Confronted with the possible closure of their beloved school, the Motivation High community came prepared to fight back.
As community members entered their Southwest Philadelphia school’s auditorium Wednesday night, students waving signs and carrying blue-and-yellow pompoms handed out leaflets: on one side were Motivation’s stats — building condition, graduation rate, attendance, suspensions.
On the other were stats for Bartram High, the school they would be assigned to attend if their school closes in 2027, as proposed under the Philadelphia School District facilities plan. The data for Motivation, a magnet, are stronger across the board, sometimes starkly so — Bartram is a neighborhood school with no admissions criteria, and its attendance and graduation rates are lower, and its suspensions higher.
Motivation High students hold signs they made to protest the Philadelphia School District’s planned closure of their school.
Motivation has only 150 students enrolled this year. The school system cited low enrollment as one reason for the closure. But district officials have been clear: The recommendation was also driven by a desire to reinvigorate struggling neighborhood high schools.
“Why are we put in with Bartram to make Bartram look good, when we stand out on our own?” one Motivation student asked district staff pointedly.
The opposition from the Motivation community lays bare an issue at the crux of the school system’s plan: To reach its stated goal of advancing all students, the district says it must displace some. Often, that has pitted communities against one another.
Residents in a restless crowd at Motivation on Wednesday, including one of the state’s most powerful politicians, PennsylvaniaHouse Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia), said they were not having it.
“It’s like you want us to water flowers that just weren’t growing from the beginning,” one parent told officials. “You want to uproot kids who have found their place. You can count my child right out of that plan. She ain’t going to Bartram.”
‘It’s the lottery system’
Motivation began as a Bartram program, housed in a separate building, for academically talented students. But in 2004, Motivation became its own school, eventually moving to the former Turner Middle School building at 59th and Baltimore.
The district that year moved to a centralized lottery system, taking away from principals any discretion over who got admitted to the schools. It said it did so for equity reasons andto solve for demographic mismatches at some schools — though Motivation’s student body had been representative of its neighborhood and the city as a whole.
In the past, schools like Motivation filled most of their ninth-grade classes with students who met the district-set criteria, and also admitted students who were close but came with a strong recommendation from another school, or had compelling personal circumstances that explained why they missed meeting the magnet standards.
Those extra admissions ended with the district policy change, and Motivation’s enrollment plummeted. It was never a huge school, by design — topping out at 400 students prior to the pandemic.
It doesn’t seem fair, said Nehemiah Bumpers, a Motivation 10th grader.
“Why are you guys moving us for having low enrollment scores?” Bumpers said. “It’s the lottery system that drastically changed our enrollment.”
McClinton, who attended the Wednesday meeting, was similarly frustrated.
“When you talk about the enrollment being diminished, it’s because you changed the playbook for principal Teli,” McClinton said of veteran Motivation principal Rennu Teli-Johnson, whom the Housespeaker praised.
“She knows every one of these kids,” said McClinton, whose House district includes both Motivation and Bartram.
This week, most Motivation students walked out of school, staging a protest over the district’s plan.
Students walk out of Motivation High School in Southwest Philadelphia on Monday, protesting that their school is one of 20 that the Philadelphia School District has tagged for closure.
Zanaya Johnson-Green, an 11th grader, said students were beside themselves, even those who will graduate before the school is planned to be folded into Bartram in the fall of 2027.
“Motivation has given me so many opportunities, and I don’t want to see it go,” Johnson-Green said. “No one wants the school to close. This is having a bad effect on all of us.”
The district has, in recent years, invested millions in sprucing up the Motivation building, which if the school does close would become district “swing space” — a place where schools can move to accommodate building repairs or other overflow needs.
“Why spend all that money just to push us into Bartram and use this school as a swing space?” Bumpers asked.
Motivation High School in Southwest Philadelphia, on Baltimore Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, is shown in this 2025 file photo.
But much of the energy at the meeting was spent talking about the safety at Bartram — with parents and students pressing the district on how they could guarantee staff and student welfare, and district officials saying they would use a planning year and community wisdom to address concerns.
“Disaster!” someone in the audience shouted when Associate Superintendent Tomás Hanna talked about his hope that those with worries would step up to the plate to help plan for a Bartram transition.
A Motivation student shook her head.
“Why do we have to reap what you sow when you stopped paying attention to neighborhood schools all those years? Why do we have to suffer the consequences, lose opportunities?” the student said.
Monica Allison, a Cobbs Creek neighbor and ward leader, made it clear that though she was fighting against the Bartram closure, wounds inflicted from prior school closures, dating back to John P. Turner Middle School and George Wharton Pepper Middle School, were also on people’s minds.
“You closed John P. Turner and you didn’t ask us,” Allison said. “Now we’re back with another closure. It’s ridiculous. You keep talking about elevating Bartram at the expense of other kids. The neighbors are really tired of this.”
The speaker speaks out
John Young, a Motivation teacher for the last decade, said his students were living their civics lesson by protesting the district’s plan. The district is in a tough spot, he said — coping with the fallout of charter schools that took students from traditional public schools, dealing with its own decision to create greater high school choice.
But, Young said, “this decision is going to continue that trend of pushing our students to homeschool, pushing our students to charter schools. This decision is not going to solve the problem, it is going to hollow us out.”
Pa. House Speaker Joanna McClinton blasted the Philadelphia School District at a public meeting Wednesday night, saying its officials had disadvantaged Motivation High by changing rules around special admissions, then used low enrollment as one reason to close the school.
A visibly upset McClinton spoke last on Wednesday night.The district must invest in both schools, she said — not just one.
The district officials she addressed all had good jobs, McClinton emphasized. They could afford to send their children to whatever kind of school they felt was best for them. Southwest Philadelphiaparents might not be wealthy, but they deserve to make choices, too, the speaker said.
