City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For Alexis Eberz, it all came down to family. 

Though around 20 Division I schools offered her scholarships, including most of the Big 5, there was one school that had a built-in advantage above all others. Eberz grew up in a house that rooted for Villanova basketball above all else, the daughter of two former Villanova standouts, her earliest VU memories coming from camps with Harry Perretta and games at the Pavilion all winter, every winter.

“Obviously Villanova’s been my dream school since I was basically born,” Eberz said. “I grew up going to all the games and supporting them. I tried to ignore it, because it’s my own path now, block all that out and start a new path for me — but yeah, it’s always been a dream school.”

Ultimately, that tie to Villanova was too strong for Eberz to go anywhere else. The Archbishop Carroll rising senior made public her commitment to Villanova and head coach Denise Dillon on Friday, picking the Wildcats over Marquette, her other finalist.

Her family ties were important, she told CoBL, but not as important as distance.

“It came down to my family would be at all my games and if I went 12, 13 hours away [to Milwaukee], it would be difficult for them to come and support me,” she said. “The distance was a little much. I felt like I could do it, but they wouldn’t be at every game and I’m used to them coming to all my games. I had to think of the little things, too, but that was the main thing.”

Eberz’s mother, Michele (Thornton) Eberz, arrived at Villanova in 1991 from Bonner-Prendie, scoring 1,261 points in her four years in a Wildcats uniform. It was there that she met Eric Eberz, a 6-foot-7 forward from Buffalo (N.Y.), who arrived on the Main Line a year after her and went on to score 1,397 points in his collegiate career before his playing overseas.

The two started dating Michele’s junior year, Eric’s sophomore one. Alexis was born in 2007, after Eric’s playing career ended and the two had moved back to the Philadelphia area; a couple years later, twins Kayla and Kelsey followed. When their children came, there was no doubt about what team they would root for beyond all others. 

As soon as their kids were born, Michele and Eric would joke about the potential for them to follow in their footsteps. It didn’t take too long to figure out that might be a realistic possibility.

“Oh yeah [...] like ‘that would be cool, if all of our kids would go to Villanova’ and whatnot, and that was always a goal for Alexis to play in the Big East,” Michele Eberz said. “I was always proud of how she stayed the course.”

From the time she arrived as a freshman at Archbishop Carroll, if not several years prior, Alexis Eberz was a no-doubt Division I prospect. An athletic 5-foot-9 guard with range to the professional 3-point arc who played for the Comets on the Girls’ Under Armour Association circuit, Eberz started pulling in D-I offers her sophomore year. Cnce they started coming, they didn’t stop — Saint Joseph’s, Drexel, Fairfield, St. John’s, Penn, Harvard, and so many more.

Villanova offered last November, immediately becoming an obvious potential destination. It came down to the Wildcats and another Big East program, Marquette, which offered earlier this spring. That came after a stellar junior year that saw her average 19.8 ppg and 4.8 rpg, earning first team All-PCL and All-PIAA Class 6A honors.

Eberz visited both of her final schools on official visits in May, then just had to think about it. 

She said that despite the family history, her parents didn’t push her towards Lancaster and Ithan. Neither, she said, did any of the other people she talked to in her tight circle — a group that did include longtime former Villanova coach Harry Perretta and more recent Villanova standouts Maddy Siegrist and Maddie Burke.

“Obviously they went there so, of course they’re biased,” she said of her parents, “but they told me it was my decision, whatever felt right for me, they didn’t push me to go to Villanova or anything.”

It wasn’t an easy call; after the June high school live recruiting period, a school retreat provided her with the clarity she needed to make her decision.

“Oh my God, it’s like a weight lifted off my shoulders,” she said. “I’ve been really stressed out the past couple weeks with my top two, deciding which one I would be a good fit in. Seriously, I feel so relieved.”

Michele and Eric Eberz certainly aren’t complaining about her pick.

“We were super-excited, because it’s been such a long process, and it’s a process, it’s a tough process for a 17-year-old to go through, but exciting along the way,” Michele Eberz said. ““We are elated for her, I can’t wait for her senior year and then to begin her journey at Villanova, which is pretty cool.”

Alexis won’t be the only one of her siblings playing collegiate hoops. Kelsey and Kayla, both rising sophomores at Archbishop Carroll, are talented ballplayers in their own rights — Kelsey, a 5-9 point guard, is recovering from a knee injury that cost her most of the last season;  the 5-11 Kayla had a standout freshman season and recently was invited to a USA Basketball junior team tryout.

There’s no doubt that Dillon and her staff would love to make it a family reunion a few years down the line, but according to Alexis, that might not be in the cards after this season.

“I would love to play with my sisters in college,” she said, “but I think we want to take our own paths.”