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 [cityofbasketballlove.com].)

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Vinny Simpson has been cultivating this for a while. This Friends’ Central senior class will be his first graduating class as he enters his fourth season as head coach of the Phoenix. This looks like the year to strike. Simpson believes in his team. He has invested trust in them. He has instilled an edge in them, a belief that they can topple the giant of not only the Friends’ Schools League, but the regional giant of girls’ high school basketball—Westtown.

He has no problem coming right out and saying: “I tell my girls all the time, we are here now, after beating Archbishop Wood, the Catholic League champion, and Audenried, the Public League champion, last year. I have a senior-led team that knows only one way to go out, and that’s on top. We will play Westtown three times this year. We will play them in the Friends’ Schools League season, the league championship and PAISAA (Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association) championship.

"I’m calling them out. Go ahead and quote me. We’re hoping to get two out of three against them this year.”

Simpson made sure to stress he has immense respect for Westtown coach Fran Burbidge and Moose stars Jordyn Palmer, Jessie Moses, and Atlee Vanesko, among many others. He just feels the gap between his team and Westtown is closer than it was last season, after Westtown beat the Phoenix in the PISAA championship, 76-24, and sweeping them in the Friends Schools League, 77-18 during the regular season and 64-33 in the FSL Championship.

The Phoenix finished 8-1 in the league and 25-7 overall last season, with three of the seven losses coming against Westtown.

Simpson, who is 50-14 over the last two years, has much to be optimistic about. Every starter is back, and every major player returns, beginning with 6-foot-3 senior wing/forward Logyn Greer (Colorado), 6-0 senior forward Kaiya Rain Tucker (Siena), 5-8 senior shooting guard Nal’la Bennett (Stony Brook), 5-6 senior guard Saniyah Washington, and 6-2 sophomore center Zya Small. Friends Central will have considerable depth, starting with 5-10 senior forward Jordyn Adderly (Coppin State), 5-5 senior guard Sydney Williams, 5-7 sophomore guard Phoenix Walker, 6-foot freshman center Faith Watson, 5-5 freshman guard Ki’Yari King, and 5-6 freshman guard Londyn Mayo.

The team to beat in the area is Westtown. The No. 2 team in the area could be the Phoenix.

Simpson likes this team’s camaraderie. They are together on and off the court. On the court, Simpson teased that he may be pressing and running more. In his first season, he had only seven players, so he was limited in what he could do. In his second full season, last year, the Phoenix were young and still grasping his system. This season, he is ready to let his team loose. They are athletic enough to apply pressure in waves over a full game. Simpson will mix his zone presses with man-to-man presses.

The plan is a simple one: 32 minutes of hellish heat for every opponent the Phoenix face.

“This team makes things so much easier for me because I trust everyone and I know everyone will be able to handle everything I throw at them without a drop off,” Simpson said. “I am looking for good things and excited to see how things play out.”

Tucker has transformed from a back-to-the-basket player to facing the basket and bringing her game out to the perimeter. She averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds a game as a junior, while Bennett, the Phoenix’ leading outside threat who once scored 39 points in a game as a sophomore, dropping a school-record 11 3-pointers in a victory over Academy of the New Church, returns after averaging 14 points a game as a junior. Over the summer, she worked on pick-and-rolls and shooting off the dribble. Already a 1,000-point scorer, Greer is one of the best seniors in the state. She is a force inside and a sturdy rim protector.

Adderly is a hidden gem. She has the versatility to play bigs or smalls and her team-first mentality enables her to do the dirty work of rebounding and defending the opposing team’s No. 1 scoring threat. A real key to the season could be Small. With her combination of size and athleticism, she may be able to manage the gargantuan task of defending Palmer.

“I’m ready, I want that challenge,” Small said. “I need to be aggressive and have fun. I’m not intimidated by Westtown. I’ve been working out and feel confident. I always liked rebounding and scoring inside. If someone wants to go inside the lane, I will be the one greeting them. We could be really good and win states.”

Tucker is tired of losing to the Moose. She felt the brunt of those lopsided losses the last two years.

“If we all put our energy and effort into it, I think we can really beat Westtown this year,” Tucker said. “We have a different energy this year. With Zya coming in, she brings that confidence and that umph that we need. We are good enough to win the championship. In practice, we are always working on defense. Our defense could be impactful because we can wear down teams with our pressure and our length. We are good enough to win everything.”

Bennett remembers the FSL title game, trailing by 20 to Westtown at halftime. She also recalls her teammates taking themselves out of the game mentally.

The Phoenix needed to address their collective mental toughness entering this season.

“We have seniors who are set where they are going to college, and six seniors who do not what it is like to beat Westtown, and that is big motivation for us,” Bennett said. “Zya has brought out more energy in everyone. She will make more of a name for herself. We have beaten every big program in the area—except Westtown. We do have tough players on this team, physically and mentally. I have to speak up more as one of the senior leaders. I have to be more encouraging. I have to get everyone on the same page and carry that winning mentality. I’m still not satisfied with where I am. We have to learn how to punch back. If we get knocked down this year, we will get back up.”

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 [mobile.twitter.com].