“It’s not fair that you’re pitting Black children in Bartram against Black children in Motivation,” McClinton said. “Not one of your children go to Motivation or Bartram. I don’t get millions of dollars in Harrisburg for you to waste it away to make this a swing space.”
Low-income Pennsylvania families and adults in their late 50s and early 60s have been dropping out of Affordable Care Act health plans at the greatest rates after a key financial incentive expired at the end of last year, causing insurance costs to double on average across the state.
Some 98,000 people who bought health plans last year from Pennsylvania’s Obamacare marketplace, Pennie, have opted out of coverage for 2026, as of Wednesday. That means one in five previously enrolled Pennsylvania residents have dropped their coverage.
The number is expected to continue growing, as people begin getting premium bills they cannot afford, Pennie administrators said. They have already seen a significant increase since the end of open enrollment on Jan. 31, at which time 85,000 people had not renewed coverage.
The agency has estimated that up to 150,000 people may ultimately drop coverage if Congress did not renew a tax credit program that ensures no one pays more than 8.5% of their income on an ACA health plan. The tax credits, which were adopted in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, had been renewed annually until now.
“If the tax credits had stayed in place, we probably would have seen another record enrollment, further reducing the uninsured rate,” said Devon Trolley, Pennie’s executive director.
The tax credits were a defining issue in last year’s longest-ever federal government shutdown. In that budget stalemate, Democrats wanted to permanently expand the enhanced subsidies, and Republicans refused.
New Jersey has not yet released the final results for its ACA open enrollment period, which also ended Jan. 31.
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2026 Pennie enrollment
The first look at the impact of the higher insurance costs comes from Pennie data at the end of open enrollment. As of Feb. 1, a total of 486,000 people had signed up for coverage in 2026, down from 496,661 the same time last year.
Some 79,500 newcomers to the marketplace partially offset the people who dropped coverage.
In the Philadelphia region, more than 27,000 people who were enrolled in Pennie last year dropped coverage for 2026. Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties saw the biggest impact, with enrollment dropping 18% in each.
Pennie leaders said people dropping plans are not enrolling in another type of insurance.
That’s notable because those who joined Pennie for 2026 were coming from another form of insurance, such as an employer-based health plan. The people leaving Pennie were expected to become uninsured, Trolley said.
Now that open enrollment is over, most people who find their plan is too expensive and drop it will not have an opportunity to select new coverage until the fall.
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Lower-income families were the most likely to drop coverage
Pennie administrators said they heard from many lower-income families and individuals that the cost increases for 2026 were too much of a strain for already tight budgets.
Breaking down the terminations by income, the greatest drop was seen among people with incomes 150-200% of the federal poverty rate. That’s an annual income of between $23,475 and $31,300 for an individual. For a family of four, the equivalent income range would be $48,225 to $64,300.
A total of 13,562 Pennsylvanians in this income bracket declined to renew their Pennie plans for 2026 as of Feb. 1, according to the most recent available data from Pennie.
“The math just isn’t working for people in those households,” said Trolley.
People in this income bracket still qualified for some financial assistance. The ACA includes tax credits for anyone with income below 400% of the poverty rate, and these tax credits did not expire.
Higher earners who would now have to pay in full, without the help of tax credits, account for another large segment dropping coverage.
This included 11,837 people who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty rate. In the past years, the enhanced tax credit helped families in higher income brackets afford marketplace insurance.
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Dropouts high among young adults and those near retirement age
Just under 20,000 adults between the ages 55 and 64 canceled their Pennie plans for 2026, accounting for nearly one-quarter of dropouts as of Feb. 1.
About two-thirds of individuals in this age group earn enough that they would have had to pay the full price of their health plan, without any tax credits. They already pay more than younger adults for the same plan, under rules that allow insurers to charge more to cover older adults, who are likely to have more medical expenses.
“That group is where we were seeing the most significant price jumps — a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars,” Trolley said.
Another 15,356 adults between the ages 26 and 34 — many new to buying health insurance on their own — also dropped out. The ACA allows young adults to be covered under a parent’s health plan until age 26.
Graphics editor John Duchneskie contributed to this article.
Mejia will compete with Joe Hathaway, the former Randolph mayor who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, in an April special election. While Hathaway is far from supporting Mejia’s call for an end to ICE, he has also voiced support for making changes to the agency.
The encounter that has brought their views into focus happened Tuesday in Morris County. The incident, in whichan ICE agent fired a gun in Roxbury, is under investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. The attorney general’s office said no one was injured.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the officer shot at an undocumented immigrant’s tires in self-defense during a targeted effort to detain him.
“This is a public safety issue,” Mejia said in an interview. “Abolishing ICE, to me, is the only reasonable step forward, because it is clear that ICE’s and DHS’s recruitment practices are clearly failing the American people. Their oversight and training is clearly failing the American people, and they have zero accountability.”
In Roxbury, a township of about 20,000 people, roughly 40 miles from New York City, local residents recently protested a proposed ICE facility, which Democratic politicians and the all-Republican town council alike oppose.
The township, which contains mostly Republican and unaffiliated voters, falls right outside of Sherrill’s former district, which includes other parts of the same county and has become fairly reliably blue.
Mejia said Tuesday’s confrontation raises concerns about guns going off in residential neighborhoods or near schools, and that it shows the “recklessness” of the Department of Homeland Security. She said she’s been in conversation with local Democratic officials who question DHS’s accountof the incident.
Hathaway disagrees with Mejia’s views on ICE, but he also stopped short of defending DHS when asked about Tuesday’s incident. He said in an interview that he needs more information to comment.
“I think it’s generally not a good thing when politicians try to stick our nose in and stoke the flames and politicize these kinds of things before we know the facts,” he said. “I certainly don’t want to do that in this case.”
