging regular seasons schedule. They open on the road at Lebanon, the Hurricanes a District 3 6A title contender, and take a mid-December trip out west to the Pittsburgh area to face WPIAL contenders Norwin and Upper St Clair.

The Vikings also have dates with PCL heavy-hitters Lansdale Catholic (12/21), Archbishop Wood (1/19) and Archbishop Carroll (1/26) along with a trip to Florida to compete in the Tampa Invitational between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Those trips not only bring good competition, but more chances for a group that’s already extremely close to have even more time together

“For me, it’s experiencing this last year with my best friends and my sisters,” Bacani said. “Yeah, we want to win a state championship, we want to win PACs again, win districts but it’s experiencing this last year with these guys, I’ve been with them so long, it’s going to be special.”

When they look back now, the Vikings seniors can already chart how far they’ve come from their first season. They came into PV as a class capable of changing the program, and undoubtedly have done that, but they want more.

It’s all about March and if it goes as planned, they’ll be able to look back on a run that ended as state champions.

“We came in as the scared little freshmen not knowing what to expect and all being thrown into pretty big roles on the team,” Boettinger said. “This is our fourth year, this is the last year we’ll be playing at this level, we’ve all grown into this. We’re going to come out and hit as hard as we can.”