Hannah Prince hasn’t always been a standout Division I coach, nor has she always led with the conviction she does now as the Penn State field hockey coach. But she’s long been around the sport — starting nearly 30 years ago in Gorham, Maine.
When Prince was 6 years old, she made a declaration: She would make her high school’s varsity field hockey team. She did just that, which sparked a successful four-year career at Massachusetts.
The Minutewomen went 56-33 and won three Atlantic 10 titles during Prince’s four-year career as a starting defenseman. Following the team’s NCAA Tournament quarterfinal run in 2013, Prince, a senior at the time, earned National Field Hockey Coaches Association first-team all-region and A-10 first-team all-conference honors.
Prince continued playing after college and was captain of the U.S. women’s indoor team for six years, leading the team to gold at the 2017 Pan American Cup.
Prince’s captaincy meant holding others accountable. It meant leading by example and never asking teammates to do something she wouldn’t do herself.
“I like motivating people. I like building relationships with them that are strong, so they know I care,” Prince said. “I chose to work for some really great people who believed in me and allowed me to have a hand in certain technical and tactical areas.”
Hannah Prince comes to Penn State after a historic run at St. Joe’s.
Success has followed Prince at every stop of her coaching journey, which started in 2015 when New Hampshire made the America East title game in her first of two seasons as an assistant coach.
Prince later joined St. Joseph’s as an assistant during the program’s first run to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. She then helped Louisville to the Final Four in the spring of 2021 before returning to Hawk Hill in 2022, this time as head coach.
One of the “great people” she worked for was Justine Sowry, her coach at UMass, who has spent the last 14 seasons as Louisville’s coach. Prince credited Sowry for introducing her to coaching and for teaching her the patience required to build a championship-level program.
Sowry lauded her former player for different reasons, ones that extend beyond the field.
“[Prince] is an extrovert. She’s got that energy. She bounces around, and so many people are drawn to her,” Sowry said. “She just shows so much initiative. She took a lot of the weight off my plate just by being who she is … I don’t think I would have been able to get through [the 2020 COVID-19 season] if Hannah weren’t on my staff. She was an absolute godsend for so many more reasons other than just coaching hockey.”
After a final ride under Sowry’s tutelage, Prince accepted the head coaching gig at St. Joe’s, where she went 64-14 in four seasons. The Hawks made four NCAA Tournament appearances and won two Atlantic 10 regular-season titles and four A-10 tournament titles.
In 2023, Prince navigated the Hawks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament win. The next season, Prince guided them to the most wins in program history (20) and the NCAA title game, which marked the first time in school history that any St. Joe’s team had competed for a national championship.
Hannah Prince led the 2024 St. Joseph’s field hockey team to the NCAA title game, a first for any program in Hawks history.
She praised the Philadelphia area’s support during the Hawks’ title pursuit. She also lauded the resolve of her team, which embraced a “why not us” mentality as the tournament’s underdogs.
Prince built the Hawks into a field hockey contender and galvanized area support for her team on its surge toward a championship — a showcase of her program-building prowess.
“[Prince] is passionate, she’s driven, she’s a competitor, and she’s a proven winner,” Sowry said. “She can run a program. She’s got the X’s and O’s covered. And even areas that she might feel deficient in, she has the confidence to bring in coaches that can complement her or make her better.”
Now, she’s ready for her next opportunity: Bringing a once-great Penn State program back into contention.
Under former coach Charlene Morett-Curtiss, the Nittany Lions went 524-219-9 and made eight NCAA Tournament appearances. But in the three seasons since her 2023 retirement, Penn State won just 24 of its 51 games and missed the NCAA Tournament each season.
Prince wants to win national championships in Happy Valley. And that starts with creating a culture of accountability and pride.
“I want [Penn State] to be described as a bunch of empowered, strong, and fearless women who are playing together for a collective reason, because they want to play for each other,” Prince said. “They want to play for those who came before them. They want to play for that legacy.”