A New York Times and Siena University poll published in late January found that a “sizable majority” of voters believe ICE “has gone too far,” while roughly half support Trump’s deportations and handling of the southern border.
DHS said the undocumented person driving the car in Roxburyhad a criminal history of drug trafficking charges, drug possession, and driving under the influence, and that a judge issued an order of removal for him in 2021. The federal agency said he “rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over” while trying to “evade arrest.”
“Following his training, the officer defensively used his firearm and shot out the tires of the vehicle to stop the threat,” an unnamed DHS spokesperson said. “Thankfully, no one was injured.” The driver was arrested and taken into ICE custody, DHS said.
The attorney general’s office requested that any witnesses share video footage of the incident. The request came right before Sherrill’s administration launched an online portal for New Jerseyans to submit videos of ICE, which she initially announced on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Video footage shared by bystanders contradicted the Trump administration’s account of two recent deadly shootings by federal agents in Minnesota.
Mejia argued during her campaign that ICE cannot be reformed and should be replaced with something else, such as a more efficient system of processing asylum or citizenship applications.
“I’m not calling for open borders,” she said Wednesday. “I’m not calling for the eradication of a system. I’m actually calling for the cease and desist of the violence of the occupation of American cities, of the overreach from this administration, and the erosion of constitutional protections.”
She said she believes Congress, in the short term, should stop funding ICE, reallocate funds for the agency that came as Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed funding for social services, stop surveilling and collecting data from Americans, and end qualified immunity for agents.
Senate Democrats blocked a funding bill for DHS Thursday amid unsuccessful negotiations with the White House to make changes to immigration enforcement operations following the shootings in Minneapolis.
Hathaway said he is “willing, absolutely, to come to the table to reform” how ICE operates, but that he also wants to see changes to sanctuary policies.
Sherrill’s administration has not provided more information about the Roxbury incident, citing an ongoing investigation.
“We recognize that matters of this nature raise concerns within our communities… it is my duty to protect the safety of residents of this state and uphold the Constitution. I will do everything in my power to fulfill this responsibility,” Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said.
On Wednesday, Sherrill signed an executive order prohibiting ICE from operating on state-owned private property unless there’s a judicial warrant and launched a “know your rights” guide for residents interacting with immigration agents.
Mejia, who grew up in Elizabeth and lives in Glen Ridge in Essex County, said that as an Afro-Latina, she feels less safe during Trump’s immigration crackdown and that she takes precautions like carrying her passport or being careful where she speaks Spanish.
“It happening close to home is, of course, troubling, but this is an escalation that we have been seeing for years,” said Mejia.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
There will be one Tun Tavern opening in Old City, now that a long-running dispute over the name of one of Philadelphia’s most storied colonial landmarks has been resolved. What’s the historical significance of the Tun Tavern?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The Tun Tavern served as the first recruiting station for what became the Marine Corps in 1775. Now that a long-running dispute over the name of one of Philadelphia’s most storied colonial landmarks has been resolved, the Tun Legacy Foundation — a nonprofit led by Marine veterans and Philadelphia-area organizations whose origins trace back to the original Tun Tavern — will use the full name on its planned historic reproduction on Second Street.
Question 2 of 10
This building at LOVE Park (with a space-themed nickname), could soon get a reboot after years of sitting dormant:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The Saucer building, also referred to as the UFO, was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places last year. Built in 1960, the building predates LOVE Park, and first served as the city hospitality center. It later housed offices for park staff. Now it’s looking at a long-awaited reboot.
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Question 3 of 10
Which Philly-based bronze statue is slated to be relocated to the base of the Art Museum’s steps, taking Rocky’s place?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Creative Philadelphia, the city’s office for the creative sector, presented and had approved a proposal at an Art Commission meeting to have the “Smokin’” Joe Frazier statue take over the Rocky statue’s current home at the base of the Art Museum’s steps. Last month, the commission approved the Rocky statue coming back to the top of the steps, where it supposedly will permanently stay starting in the fall and following its first-time display inside the museum.
Question 4 of 10
Just two blocks from Independence Hall, Carpenters Hall is where Pennsylvania declared its independence from Britain in June 1776. To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, what will be installed outside of Carpenters Hall in June?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
On June 18, as part of the celebration, a blue historical marker will be installed outside the hall in addition to a three-part virtual lecture series on Pennsylvania’s constitution.
Question 5 of 10
Northeast Philly’s Delilah Dee, who runs a local social community for Latina women, worked on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as a part of the field team, coordinating walkthroughs and set breakdowns. Where was she when she learned she got the job?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Dee applied for a job at the Super Bowl in November. On Dec. 31, she was accepted for a position with the field team. She learned while she was at the gym and started crying. For the last two weeks, she was in Santa Clara for rehearsals.
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A landmark deli in Cherry Hill closed after 25 years without notice, filing for bankruptcy. What was it called?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The Kibitz Room in Cherry Hill shuttered without notice. Now, former owners say they want to revive the business, founded in 2001.
Question 7 of 10
This department store in Bala Cynwyd is closing after decades in business:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Saks Fifth Avenue will be closing its Bala Cynwyd location in April. Saks Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, announced the impending closure in a statement Tuesday, a month after the luxury clothing retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Question 8 of 10
Which iconic Philly bar hosted a reunion for couples who found love there?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
McGillin’s Olde Ale House, the 166-year-old pub in Center City long owned by the same family, has leaned especially hard into being, in its own description, the place where more couples have met than anywhere else in Philadelphia. The bar hosted its first reunion for such couples this month.
