City of Basketball Love

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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To say this offseason has been different for Lansdale Catholic would be an understatement.

A team with four returning starters and very clear motivation from a disappointing ending in 2023-24 somehow enters as a major question mark. But, that happens with a coaching change a month and a half before the season starts.

LC’s got all the parts to get where it wants to get, but it may take some time for all those parts to figure out how they best fit.

“Even adjusting to having an all-new coaching staff, we’ve been doing pretty well,” senior forward Grace McDonough said. “We’ve had good practices. Just in the few weeks we’ve had with open gyms and practices, I think we’re all ready to start the season and hopefully start out strong.”

Tom Lonergan is back in the Philadelphia Catholic League. The former Bishop McDevitt coach enters the season with 796 career wins and in a new location after his surprising removal from Gwynedd Mercy Academy this summer.

Lonergan ended up at LC in mid-October after the Crusaders had some surprising coaching news of their own. Eric Gidney, who coached Lansdale Catholic for six years and led the program to its first state title in 2022-23, unexpectedly retired from coaching on Oct. 1 and Lonergan was named his replacement 11 days later.

While he’s won everywhere he’s been, Lonergan said there were a few questions about what kind of style he was bringing to LC

“We want to take advantage of their skills and what we’re looking for is the opportunity to run the floor,” Lonergan said. “But we’re confident that if we’re not in that position, the structure in our offense will get some looks. People thought the style we were going to bring was that more structured style, that question was raised when I was introduced. My response was that you might think I’m structured, but there were years where we were not and it all depends on who you’ve got.”

“The biggest thing he’s stressed with us since he got here is getting out in transition,” senior point guard Sanyiah Littlejohn said. “He saw we have the kind of team that can get a lot of chances to go down and score before the other team has a chance to set up.”

He inherits a roster that’s got plenty of talent on it. Littlejohn and Nadia Yemola are both four-year starters with a pair of state title game appearances to their name while McDonough is returning off a third team all-state selection in her first season with the Crusaders.

McDonough, who committed to JMU from two dozen Division I offers, will be a focal point on both ends. The 6-foot-2 forward can shoot the ball in the high post and finish in the low post, plus she’s a strong rebounder and rim defender.

Littlejohn, who has pledged to George Mason, is still working back from an offseason shoulder injury but is one of the more dynamic players in the PCL when healthy. The 5-foot-10 guard excels in the open floor, she can dish the ball, has improved as a scorer and can be a disruptor on defense.

Yemola rounds out the senior trio of starters, the guard committed to Kutztown beyond this year. The 5-foot-8 Yemola is a lethal outside shooter and is looking for a bounce-back year in her senior season.

“He’s a great coach, he has a ton of experience and he’s won PCL championships,” Yemola said. “He already knows us as players, he studied a lot of our film from last year and we’ve already put in a lot of offenses and defenses. We’re excited to apply it to games and see how it works for us.”

Allie Esposito is back after starting all of last season, the 5-foot-10 sophomore able to play a frontcourt role or more of a perimeter game thanks to a versatile skill set to go with some height. Junior Aubrey Mobley, a 5-foot-6 combo guard, started a few games last season and brings a good mix of scoring and playmaking. Mobley gives the Crusaders another player who can push the pace as Longeran encourages the team to find opportunities in transition this season.

In recent years, LC’s starting five often played the whole game, or at least most of it. Lonergan is planning to use his bench, the first-year Crusaders coach saying he believes there are already six starting level players on the team with a couple other players who can contribute early and a few more who could become a factor down the line.

“The first thing we saw when we watched tape was we have a team that can get it off the glass and get down the floor quickly,” Longergan said. “We’re not going to take away from that. Things we do defensively are going to be different than what they did but this team with their height and their length I think will be effective in it.”

Sophomore Ali Kaltenbacher is another new addition to Lansdale Catholic this year and a familiar face for Lonergan. The 5-foot-10 forward, who is also a standout flag football receiver, transferred from Gwynedd Mercy Academy prior to the school year. Kaltenbacher gives the Crusaders a relentless rebounder and some pretty good hands as an interior player.

Junior Kyara Benjamin is a quick guard the coaches see finding an increased role spelling Littlejohn and Mobley while freshman Lily Clair brings some size and athleticism to the backcourt rotation at 5-foot-8. Senior Isabella Ciccocelli, a 5-foot-6 guard with a nice outside shot and junior Isabella Allen, a 6-foot-1 post, are the others who will be in the mix for some minutes during the season.

“We’re going to use our bench more and develop  that seventh and eighth player off the bench,” McDonough said. “He talked us about how he’s big on rotating people in and getting us subs when we need it.” 

A year after winning a triple crown of the PCL title plus District 12 and PIAA 4A crowns, LC never seemed to recapture that same energy last season. The Crusaders finished sixth in the league, a disappointing loss to newcomer Nazareth Academy proving costly when a buzzer-beating loss to Archbishop Carroll in the PCL quarterfinals ended LC’s season without a state playoff appearance.

It was a point of contention for the team all offseason, with Littlejohn, McDonough and Yemola all saying after their commitments were made that they were putting their focus on the season. Having a new coach come in and then having to learn a new system on offense and defense, plus changes in terminology and philosophy made it a little more challenging, but the Crusaders aren’t backing down from redeeming themselves.

“I think we’ve been able to come into practices really focused, the new coaches are really big on that too,” Yemola said. “We’re trying to show the transfers and the freshmen how it is here and setting the tone through that. We’re trying to be really purposeful with everything we do and working toward a future while trying to win.”

LC opens up at Conwell-Egan’s tipoff event with games against Council Rock South and Pennsbury on Nov. 29 and 30 and a game against Imhotep Charter on Dec. 6. The Crusaders will travel to the She Got Game Classic in the D.C. area the next weekend, have a home game with Neshaminy on Dec. 18, face Perk Valley on Dec. 21, then head to Wildwood for games against Egg Harbor Township and Germantown Academy on Dec. 28-29. The nonleague slate rounds out with games against Abington on Jan. 18 and Upper Dublin on Jan. 26 at the Maggie Lucas Classic.

PCL play opens with a big one as Nazareth Academy visits on Dec. 20, with the full slate of league games starting up in earnest. LC plays Neumann-Goretti and Archbishop Wood back-to-back on the road Jan. 9 and Jan. 14 and gets Cardinal O’Hara and Archbishop Carroll late on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4.

“It’s our senior year, last year we did not end on a good note and I know we could have done so much better and we had so much more potential,” McDonough said. “This year, we’re not thinking of the past, we’re getting rid of it and thinking of the future. It’s our last year, so we want to make the most of it.”