City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

Alena Cofield didn’t realize what she was doing was so special. 

After all, they were just rebounds. Ball hits the rim, goes up, comes down, you grab it. Easy enough, right? 

“I’m not trying to be cocky, but I didn’t know double-doubles were not a (common) thing,” the Neshaminy senior said. “My coach was like, you know you’re averaging a double-double? And I was like ‘oh, I thought everybody gets a lot of rebounds.’”

Not like Cofield. Not the way she does it. 

At just 5-foot-2, she’s been her team’s leading rebounder all season long. Through the first 15 games of Neshaminy’s season, including a 40-39 win against Villa Maria on Monday at the Hoops for Hope Classic at Arcadia, she’s averaging 11.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. 

There might not be a shorter player in the country who’s doing what she’s doing. 

“She’s led us in offensive rebounds three years in a row,” Neshaminy coach John Gallagher said. “We had [6-foot-1 Bucknell freshman] Reese [Zemitis], we had some kids who could play, [but] she was the leading offensive rebounder for us and she’ll be it again, clearly, this year.”

Cofield, playing on the court at her future collegiate home, led Neshaminy (12-4) with 13 points against Villa Maria (10-9). She grabbed eight rebounds, slightly below her season average, as sophomore teammates Mia Raivitch (seven rebounds) and Hayley Kolk (six rebounds) helped her out on the glass.

The leading scorer role is new to the third-year starter, who played JV ball most of her freshman year before sliding onto the varsity bench near the end of the season. In the first round of the state playoffs, Gallagher recalled, he put her in near the end of a game they trailed by double-digits, and she grabbed four rebounds and two steals in two minutes. 

Afterwards, he told her there was nobody in the program with her raw athletic talent, that she had a chance to start if she kept it up. She’s started every game since. 

“It’s her work ethic,” Gallagher said. “She spends a lot of time up with the Neshaminy Academy of Basketball, working with our assistant coach Nick Rising. She couldn’t shoot the ball to save her life 52 weeks ago, and now she hit a ‘3’ today and it looks good coming out of her hands, I have no problem with it.”

Indeed, Cofield’s offensive game has come by leaps and bounds over the last few years, her outside shot only one such facet of her ability to now create off the bounce and score at different levels. It’s that continued talent progression, combined with her production and athleticism, that caused Arcadia coach Jackie Hartzell and her staff to pursue her since last summer. 

Cofield announced her commitment on social media this week, having visited the Glenside school several weeks back. It helped that she was already friendly with a pair of Knights freshmen, Delaney Finn (Archbishop Ryan), and Ava Gumienny (Villa Joseph Marie), who gave her glowing reviews about the school and the program; Cofield also liked that it had a physical therapy program, her intended area of study. 

She’d played in the Kuch Center a couple times before, including earlier this season, but it was a little different taking the court knowing she’ll be calling it home for the next four years. 

Cofield was being watched closely by Arcadia head coach Jackie Hartzell (background, second from right) and assistant Rylee Derr (backround, right).

“It was nice, a little nerve-wracking,” she said with a laugh. “I saw the team up there, I was like ‘oh man, I better show out.’”

Cofield was kicking herself afterwards for going 2-of-8 from the foul line but otherwise she showed exactly why Hartzell brought her aboard. She’s a strong on-ball defender, coming up with three steals, and grabbed three of her eight boards on the offensive end. She drilled her first shot, a straightaway 3-pointer; her best quarter was in the third, when she scored eight points to help Neshaminy open a 32-23 lead with eight minutes to play.

Villa did its best to mount a late comeback, forcing 10 Neshaminy second-half turnovers, including several in the last couple minutes. A 3-pointer by Sophia Tray made it a four-point game with under 30 seconds to play, and though the Hurricanes got one from Anna Vickers to get within a point with four seconds left, a lack of timeouts meant they were unable to stop the clock from running out. 

Part of Cofield’s job this season has been to lead a mostly-young Neshaminy squad, with Gallagher starting four sophomores alongside her in Kolk (11 points), Raivitch (4 points), Grace Weyler (7 points, 3 assists) and Ashlyn Duffy (3 points, 2 assists), another sophomore coming first off the bench in Auslyn Wilkins. 

Despite their youth, they’ve been winning, currently No. 12 in the unofficial District 1 6A rankings, with a shot at a first-round bye with a strong close to the regular season. 

“You just have to trust your team,” she said. “I trust them a lot, and we’ve done a lot of outside bonding so I’m really close with them. I used to be a little aggressive on the court [...] that’s my bad, but I’ve started to adjust to them more. It’s easier to listen to someone when they’re not screaming at you, and I learned that. We’re close enough that they know it’s just part of the game.”

Neshaminy gets right back to SOL Patriot action on Tuesday with a tough home game against Council Rock South (11-3, 4-1), Neshaminy’s co-leader along with Pennsbury (9-6, 4-1), which they travel to next Tuesday. Win both, and there’s a good chance they’re not only in the eight-team SOL tournament, but finish high up in the District 1 rankings as well. 

That’s the only way Cofield will be happy with the next few weeks, if Neshaminy gets a chance to challenge the likes of Upper Dublin and Central Bucks East for an SOL title. It’s all Cofield’s been working towards for the last four years.

“I just put a lot into this sport and I want to win the SOL this year,” she said. “I want to win games, so I just do what I have to.”

By Quarter
Neshaminy:  11  |   8   |  13  |   8   ||  40
Villa Maria:    2   |   9   |  12  |  16  ||  39

Shooting
Neshaminy: 15-41 FG (5-21 3PT), 5-14 FT
Villa Maria: 15-45 FG (2-12 3PT), 7-11 FT

Scoring
Neshaminy: Alena Cofield 13, Hayley Kolk 11, Grace Weyler 7, Mia Raivitch 4, Ashlyn Duffy 3, Auslyn Wilkins 2

Villa Maria: Sophia Tray 13, Rebecca Croft 8, Briella Romeo 6, Anna Vickers 4, Ava Broadhurst 4, Sierra Dean 2, Erin Urbanski 2