City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
––

(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 2025-26 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

~~~

There’s a different feel around Downingtown West going into the season this year.

About this time a year ago, the Whippets didn’t really know what they had coming off a 9-12 season. This fall, they know they’ve got a pretty good group coming back from a Ches-Mont championship and state playoff run that could be even better.

What changed in a year, at least the way they see it, goes beyond the 94 feet of a basketball court.

“It was a tight group last year and luckily, I think we’ll have another tight group this year,” Whippets coach Mike Young said. “They play for each other, encourage each other and support each other no matter what. They’re very even keeled, we don’t tend to get too high when we win or too low when we lose, it’s more of looking at what we can learn from what just happened and apply it to the next game.”

The Whippets were one of the biggest turnaround teams in District 1 last winter, posting a 24-6 record highlighted by a win over rival Downingtown East in the Ches-Mont championship, the seventh seed in the Class 6A playoff bracket and eventually the nine seed from District 1 going to states. Senior Kelsey Meenan, who also plays goalkeeper on West’s soccer team that won a state title last fall, credited the team culture as the catalyst in the turnaround.

Downingtown West was boosted by the addition of a strong freshman class last year and breakout years from players like Hayden Blair and Ellie Dexter only raised the level but it started off the court. Last year’s senior class created a culture of togetherness that this year’s leaders know they have to emulate.

“They were great role models in telling us and especially us three of how to be leaders,” Meenan said. “They were also great friends. They showed how to be a great friend but also a great teammate so now the three of us, but also all of the younger girls, even with that one year of experience see what it takes to be a great leader.”

The Whippets graduated five seniors - Liv Young, Sam Schurtz, Caitlin Grant, Rachel Schuda and Eliana Lefever, who had a monumental impact on the team beyond their statistics. Schurtz in particular, a second team All Ches-Mont selection after two years lost to injury, set an example that the returning players are doing their best to keep going.

“It helps being that close to them,” Blair said. “You not only look up to them in the basketball aspect but outside of that in life, you look up to them because of how good of people they are.”

“That’s the great thing about last year, now we have that experience,” Young said. “Now we have enough people back who have been in these type of situations and have performed in them so when we are in tight games this year, we’ll know what to expect and know what to do.”

The Whippets should have a lot of versatility in their rotation this year. Blair, the daughter of West Chester University men’s coach Damien Blair, is a dynamic point guard who will run the show and is coming off a First Team All Ches-Mont selection last season.

Blair, who enters her third season as a starter, echoed her teammates that the leadership of last year’s seniors will be missed but added it’s an opening for the next group to step up and make this team their own.

“We still have a lot of pieces,” Blair said. “That helps a lot. We have big goals and we should have big goals for the season because of how confident we are in each other and how we play.”

Downingtown West had three freshmen as part of the varsity lineup last year in Kylee Domsohn, Eme McCosmey and Macie Osunde while Kayla Rama has been playing with the group this fall and impressing with her defense. McCosmey plays lacrosse and Osunde is a soccer player, so they’re not fully back in the mix year but Domsohn may be primed for a breakout year. A 6-foot forward who carries an offer from William & Mary, Domsohn will be one of the team’s main frontcourt pieces but she can also put the ball on the floor and has a nice shooting touch.

Meenan and Dexter said they’re looking at the underclassmen as an integral part of wherever the Whippets go this season because of the way they performed last year.

“They were able to find their role on the team and understand where we see them helping us as a team,” Dexter said. “They know they have a bigger role in front of them and they’ll be even more helpful now that they have that year, they’re leaders in a way too.”

Dexter, who actually attends Downingtown STEM Academy, could pretty much play any position if needed. The 5-foot-9 senior, who has a host of Division III programs after her, played as a post for her District One AAU team but will be more of a perimeter player for the Whippets and she can do everything from rebound to handle the ball to shoot outside the arc.

Last year’s success seemed to fuel pretty motivated summers from all the returning players. Meenan, who played for Philly Roots this summer, is another 5-foot-9 guard who can get going on the outside but can also play inside the arc.

Junior Addy Lefever, who is drawing Division II interest, gives the Whippets another inside presence but like many of her teammates, isn’t limited to just one position or area of the court she can contribute.

Young said Blair, Dexter and Meenan pretty much live in the gym, and Dohmsohn and Lefever are in there plenty too. That’s not to say the rest of the team isn’t dedicated, it’s just that a lot of them are busy with their primary sports like soccer or lacrosse, which the Whippets have been pretty good at these last few years as well.

“We’re extremely versatile,” Young said. “They’re great athletes, we haven’t had our soccer or lacrosse girls at some of these events either so you’re adding in even more good athletes and they bring that toughness and athleticism and you mesh them with the other girls, you’re able to do even more different things.”

As a team, the Whippets are setting a high bar for themselves. Blair said they want to go even further into the postseason, an upset loss to Haverford in their first district game and a first round state playoff defeat on the road not sitting well from a year ago.

“We can have those hard conversations,” Meenan said. “Because we’re so close, it’s almost like a family and like your sisters, you can tell each other what you’re doing wrong but also hype each other up. We can be that way again this year and that’s something really important because when you are that close, you just want to help each other out.”

Defending their Ches-Mont title is also a goal, although Young noted that won’t be easy in what’s shaping up as a pretty deep league this year with Downingtown East bringing a lot back, Coatesville on the upswing, West Chester East and West Chester Rustin always solid and on through the the American and National divisions.

Dexter said it’s a group that’s able to self-assess and if there’s something they aren’t good at, they’ll work to fix it. Blair added that it’s easy to tell every person on the team cares and that’s why they’re there at open gyms, workouts or even putting in the effort over the offseason.

“All the hard work in the summer, it comes from how the rest of the team pushes us to be better,” Blair said. “Even the sophomores, they’ll push us to be better and that helps us. We all work hard for it because we know we want it and that’s the kind of team you want to be a part of.”