Question 9 of 10
What issue sparked dueling lawsuits between Gov. Josh Shapiro and his neighbors?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The lawsuits center on a security fence and a disputed property line. Shapiro’s neighbors in Abington Township, Jeremy and Simone Mock, accuse the governor and his wife, Lori Shapiro, of illegally occupying part of their yard. The Shapiros filed a countersuit.
Question 10 of 10
Born in a puppy mill in Peach Bottom, Lancaster County, this 6-week-old toy poodle was one of many cute stars in last week’s Puppy Bowl:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The puppy, Oscar, who was nursed back to health after being severely undernourished, traveled to Glens Falls, N.Y., to participate in the October taping of the 22nd annual Puppy Bowl. The annual special raises awareness for animal rescues across the United States. Every one of the 150 dogs in the competition — between Team Ruff and Team Fluff — comes from a rescue.
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Seems like you’ve been skimming more than reading there, buddy. There’s always next week.
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Do you work here? You’re a local news stan with the latest updates on Philly happenings. Your friends definitely ask you for summaries on what’s going on and it shows.
Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, there’s nowhere better to start than in Clearwater, Fla., where the Phillies kicked off their spring training this week. The Sixers also returned from their West Coast trip for a matchup with the Knicks before this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game, where Tyrese Maxey will make his first start. And as always, there’s plenty of Big 5 hoops action with March Madness just over a month away.
Phillies backup catcher Garrett Stubbs holds on to a pitch during the first day of spring training practice. Most of the team is already in Clearwater ahead of Monday’s first full-squad workout.Reliever Jose Alvarado (left) is no stranger to BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla., but this is the first spring training with the Phillies for Jhoan Duran, who was acquired ahead of the trade deadline last season.Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh is back at spring training — as is his popular beard.The Sixers were blown out by the Knicks on Wednesday night, and have lost three of four heading into the All-Star break. Earlier this week, they signed Dalen Terry (right) to a two-way deal.Former Villanova star Mikal Bridges (left) was back in South Philly this week for the Knicks’ win over Justin Edwards (right) and the Sixers.Sixers coach Nick Nurse was without Joel Embiid and Quentin Grimes in Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks.Joe Pagliei, 91, is the Eagles’ oldest living player and was a member of the 1960 championship team.Villanova guard Kennedy Henry (right) is third on the team in scoring (9.2 points per game). The Wildcats (20-5) are currently second in the Big East behind undefeated UConn, the nation’s No. 1 ranked team.Guard Devin Askew (right) has helped the Villanova to a 19-5 record as they look to get back in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats have won four straight, including Tuesday’s 77-74 victory over Marquette.Saint Joseph’s guard Jill Jekot (bottom) battles for a loose ball against Dayton forward Ajok Madol in Sunday’s loss. The Hawks bounced back with a 70-63 win over George Washington on Wednesday.Saint Joseph’s guard Gabby Casey (center) has her shot attempt blocked against Dayton. Casey leads the team in points (16.7), rebounds (7.0), and steals (1.7) per game, and is second in assists (3.2).Penn guard Jay Jones (with ball) fights for a rebound during the Quakers’ win over Princeton University on Saturday at the Palestra. Penn hosts Columbia on Friday night.Penn guard AJ Levine (left) celebrates with teammates after the Quakers’ win over Princeton. It was the team’s second straight after three losses in a row.Villanova center Duke Brennan (left) collides with Marquette Golden Eagles forward Royce Parham (13). The Wildcats will go for their fifth straight win Saturday against Creighton.While the Phillies are in Clearwater, the La Salle University baseball team practices on campus in the cold. The team takes on the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Friday in their first game of the season.
When the NCAA decided to go all-in on Division I women’s college basketball by adding a national championship tournament in 1981-82, it marked a fascinating turnaround. By grabbing the reins from the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women — the longtime governing body of women’s hoops — the NCAA set out to make the game bigger and better forever.
The sport did change, vastly. Television exposure finally found big-name programs. Title IX brought more girls and women into play, literally and figuratively. All-American players and Hall of Fame-worthy coaches promulgated. What should not be lost is this: the roots of the game were plentiful, but none more important than what grew strong at schools throughout this tri-state region.
Here, programs and players were so impactful that to ignore the flood of talent became indefensible by 1982. So, the NCAA bit.
Before the dynasties at UConn and Tennessee, there were giant-killers on the courts of tiny Immaculata and Cheyney State.
Before there was a Geno Auriemma or Pat Summitt, there were legendary coaches like the Mighty Macs’ Cathy Rush and Cheyney’s C. Vivian Stringer. Rush’s and Stringer’s reputations and extraordinary programs surely caught the attention of the NCAA as they traveled the path to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Before there were all-Americans like Dawn Staley, Maya Moore, and Caitlin Clark, future Hall of Famer Theresa Shank-Grentz and the fabulous talent, Yolanda Laney, were dealing here in the Delaware Valley.
A clipping from The Philadelphia Inquirer’s sports section on March 28, 1982, when Yolanda Laney, C. Vivian Stringer, and the Cheyney State women’s basketball team was headed to the championship game of the first NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Shank-Grentz, star of the Mighty Macs’ improbable AIAW championships, helped put a school of fewer than 3,000 students on the map. The Macs ruled the game for a near decade, winning three AIAW crowns while reaching five consecutive AIAW Final Fours.
At even tinier Cheyney State, the All-American Laney and other talents who desired to play for Stringer helped the nation’s oldest historically Black college or university become the first HBCU to play in an NCAA Division I national championship game. Stringer’s team, with not one athletic scholarship to give, made that possible in 1982.
“When you look at our team, we were part of God’s plan … a team of All-American, all-state players turning down scholarships [from larger schools] but we had one common denominator, and that was the great Vivian Stringer,” the team’s star center, Valerie Walker, said in her acceptance speech at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony in 2024. The Lady Wolves were enshrined as “Trailblazers of the Game.”
