City of Basketball Love

By Tom Robinson
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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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With three 6-footers and three more 5-foot-10 girls expected to figure prominently into plans, the Shipley School has no shortage of height as it prepares for the upcoming Friends League season.

Making assumptions about the team’s approach with all that size, however, could lead to misconceptions.

“We are heavily guard-oriented,” coach Ellen Bair said. “We love to shoot 3s. We like to play fast. We like to press.”

The Gators lineup is loaded with prospects.

The same skill sets that make Shipley’s top players attractive to college recruiters combine to make the Gators into a dangerous team with plenty of experience back from a 19-9 finish last season.

“We never want to limit someone,” Bair said. “We want to make sure they are prepared to be utilized at the next level, whatever that must look like. 

“We definitely want them to be skilled from all three levels. We want them to be able to guard a lot of positions as well. From a recruiting standpoint, it really helps if you are able to showcase versatility – and people are able to use you in a lot of different ways and to exploit matchups and things like that.”

Bair calls Giavanni Cosby, a 6-3 freshman, the team’s only post player, but even Cosby will shoot 3s at times.

Fairfield University commit Gabby Vaughn, a 6-foot senior wing, returns after earning first-team, all-Friends League honors and a second-team, all-state choice on the non-PIAAA squad selected by state sports writers. She averaged 11.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals.

Cidney Stanfield, a sophomore with multiple NCAA Division I offers, received honorable mention on the all-Friends League team. She started as an eighth-grader then led the Gators in scoring last season as a freshman.

Melody Vaughn, a 5-10 freshman point guard and Gabby’s younger sister, made the ESPN 2029 Watch List with her summer AAU play. She started every game last season as an eighth grader, was invited to the U-16 Team USA Trials and now has offers from Syracuse, Indiana and others.

Halle Newsome is a sophomore with offers from Stony Brook, Mercyhurst, Mount St. Mary’s and UMBC.

Cosby already has an offer from Mount St. Mary’s.

Rikai Williford, a 5-10 senior guard, started last season.

The Gators have added to that experience with Natalie Goldstein, a 6-1 junior guard forward who transferred from Honesdale in the northeast corner of the state where she was a Lackawanna League all-star, and freshman guard Lucy DeVault, a creative scoring threat with an outstanding shot.

Even with all the experience, Bair said the season could go a lot of different ways because of the competitiveness of the schedule.

They open at the Perkiomen School on Nov. 15, then welcome a high-level Blair Academy (N.J.) squad to Montgomery Ave. on Nov. 20. Before Jan. 1, they play multiple out-of-state opponents, including a team from the Netherlands as part of three games in the DMV region for the She Got Game Classic. 

Friends’ Schools League play starts Jan. 6 with a difficult game at Friends’ Central; they visit league favorite Westtown exactly one week later. There’s no doubt the Moose will be the toughest opponent for the Gators to get by, having won the last five FSL titles; the rest of the league is doing their best to present a real challenge. 

“We play in a very tough league and we play in a lot of showcases where you don’t have a choice over who your matchup is. It’s just kind of thrown at you,” Bair said. “I hope that we have a lot of success. We certainly have the personnel to do that. It’s really about coming together as a team, playing as hard as we can, using a lot of our strengths.

“We’re very big. We have length. We can play fast. I think a lot of that works in our favor, but Philadelphia basketball is an area with a ton of talent. There’s a lot of tough opponents for us, but we’ve put ourselves in a good place.”