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 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Ever since Mickey McDaniel took over the Spring-Ford girls’ program in 2013, the Rams have had quite a run of talent. 

From 2014 grad Sammy Stipa (Lafayette) to Maggie Locke (‘15, Holy Cross), Sydney Wagner (‘17, Stetson/William & Mary), Lucy Olsen (‘21, Villanova/Iowa) and all the way through 2024 graduates Anna Azzara (Wright State) and Mac Pettinelli (St. Bonaventure), McDaniel’s had a steady stream of Division I talent to rely on and lead the way.

That makes this season, McDaniel’s 12th in Royersford, certainly an outlier. 

With Azzara and Pettinelli off starting their freshman years at their respective schools, the Rams don’t have a single player on the roster currently being recruited by a Division I program. But that doesn’t mean the expectations have changed in the slightest for a program that won the PIAA 6A state title in 2021 and was runner-up to Cardinal O’Hara in Hershey this spring.

“We play for those who came before us, and it’s our responsibility to keep building on that foundation that’s built,” said McDaniel, who also served as Spring-Ford’s athletic director before his retirement after 27 years in 2022. “But then we play for those coming after us, so they do have that foundation of success to continue their build. 

“When you can adapt that philosophy, it can keep your program going in the right direction, whether you have Division I players, Division II, Division III, or girls who might not even want to play basketball in college. If you have that philosophy, it’ll keep you moving forward.”

Azzara and Pettinelli, both four-year varsity contributors, were two of six seniors in last year’s rotation. Shooting guard Aaliayah Solliday (West Chester) and forward Katie Tiffan (Lynn) are both playing D-II hoops; guards Siena Miller and Sophia Allocca rounded out the class.

It’s a group that takes with them the majority of the team’s minutes, not to mention most of its scoring, rebounding, you name it.

Replacing them isn’t something that will happen immediately, or flawlessly, but McDaniel’s confident in his process. And so are his players.

“We’re not seeing ourselves as an underdog,” senior wing Kareena Preuss told CoBL, “but that’s what we’re seen as, and obviously we want to prove everybody wrong.”

The Rams will once again lean heavily on a six-girl senior class: guards Lilly Brescia (5-8), Devon Chamberlain (5-4) and Christina Tiffan (5-8) and forwards Preuss (5-10), Haley Prophet (5-11) and Emma Hokanson (5-11).

Preuss, a sharpshooting wing, earned a starting role over the course of her junior year, and enters the year with the most varsity experience on the roster. Like the rest of her classmates, most of whom have known each other since travel basketball in sixth grade, she had to adjust to suddenly being the tone-setters after having the ‘24 class ahead of them for three years. 

“It’s definitely a new experience, being the oldest of the crew,” she said. “Usually we’re always looking up to someone, now we’re the leaders, we have to set an example for the younger kids, but it’s fun, it’s been fun.”

Brescia got varsity time as a sophomore, but the 5-8 guard tore her ACL just as the 2023 spring was getting underway. She wasn’t cleared until just after the 2023-24 season ended, but got a full summer of grassroots ball under her legs with the Upper Makefield Heat. As the fall goes on, she’s more than six months passed her return, getting closer and closer to being herself again.

“My recovery was really long but I just kept working at it every day until I finally came back,” she said, “and I’m happy to be back before the senior season and have some games that I’ve been playing so far, so I’m not just going to hop into a high school game.

“I just can’t wait to get back on the court for my senior year and play with my teammates again,” she added.

The rest of the senior class has all seen some spot varsity minutes, but all will be in for the largest roles of their high school careers.

After the seniors, it’s up for grabs if anybody else can earn regular minutes. Two sophomores, guards Emma Kaercher and Miley Maloney, were both on the end of the varsity bench a year ago but should shift much closer to the court this year.

No matter what, these Rams are going to have to be greater than the sum of their parts if they want to hang with Perk Valley and its four scholarship-level starters, the two-time defending PAC and District 1 6A champs.

McDaniel talked about drilling in the importance of limiting opponents to one contested shot every possession, waxing about the need for on-point defensive slides and box-outs galore. His Rams need to be as detail-oriented as possible.

“We don’t call them ‘50/50 balls,’” McDaniel said. “We call them ‘100 balls’ because they need to be our ball.”

Spring-Ford opens its season on Dec. 6 at the Governor Mifflin tip-off, with other non-league games against Villa Maria, Springfield (Delco.), and a holiday tournament at Reading. The two biggest regular-season games will be Jan. 4 and Jan. 24 — the two matchups against Perkiomen Valley, first at Spring-Ford and the return game at PV. 

Ultimately, no game will be as important as the ones in February, with titles on the line.

“It was tough for us, the last two years, not to win the conference, because we won five in a row and we want to keep that tradition going,” McDaniel said. “They want to [...] prove to people that we can win with what we have.”