While 70 of the Villanova women’s basketball alumni attending Saturday’s game vs. Georgetown spanned decades of program history, most of them had a common experience: playing for former coach Harry Perretta.
Perretta, who led the Wildcats for 42 years, stood in front of a long line of alumni during the halftime ceremony. It was a moving moment, Perretta said.
“It’s great to come back on alumni day because you realize how many people [who] you’ve met over 42 years,” Perretta added. “That’s what made it even more special to me. Any honor that I get is always associated with my former players and my assistant coaches, because they’re the ones [who] really did it. I just happen to be the common thread.”
Surrounded by his family and former women’s player Maddy Siegrist (left), former Villanova women’s coach Harry Perretta waves to the crowd during a halftime ceremony in his honor.
Former players walked onto the court in the order of their graduating class. Perretta was there on double duty, and he also announced the game for ESPN+, leaving the broadcast booth to receive an honor set to become a display inside the Finneran Pavilion.
“The turnout here is a testament to the type of coach [Perretta] was and the way he treated players,” said Laura Kurz, a 2009 graduate and former assistant coach to Perretta. “So much of that has to do with Harry, his legacy, and this sisterhood that he created here. Looking back, I learned so much from him. There were definitely tough times, but in the end, it was all a very rewarding experience.”
Following the ceremony, the alumni watched Villanova finish a 67-55 victory over Georgetown.
💙family🤍
Such a special day welcoming back so many of our alumni and honoring Harry Perretta with a plaque of his career accomplishments! pic.twitter.com/TeZCUPvoWB
Perretta, who coached the Wildcats from 1978 to 2020, took the team to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances. He is the winningest coach in Villanova men’s and women’s basketball history with 726 victories.
Kathy Razler, a 1985 graduate, has maintained her longtime connection to the program as a season-ticket holder. Razler has stayed in touch with Perretta and former teammates since their run to the Final Four in the 1982 AIAW Tournament, the predecessor to the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Former Villanova coach Harry Perretta led the team for 42 years.
“It’s so great to see the number of people that continue to come back, and everybody knows that’s because of Harry,” Razler said. “Harry was the connector between all of us. Harry wasn’t always easy, but we all knew that we were going to benefit in the long run from what he requested us to do, and the hard work we put in.”
Past to present
Villanova coach Denise Dillon, who played for Perretta from 1992 to 1996, credited her former coach for influencing her coaching style. Dillon replaced Perretta following his retirement in 2020.
“I think you always teach what you were taught, how you learned the game,” Dillon said. “That’s why I’m in coaching. I had great coaches all the way up the line, and the best in Harry through my college career. It was so intentional how he taught us team basketball and individual development, and most importantly, just about life. … I’ve definitely taken that [coaching philosophy] and passed that along to every player that comes through the program.”
Villanova guard Jasmine Bascoe drives to the basket against Georgetown’s Khia Miller during the second half of their game on Saturday.
For Michele Eberz, a 1995 graduate, attending alumni day was essential, as Villanova basketball runs in the family. Her husband, Eric, is a 1996 alumnus of the men’s program.
Recently, their daughter, Alexis, a senior at Archbishop Carroll, signed to play for the Wildcats next season.
“From when I played to now, there’s just been enormous attention on women’s basketball and women’s sports in general,” Michele Eberz said. “They’re filling seats like never before. I’m just so proud of my daughter to have the opportunity to not only get a tremendous education here [at Villanova], but to also play under the roof of the Finneran Pavilion.”
Villanova’s Kennedy Henry passes the ball around Georgetown forward Brianna Scott during the first half on Saturday.
Up next
With the win over Georgetown, Villanova (19-5, 12-3 Big East) remains in second place in the Big East. On Wednesday, the Wildcats will visit Xavier (6:30 p.m., ESPN+).
Figure skating is one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics.
But many only follow it every four years, which can make it confusing when the rules change — as they do annually. Most of the names also are new since 2022.
