City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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After getting to know them during the June and July live periods, Kaylinn Bethea gave a tearful goodbye to her Philly Belles teammates at the end of their AAU season in Chicago last week.

Just a few days later, Bethea found out she’d be teaming up again with one of her newfound friends. 

Bethea announced her commitment to St. Joe’s on Friday — one day after Belles’ teammate Rian Dotsey did the same — to give the Hawks their third local commitment from the 2025 class and give the AAU teammates a chance to build on their budding on and off-court chemistry.

“Rian called me right after I got off the phone with (St. Joe’s coach) Cindy (Griffin), just yapping, talking up a storm,” Bethea said. “It was just fun. She was like, ‘I can't believe I get to play with you for the next four years,’ because we were all crying after our last AAU game.”

Bethea and the St. Joe’s staff have been building a relationship since her freshman season at Penn Charter. The Hawks were the first program to offer the 5-foot-9 point guard in May after her freshman season with the Quakers.

Fourteen total programs ended up extending scholarship offers to Bethea during her high school career, several joining the list this offseason.

She said it came down to UPenn, Richmond, Princeton and St. Joe’s. Along with the ability to stay close to come and have her family able to watch her play, those years of trust building with the Hawks were a big factor.

After taking a visit to campus in June, she was back on Hawk Hill on Thursday ready to bring her recruitment to an end, announcing her commitment to St. Joe's on Friday.

“They’ve just been around for so long, kept supporting me and seeing my growth in the game,” Bethea said. “The coaching staff is amazing, so I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the spot.’”

Bethea has already surpassed 1,000 points in her career at PC and has been part of three Inter-Ac championship teams for the Quakers in addition to a Nike EYBL 16U championship with the Philly Rise last summer.

She is a three-time first team All-Inter-Ac selection, averaging 17.3 ppg 5.1 rpg 3.7 apg and 3.7 spg for the Quakers as a junior this past season. Bethea, who also runs track at Penn Charter, is a player who prides herself on her speed and defense — two traits that stuck out to her future coaches.

“They just kind of talked about how I’m the person that plays full court, offense and defense,” Bethea said. “It’s something I'm looking forward to, especially, now just start pressing and stuff like that. Especially with my defense, I cause a lot of havoc.”

Her offensive game still has room to grow but that’s an area Bethea and the Hawks staff have both noticed big improvements as well.  

“The last two tournaments with the Belles I was able to do a little bit more, and also just help create on offense and spread the floor for other teams and create a faster pace that gets you kind of running up and down,” Bethea said. “And St Joe's style is kind of more like pushing the ball, and I’m used to that.”

The St. Joe’s coaches weren’t the only ones recruiting Bethea. Her former Penn Charter teammate Aleah Snead was a freshman at St. Joe’s last season and gave her pitch about becoming a Hawk.

Former PC coach Joe Maguire brought Bethea and the Quakers down to Hagan Arena to watch Snead last season. (Snead, Bethea and PC also played there in the PAISAA title game in 2022-23.)

Snead hit up Bethea during the recruiting process. She and St. Joe’s teammate Gabby Casey (Lansdale Catholic) — two former Belles teammates themselves — went out to lunch with Bethea on her visit to campus in June.

“She would call me here, and there like, ‘Hey what are you waiting for? Come on,’” Bethea said. “I was like, ‘Let me think about it.’ … When I posted (my commitment), she's like, ‘Did you really need that much time?’”

Bethea, Dotsey and Archbishop Wood’s Emily Knouse, who made her commitment in November, will continue to add to the local flair on Hawk Hill. They’re part of an important class with the Hawks set to graduate five players this upcoming school year. Casey and Snead saw time as freshmen.

Knouse shot Bethea an excited text after she made her commitment public. Bethea put her in group chat with Dotsey.

“We just kind of talked about starting to get know each other a little bit more,” Bethea said. “We’re super excited."