City of Basketball Love

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

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The Class of 2025 defined Friends’ Central girls basketball for the last four years. 

From the time Vinny Simpson took over the Phoenix midway through the 2021-22 campaign, Logyn Greer and her classmates were the clear focal point of the program. The group of Greer, Kaiya Rain Tucker, Nal’la Bennett and Co. took Friends’ Central to two straight PAISAA state championship games and a semifinal, took the court against — and beat — talented programs from all over the country, and established themselves as a powerhouse before departing to their respective collegiate programs. 

It’s a class that had size, athleticism, skill, shooting — you name it, they brought it. 

“That was the group that basically started off this whole Friends’ Central girls’ basketball thing again,” Simpson told CoBL in a late October phone call. “Having them not there, it’s still fairly new to me, I’m still getting used to it.”

The hyper-versatile, 6-foot-4 Greer’s now at Colorado; Tucker (Siena), Bennett (Stony Brook), Jordyn Addison (Coppin State), Sydney Williams (Barry) and Saniyah Washington (Cheyney) joined her as scholarship recipients off a team that went 21-9 (7-1 Friends’ Schools League). 

But the cupboard is far from bare on City Ave. 

A new crop of college talent is ready to take over at FCS, and while they’ve got a tough road ahead to better the accomplishments of the ‘25 class, they pack plenty of punch that will keep them highly-relevant on the local scene for the foreseeable future. 

The high-level talent on the 2025-26 Phoenix squad stars with a pair of juniors. Zya Small, a 6-1 guard/forward and the No. 47 player in the ESPN Super 60 rankings, came down to FCS for her sophomore year last year and was instantly a high-impact player with her inside-out play, averaging 15.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg and 2.0 bpg as she earned First Team all-FSL honors.

She’s joined this year by Ryan Carter, the No. 12 prospect on ESPN and former Penn Charter/Archbishop Wood standout. As a sophomore at Wood, she averaged 17.4 ppg and 5.0 rpg, earning state Player of the Year honors in the 5A class. She’s been teammates with Small for the last year on the Nike EYBL circuit with Exodus Elite, giving Small plenty of familiarity with her new co-star.

“It was really fun with AAU, playing with her, I think we have a lot of chemistry,” Small said. “I’m glad that we’re playing together in high school, and it won’t be hard to find our chemistry because we’ve already played together for two years. 

“I think she helps us a lot, she’s really aggressive and she does a lot of little things and she could score the ball really well, so I think that’ll help us even more."

Joining Small and Carter in the junior class is junior guard Phoenix Walker, who was part of the varsity rotation last year and will have more of a featured role this year,

The sophomore class is Simpson’s deepest. Faith Watson, a 6-0 power forward who started most of her freshman year, already has multiple Division I offers due to her presence in the post. Guards Londyn Mayo and Ki’yari King both got minutes last year; Kayla Snyder, a shooting guard from the Lehigh Valley, joins them this year. 

"I just learned to just keep going," King said of her biggest takeaway from her freshman season. "Basically, take in what you learned and just apply it 100% each and every time you do it.”

Without any seniors on the roster, the juniors and sophomores are going to have to set the tone.

“As of now, Ryan and Ki’yari King are the captains of the team, they’ve been strong voices,” Simpson said. “I do expect Ryan and Zya to carry the load, I expect them to carry the load when it comes to big games and working hard and performing hard and being mentors to these younger girls, people want to be in their shoes and be kids who are recruited heavily.”

There aren’t any freshmen on the roster, either. Simpson said that a pair of eighth graders, Ayla Cromley and Mia Lawson, could both chip in at the varsity level.

The Friends Central girls get their season underway Nov. 18 at the Perkiomen School; most of their December will be spent outside of the state, with a couple games at Paul VI (Va.), three at The St. James (Va.) and then a trip to the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix. 

Friends’ Schools League starts on Jan. 6 with a visit from an always-tough Shipley team; a visit from Westtown on Jan. 29 will undoubtedly be circled on all their calendars. 

The big obstacle still standing in the Phoenix’s way are going to be the Moose, who have had a stranglehold over the Friends’ Schools League and the entire state’s private school division since Fran Burbidge took over five years ago. Westtown’s loaded yet again with high-major talent in every class, and are going to be the favorites to win their fifth straight league and state championship. 

Just don’t tell that to the Phoenix. 

“I just want the girls to compete. Once you go out there and compete, anything is possible,” Simpson said. “My team wants to be the team to beat Westtown. They want to be able to say, when we were there, we were able to do it. They’re playing with a chip on their shoulder, all of them.”