The NCAA certainly was watching and calculating how to build off the growing women athletes’ import. But it arguably would not have had the curiosity or the vision if Greenberg had not provided the cohesiveness and foresight to champion programs, big and small.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s women’s basketball savant did so by founding his national poll 50 years ago. By connecting the dots of powerhouses across the country, the poll allowed teams, whether big, small, or minuscule, to bring into focus what previously had been a guessing game of who, what, and why which teams and trends mattered. The clarity benefited not only the programs, but the players, recruits, fans, and media from coast to coast.
Claire Smith and Mel Greenberg, Hall of Famers and former Inquirer writers.
Greenberg gave even the most accomplished chroniclers of women’s hoops — as well as newbies such as this reporter — a divining rod. His informative and increasingly powerful poll beautifully grew in strength alongside the game. Local teams certainly benefited, as Greenberg shone a light on both with his polling and prose.
He helped me, a frenemy at the late, great Philadelphia Bulletin, appreciate the bushels of all-American players, future Hall of Fame coaches, and prominent teams that dominated the AIAW right in our own backyards. From Rutgers to Maryland, Cheyney State to Penn State, and rising Big 5 women’s teams, it fascinated me to see the seeds that one day sprouted so prominently.
To say that I saw the important contributions of the local teams growing the women’s game as clearly as did Greenberg would be beyond impudent. Rather, following the game in and around the immediate area as well as following the pollmeister was an education, one I and others needed to appreciate why the NCAA move was inevitable.
I missed seeing the Mighty Mac era by mere years. Still, I often was reminded of the footprints left during their legendary run through the ’70s. Greenberg, a walking encyclopedia of the sport, can to this day bring to life any tale about the Macs, starting with the 1972 team that won the first women’s national basketball championship.
Though I came to the job too late to witness the Mighty Macs magic, I saw what followed in their footsteps. For a similar miracle was unfolding at Cheyney State where Stringer was building a national behemoth at the tiniest of schools (today’s enrollment at Cheyney, which is now known as Cheyney University, is less than 1,000 students).
John Chaney, the Hall of Famer and Philly legend who was the coach of the men’s team at Cheyney when Stringer was leading the women there, knew which team was the stronger draw. “We were ranked No. 1 in Division II, but we’d play the first game so that we would have somebody there by halftime,” Chaney, laughing, told me for a column written for the New York Times. “The real show was our women’s team. They didn’t come to see me; they came to see Vivian!”
Former Temple coach John Chaney (left) shares stories with Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer and Nike executive Ralph Greene. Chaney and Stringer coached the men’s and women’s teams at Cheyney State in the 1980s.
It always was standing-room-only in Cheyney’s compact Cope Hall, for the scribes and fans had a sense that what they were watching was special: Two Hall of Fame coaches in the making. Oh, and one Hall of Fame team. For Stringer’s 1981-82 team that finished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation.
That final standing in the polls reflected Cheyney’s having come within one win of claiming the first-ever women’s NCAA championship. Though the team lost to Louisiana Tech in the final, just getting there was the ultimate victory.
In those days, Stringer spoke of how her Lady Wolves had to sell cookies, cakes, and sandwiches to raise funds to travel to Norfolk, Va., for that first Final Four.
That Cheyney team finished 28-3. The 11 players and coaching staff were honored years later by the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. The team also was nominated for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2025.
Alas, those David and Goliath stories no longer happen in a world where a Cheyney State or Immaculata wouldn’t even dream of being allowed to compete at a Division I championship level. Big universities and programs awash with NIL money now gobble up the best players in the land. The little guys play in lower divisions, noses pressed against windows of the massive arenas holding tournaments made possible by the Immaculatas and Cheyney States, the Cathy Rushes and Vivian Stringers … and Mel Greenberg’s vision of what could be.
There is something magical about the mole poblano at Tlali in Upper Darby, but it took me a moment to register what it is.
The Sandoval family’s mole, at first glance, is as deep a brown as any other you might have encountered from the state of Puebla, the result of a blend of dried chilies, fruits, and bittersweet Mexican chocolate. But when I swipe a juicy morsel of prime seared rib eye through the luxuriously dark puree, what I’m struck by is its ethereal lightness, both of the texture and the complexity of flavors. It’s so elegantly balanced, I taste each note — the smoky dry heat of chipotle meco peppers in the background, the fruity sweetness of ripe plantains and raisins, the nutty richness of walnuts and sesame seeds, a whiff of canela and bay leaf — all flowing into one earthy harmony of measured sweetness and spice.
What I’m tasting here, in fact, is Alberto Sandoval’s memory as a 10-year-old come to life. He vividly recalls the moment when his mother, Teresa Hernandez, was cooking that same mole for his father’s birthday in San Mateo Ozolco and held up a spoonful for Alberto to see.
“Your mole has to be this consistency — really light, not too thick, not too spicy. This is a good mole.”
Decades later, after a career rising through the ranks of some of Philadelphia’s most vaunted kitchens, including Striped Bass, Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, Le Bec Fin 2.0, Volvèr, Suraya, and Condesa, he and his brother, Efrain, are leaning into those memories of home for the menu at Tlali.
“These recipes represent who we are and where we came from,” says Alberto.
Alberto Sandoval (right), chef and co-owner of Tlali, and his brother and partner, Efrain Sandoval, working in the kitchen preparing a dish in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.The outside of Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
The base of that mole — which their mother still makes over the course of two days in Mexico and sends to her sons, who rehydrate and simmer it to completion with chicken stock — is only the beginning. Everything about this charming 18-seat BYOB the brothers opened in August inside a renovated pizzeria is a tribute to their birthplace in San Mateo Ozolco, the tiny town on the side of an active volcano in Puebla from which much of South Philly’s Mexican population immigrated. There’s an image of Popocatépetl, its volcanic peak ever fuming, depicted on a colorful woven mat that hangs above the open kitchen here. The hand-painted terra cotta ceramics that decorate the walls and deliver the food were all imported from Puebla.
