City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

(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.)

~~~

The Conestoga core goes back as far as they can remember. 

It was as kindergarteners that Ryann Jennings, Libby Brown and Maggie Neary first teamed up on the hardcourt, not knowing where that journey would take them. A dozen years later, they’re the senior leaders of a Pioneers group that’s been to the last three Central League championship games, and are determined to leave school with a trophy to their name. 

“I would love to end on a high note and for a lot of us, that high note would be a Central League championship,” Neary said. “Obviously [we plan on] making it far in districts, far in states, as we have in years past, and we just want to continue the route we’ve been going — but [we] specifically [want to] win a Central League championship.”

The Pioneers are coming off a 21-9 (14-2 Central League) season, which ended with a seven-point loss to Lebanon in the opening round of the PIAA 6A tournament. Prior to that, they’d made it to the Central League title game, falling to Garnet Valley by four points, and then ran into Perkiomen Valley in the District 1 6A quarterfinals.

It’s been an offseason of change for the program, for multiple reasons. Former head coach A.J. Thompson stepped aside to be able to watch his daughter play high school hoops; in his stead, former Bishop Shanahan boys coach and Haverford College men’s assistant Ken Doyle got the gig. On top of that, the ‘Stoga girls graduated center Janie Preston (Army West Point) and guard Ruth Lanouette (MIT) from the starting lineup, along with reserve forward Kate Martin (Ursinus). 

Though this is Doyle’s first time coaching girls’ basketball, he does come in with a winning resume, having guided the Eagles to a Ches-Mont title in 2018, the same year they were District 1 5A runner-ups. 

“Just by only having open gyms with him, you can tell how experienced he is with the game of basketball,” Jennings said. “He wants us to push ourselves to win the Central League, go far in districts and states and stuff. It’s really about us coming together and putting in the work, he knows that we’re capable of it and he’s just really excited to get to be able to work with us.”

It helps that Doyle has a bona-fide star to hand the ball to in his first year in Jennings. 

A 5-foot-11 guard and Lehigh commit, she’s coming off a Central League MVP season where she averaged 15 points, seven rebounds and two steals per game, hitting 53% of her shots overall and surpassing the 1,000-point mark. She’ll be the team’s no-doubt star as a senior, chasing the top of the Conestoga girls’ scoring leaderboard. 

“She’s a really hard worker, very dedicated to what she’s trying to do as far as being a high-level player and a next-level player,” Doyle said. “She shows up all the time [...] and she’s just a great kid as well.”

Neary and Brown both return with a couple seasons of varsity experience under their belts, and starting experience from last year. Neary, a 5-8 wing, is more of a slasher and driver; Brown, a 5-4 point guard, is a facilitator and quality outside shooter. 

Both are going to have to step up their offensive contributions to take some defensive pressure off Jennings.

“I feel like I’ve always been kind of a glue player when I’d have a lot of stars on the court surrounding me,” Neary said, “but this year I feel like I”m someone that needs to step up and average a few more points per game than I have in years prior. I’ve been working on my pull-up jump shots, my 3-point shooting, and these open gyms are good at helping me get more shots up.”

After that senior trio, it’s going to be a mixture of youth and inexperience stepping into big roles. Two juniors, Lu Misener and Natalie Garza, were primed to make big contributions this year, but both suffered knee injuries in the offseason and will miss the year. Both Jennings and Neary mentioned sophomore Maren Gallagher, who was on the varsity roster as a freshman, as having stepped up this offseason and in pre-season workouts. 

The Pioneers also got a boost this offseason from the arrival of junior wing Niya Lynch, who moved into the district after previously attending and playing at Harry S. Truman. The rest of the rotation will be determined in November, after the various fall sports have ended and official practices begin. 

It’s a group that expects to shoot the ball well deep, with its lineup of guards able to control tempo and spread teams out, then get the ball to Jennings if nothing else works. One area of concern is team size; Jennings is the tallest girl in the program, 

“It’s definitely going to be a team effort because we don’t have a set ‘big,’ so if anyone has the advantage down low, we’re going to put them down there and see if they’re going to make anything happen,” she said. “I’ve been working on (posting up) a lot in the offseason.”

The Pioneers will be challenged in the non-league with games against Upper Dublin, Downingtown East and Villa Maria, all before a couple games at the O’Hara holiday tournament in late December. 

After a few seasons of being dominated by Conestoga, Haverford and Garnet Valley, the Central League seems more wide-open this year, with six or seven different programs hoping to vie for the title, including Radnor, Lower Merion, Springfield (Delco.) and Strath Haven, all of whom have quality basketball talent. But the Pioneers are going into the season as favorites in their mind, hoping their experience of having been there the last three years puts them over the top. 

For the ‘Stoga seniors, to end their long run together with a trophy would be the most fitting of endings. 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Jennings said. “I’ve loved playing with them so much, and to finish it out with them at Conestoga, it’s so special to me. I’m just so happy and excited that I get to finish it out with them.”