The brothers have cut no corners in crafting the flavors on this menu, especially with another key building block: the tortillas. They are patiently made from blue and yellow heirloom Mexican corn that’s nixtamalized overnight then ground into fresh masa, resulting in pressed tortillas that have a velvety suppleness when cooked to order off the plancha.
Alberto Sandoval, Chef and Owner of Tlali, is with his brothers working at their restaurant in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
You can taste this in the enmoladas, in which the tortillas are coated in that mole before being folded into half-moon bundles over tender shreds of chicken. The tortilla’s toasty corn flavor also powers the bright orange puree of Tlali’s tortilla soup. They’re fried into shatteringly crisp rounds for antojito starters like the irresistible mashed-to-order guacamole and tostadas topped with chipotle-stewed chicken tinga.
Those crispy discs also accompany the striking aguachile negro, making the perfect cracker on which to layer slices of raw kanpachi that have been bathed in a spicy brew of citrus and olive oil tinted black with charred habaneros and onions. Scattered with green tufts of cilantro and crunchy matchsticks of radish, it’s the single most refreshing starter on a list of other seafood cocktails that are solid but lack a little spark. A notable exception was Dorito Nayarit, in which poached shrimp striped with Valentina hot sauce and crema are served atop crispy pork belly crackers known as chicharrónes preparados. (A tuna tostada topped with a spoonful of frumpy poached tuna salad, though, was the one dish at Tlali where the extra-homey approach left me truly underwhelmed.)
The aguachile negro at Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
Tlali, which means “land” in Nahuatl, the Indigenous language of Puebla, occupies a simple space on West Chester Pike that took a significant investment to completely rehab. It lacks the design frills of the high-style dining rooms where the brothers have largely worked, including Stephen Starr’s LMNO, where Alberto is still the chef de cuisine. There is nonetheless a comforting warmth to the pale green walls and natural wood wainscoting in Tlali’s dining room, bolstered by hospitality from the restaurant’s single server, Melanie Ortiz. She deftly sorted out a sticky situation by convincing a couple to move to a two-top after she’d accidentally sat them at the only remaining table reserved for a party of four (which happened to be us).
It’s clear from the many emails and messages I’ve received since this restaurant opened in Upper Darby — a multicultural nexus of international dining, but not previously known for Mexican food — that Tlali has a devoted clientele rooting for it to succeed.
Alberto Sandoval, chef and owner of Tlali, with his family members in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
After diving much deeper into the menu, it’s easy to see why. Tlali is in many ways a sequel to the small restaurant the two brothersused to co-own in South Philadelphia, La Fonda de Teresita, which closed during the pandemic. But the Sandovals have both since continued to grow as chefs and have taken their pursuit of family flavors to the next level. That includes a tribute to their father, Don Guero, who ran a taqueria in Mexico City by the same name where Alberto got his first taste of kitchen life as a teen mincing mountains of onions and cilantro.
Don Guero’s recipe for Chilango-style carnitas — whose pork belly and shoulder are simmered for hours in a large copper cazo pot bubbling with lard, orange juice, Coca-Cola, and herbs — produces meltingly soft, flavorful carnitas that are among the best I’ve had. But even that takes second place to the al pastor, a vertical spit of stacked pork shoulder marinated with three kinds of chilies, pineapple juice, achiote, and bay leaves; the pork roasts on a turning trompo fueled by real fire that flows through the perforated bricks that Don Guero himself gifted them from Mexico shortly before he died two years ago. The family taqueria lives on here.
The al pastor used for the tacos at Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.The al pastor tacos at Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
The entree section of the menu noted as “Platos de Ozolco” offers a handful of other standout dishes that showcase the brothers’ hometown flavors in both traditional and modern ways. I was especially fond of the classic mixiote: When the maguey leaf-wrapped bundle of steamed chicken rubbed in adobo spice was cut open tableside, the fragrant cloud of guajillo-scented steam that enveloped us brought me straight back to my own 2023 visit to San Mateo with chef Dionicio Jiménez of Cantina La Martina, where mixiote was the first thing we were served at his mother’s home — the ultimate dish to welcome a special guest.
I was also intrigued to see Alberto and Efrain stretch their chef chops to reinterpret traditional flavors in inventive ways. That includes the michmole, which steeps a dried fish from Puebla in a tomatillo-chile salsa for deep marine flavor, then discards the bony remains for a golden sauce that gets topped with nopales and a gorgeous fillet of pan-roasted branzino (also lightly brined) to retain just enough of the traditional dish’s brackish edge.
A fillet of branzino is served over a seafood michmole sauce with cactus and potatoes at Tlali in Upper Darby.
Another distinctive offering pairs the chefs’ love of fresh pasta with head-on shrimp and a zesty ragù of house chorizo simmered in a lightly creamed chipotle salsa. It’s a unique dish that bridges the Sandoval brothers’ origin story with their current status as longtime contributors to Philadelphia’s contemporary dining scene. As they continue to grow their audience in this tiny Upper Darby dining room, I wouldn’t be surprised if more such creations appear.
I have no doubt that those future plates will remain somehow rooted in the memories of their mother’s table in San Mateo Ozolco, which not only give Tlali’s owners a proud reservoir of traditions, but an elusively distinctive and delicate family touch that will always be their own.
The mixiote at Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
Not wheelchair accessible. There are two steps at the entrance and the narrow bathroom is not accessible.
Almost the entire menu is gluten-free, except for the cemita sandwiches.
Menu highlights: guacamole; empanadas; albóndigas; sopes; sopa de tortilla; aguachile negro; coctel de campechano (shrimp and octopus); tacos al pastor; carnitas tacos al estilo Chilango; res en mole Poblano; huarache Teresita; mixiotes de pollo; michmole; pappardelle with shrimp en chorizo ragù.
A tiny tortilla press used for the dinner checks at Tlali in Upper Darby Pa., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
If you’ve watched any of the Winter Olympics so far, even just a little, you’ve likely heard about Ilia Malinin.
The 21-year-old figure skater from Fairfax, Va., is no doubt among the biggest superstars of these Games. Each time he has gotten on the ice, he has commanded the spotlight — and delivered.
First, it was clinching gold for the United States in the team event with the next-to-last free skate of the competition. Then, when the men’s individual event started, he easily topped the field in the short program on Tuesday.
Now comes the free skate on Friday, and the expectations will be as big as the roars the “Quad God” gets for his breathtaking moves. If he delivers as expected, Malinin will officially arrive as a superstar.
Coverage of the free skate event starts at 1 p.m. on USA Network, then shifts to NBC at 3:05 p.m. Malinin will go last, so expect plenty of hype and buildup.
Elsewhere around the Games on Friday, the U.S. women’s ice hockey team plays Italy at 3:10 p.m. on USA Network. If you’re up early, the Sweden-Finland men’s hockey game is a classic and star-studded rivalry. The puck drops at 6:10 a.m. on Peacock.
If you want to check something different from the usual, there’s speedskating’s men’s 10,000-meter race at 10:30 a.m. on USA. It’s the longest race of any speedskating competition. American Casey Dawson is in the 12-competitor field, and Norway’s Sander Eitrem will be going for a gold medal double after winning the 5,000.
How to watch the Olympics on TV and stream online
NBC’s TV coverage will have live events from noon to 5 p.m. Philadelphia time on weekdays and starting in the mornings on the weekends. There’s a six-hour time difference between Italy and here. The traditional prime-time coverage will have highlights of the day and storytelling features.
The Flyers’ Rasmus Ristolainen (left) playing for Finland against Slovakia in the teams’ Olympic opener in Milan.
As far as the TV channels, the Olympics are airing on NBC, USA, CNBC, and NBCSN. Spanish coverage can be found on Telemundo and Universo.
NBCSN is carrying the Gold Zone whip-around show that was so popular during the Summer Olympics in 2024, with hosts including Scott Hanson of NFL RedZone. It used to be just on Peacock, NBC’s online streaming service, but now is on TV, too.
Every event is available to stream live on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. You’ll have to log in with your pay-TV provider, whether cable, satellite, or streaming platforms including YouTube TV, FuboTV, and Sling TV.
On Peacock, the events are on the platform’s premium subscription tier, which starts at $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year.
Every once in a while, Kevin Willard loves when the shot clock expires before a Villanova shot attempt.
There really is a time and place for everything.
“Everyone will say, ‘You’re nuts,’” Willard said Tuesday night after Villanova rallied late to beat Marquette. “It takes 30 seconds; it sets up our defense. The worst thing you can do is come down and jack up a shot with 2 seconds on the shot clock, long rebound, your defense isn’t set. I’d rather have a shot-clock violation, set my defense up, have them work for 25 seconds, and then take 30 seconds and the game’s over.”
Villanova has taken its share of violations in the second half of victories this season. There were two during a 12-point win over Seton Hall on Feb. 4 while the Wildcats held leads of 14 and 12 inside of five minutes. They took one vs. Providence up by 19 points with four minutes left. They took one vs. Butler while ahead by 12 with 2½ minutes to go. And they had three during their Big East opener on Dec. 23, when they built a big lead over Seton Hall on the road and won by eight.
To be clear, there were no such violations during Tuesday’s win. So how did we get to this topic? Willard was asked after the game about tempo and whether he thought the team could play a little faster. The Wildcats are ranked 337th by KenPom’s adjusted tempo metric and 296th in average possessions per game (68.4).
Willard, who has the Wildcats at 19-5 overall and 10-3 in the Big East entering Saturday’s game at Creighton, is a passionate talker of tempo. He went on a mini rant about the subject in April at his introductory news conference at Villanova. He focuses on defensive tempo, he explained then, the amount of time it takes for an opponent to get off a shot. On the offensive side, the difference between shot speed from top to bottom is only a matter of a few seconds, he said.
“You know the difference between the 20th fastest team and us?” Willard asked Tuesday. “1.6 seconds.”
By average number of possessions, the difference between Villanova at 297th and the 100th-ranked team (Miami) is just four possessions.
Freshman point guard Acaden Lewis is charged with setting Villanova’s tempo on offense.
“I have a young team, and when we get up I’m going to control the ball and take the air out of the ball,” Willard said. “That’s one of the reasons why our tempo is so low is if you watch any time we’ve gotten up more than 12, I’ve taken the air out of the ball and we have run the clock down. One of the easiest ways to lose leads is to take quick shots.
“I think we play pretty fast. It’s not like he walks the ball up,” Willard said, pointing to freshman point guard Acaden Lewis. “It’s not like we’re ever walking the ball up. It’s 1.6 seconds. Everyone gets stuck on that tempo s—.”
Less than a month of regular-season basketball remains, so it feels like a good time to round up who could win Big 5 awards.
Let’s start with the coaches. The easy answer here is Villanova sweeping. Willard is on his way to stopping the three-year NCAA drought on the men’s side. Denise Dillon has her fifth 20-win season in six years as Wildcats coach. But those are the obvious answers partially because they coach teams that entered the season with at-large NCAA Tournament chances.
But how about Mountain MacGillivray, the La Salle women’s coach? The Explorers went 4-15 in the Atlantic 10 last season. They’ve nearly doubled that total so far in 2025-26 and still have five games left. And what about Adam Fisher? The Temple men’s coach had to rebuild another roster in the offseason and has the Owls at 7-4 in the American Conference and in the mix. Or Steve Donahue, who stepped into a weird situation at St. Joseph’s, got off to a slow start, and has the Hawks in fourth place in the A-10?
La Salle’s Ashleigh Connor is guarded by St. Joseph’s Rhian Stokes on Jan. 28.
As for player of the year on the men’s side, Villanova’s Tyler Perkins and Lewis have good arguments, as do Penn’s Ethan Roberts, Derek Simpson of St. Joe’s, and Temple’s Derrian Ford. On the women’s side, it might be Villanova sophomore Jasmine Bascoe’s award to lose. But La Salle’s Ashleigh Connor is having a great season, as is Drexel’s Amaris Baker and Gabby Casey of St. Joe’s.
The Villanova women won by 40 Wednesday night at Xavier and Bascoe reached the 1,000-point plateau in less than two full seasons. The Wildcats are rolling. They’re 13-3 in the Big East and firmly in second place, two games clear of Seton Hall in the loss column.
But they’re also firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. ESPN’s latest bracketology had the Wildcats as a No. 10 seed and in the “last four byes” group. The projected field capped just six spots behind them.
Villanova coach Denise Dillon with her star guard, Jasmine Bascoe.
Like the men, the women are in Omaha, Neb., this weekend. They play a Creighton team on Sunday that they already beat by 10 at home. It’s not a great time to have a slip-up, because after that it’s the annual home game vs. No. 1 UConn, which is undefeated and already beat Villanova by 49. Just two games are on the schedule after that: a home game vs. fourth-place Marquette and a road showdown at Seton Hall. Then comes the conference tournament.
Since we last took stock of the Big 5 men’s teams, a few more got on the positive side of .500 in league play, which brings a better possibility of running the table come conference tournament time.
What’s Torvik’s math — which is based on thousands of simulations — for the rest of the pack?
Penn: 10.1%
Drexel: 3%
Temple: 2.9%
St. Joe’s: 2.6%
La Salle: 0.1%
The Big 5’s streak of no men’s teams looks like it’s ending. Just don’t count on Villanova having any company at the dance.
The life of an NBA draft pick can be a long and winding road — long before a team ever considers which player they might take with that selection. Picks are traded years in advance, and by the time draft night actually comes around, many have changed hands two or even three times.
One of those long and winding roads led the Sixers to young superstar Tyrese Maxey, who will make his first NBA All-Star Game start and second appearance on Sunday. Maxey is having a career-best season, leading the Sixers firmly back into the playoff race as he’s become the team’s No. 1 scoring option.
But the journey to acquire Maxey started long before Adam Silver called his name on that stage in 2020, five months after the draft was originally supposed to take place — and more than six years after the wheels were initially set in motion by the Spencer Hawes trade.
Here’s everything that happened in order for the Sixers to ultimately draft Maxey …
Feb. 20, 2014: The Sixers were in the early stages of The Process, selling off players to stockpile as many draft picks as possible. In one of those moves, then general manager Sam Hinkie acquired Earl Clark, Henry Sims, and two second-round picks (Cleveland’s and Memphis’) from the Cavaliers for Hawes.
Sam Hinkie was the Sixers general manager from 2013 to 2016.
June 26, 2014: The Sixers used one of those picks to draft Jerami Grant with the No. 39 overall pick (initially Cleveland’s pick). Grant was a role player for the Sixers for a little over two seasons, averaging 8.2 points in 24.2 minutes, but went on to have a long NBA career — he’s still playing — and turned into a starter that has eclipsed the 20-point per game mark three times.
Nov. 1, 2016: Two games into the 2016-17 season, the Sixers traded Grant to acquire veteran forward Ersan Ilyasova and Oklahoma City’s 2020 first-round pick. The pick was top-20 protected, meaning it would only convey if the Thunder finished with the 21st draft pick or lower.
June 22, 2017: The Sixers traded that 2020 pick and Brooklyn’s 2020 second-round pick to Orlando for the draft rights to Latvian center Anžejs Pasečņiks. Pasečņiks, now 30, played just 28 games in the NBA with Washington.
Feb. 7, 2019: The Sixers reacquired the 2020 first-round pick from Orlando — along with Jonathon Simmons and the rights to Cleveland’s second-rounder — for Markelle Fultz. The Sixers had traded up to first overall in 2017 to draft Fultz, who struggled with injuries and played just 33 games across two seasons for the team.
Kentucky’s Immanuel Quickley (left) and Tyrese Maxey (center) were two of the stars of the Wildcats’ 2020 team under head coach John Calipari.
March 2020: COVID-19 canceled the NCAA Tournament. Maxey was playing for John Calipari at Kentucky, who won the regular season SEC championship and was poised to earn a top-2 seed in the NCAA tournament. That meant Maxey, who averaged 14 points in the regular season, wouldn’t get a chance to showcase his skills on college basketball’s biggest stage. The shutdown also impacted Maxey’s opportunity to meet in person with NBA teams during the pre-draft process.
Aug. 12, 2020: Former Sixer Mike Muscala hit a pair of late three-pointers to lift the Thunder over the Heat in Oklahoma City’s penultimate game in the NBA’s “COVID bubble.” The win pushed the Thunder ahead of the Heat in the standings and out of the top 20 in the draft order, ensuring the Sixers would secure the first-round pick that originally belonged to OKC.
Nov. 18, 2020: Maxey falls to the Sixers with the 21st pick after 19 other teams — including the Timberwolves twice — passed on the Kentucky guard.