Plus, figure skating is a judged sport, so sometimes the skater you love might get dinged on rules you don’t know and not place as well as you’d expect.
Here is a breakdown of how to watch the Olympic figure skating events:
What are people talking about?
The Blade Angels
The American skaters! Team USA has been a powerhouse off and on, but 2026 is very much an on year.
On the women’s side, all three women — who call themselves the Blade Angels — have major titles to their name. South Jersey’s Isabeau Levito is the 2023 U.S. champion and the 2024 world silver medalist. The 18-year-old was born in Philadelphia and lives and trains in Mount Laurel.
Amber Glenn is a three-time U.S. champion and won the Grand Prix Final in 2024.
Alysa Liu is a two-time national champion and the reigning world and Grand Prix Final champion.
Ilia Malinin skates his program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January in St. Louis.
The Quad God
Ilia Malinin named himself the Quad God early on, and he’s lived up to that name, landing seven triples (the six major jumps plus one in combination at the 2025 Grand Prix Final in December.
He is the only man in the world to land a quad axel in international competition. Sometimes called the quaxel, it is 4½ revolutions in the air with a forward (read: harder) takeoff.
The quad axel was the talk of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing because Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu was going to attempt it. But he did not land it cleanly.
Malinin has competed it many times since then. Thanks to the difficulty of the move and his consistency, he has not lost a competition he skated in several years.
All three men on the U.S. team are second-generation skaters. Malinin’s parents represented Uzbekistan at two Games.
Andrew Torgashev’s Ukrainian mother, Ilona Melnichenko, competed for the Soviet Union and was the 1987 World Junior champion in ice dancing. His Russian father, Artem Torgashev, was a pairs skater, also for the Soviet Union, and is a two-time World Junior Championships medalist.
Ice dancer Anthony Ponomarenko’s parents, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, are the only ice dancers to have won an Olympic medal of every color. They are the 1992 Olympic champions.
Married ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are seven-time national champions.
Chock and Bates
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are back for their fourth and fifth Olympics, respectively. The married couple has a team gold medal from the 2022 Winter Olympics. They are seven-time national champions and three-time world champions. The only title they haven’t earned yet is an individual Olympic medal. There are a few other teams who could challenge them for Olympic gold, but they have the edge entering the event.
The oldest competitor and whether she can skate
Deanna Stellato-Dudek is 42 and competed in singles for the United States when she was a teenager. She retired because of injury but came back 16 years later when she realized her unfulfilled Olympic dream. She competed in pairs for Team USA before teaming up with Maxime Deschamps and eventually getting her Canadian citizenship.
After a four-year ban because of the war in Ukraine, Russia was allowed to send a limited number of skaters to an Olympic qualifier competition to compete as neutral athletes. They were not considered if they had shown any support for the war. Two women qualified: Adeliia Petrosian and Viktoriia Safonova. Petrosian is in contention for a medal and likely will be the only woman to attempt quads at the Games.
One neutral Russian man was cleared to compete, Petr Gumennik. No pairs or ice dancers were allowed.
Who else is on Team USA?
The other U.S. dance teams in Milan are Ponomorenko and Christina Carreira, who’s from Canada and recently became a U.S. citizen. They are the 2026 U.S. bronze medalists and medaled twice at the World Junior Championships.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik teamed up in 2022 and quickly found success. They are the 2026 U.S. silver medalists.
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea compete during the pairs free skate in January.
In pairs, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the 2026 U.S. silver medalists and 2024 champs, are fan favorites because O’Shea competed through three Olympic cycles before he made the team. They are 13 years apart.
Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe overcame a rough short program to place fourth (and win the pewter medal) in January’s U.S. championships. They made the team because other top teams’ skaters didn’t share citizenship. Chan and Howe are the 2023 U.S. silver medalists. Howe is in the World Class Athlete Program of the U.S. Army and hopes to become an Army chaplain.
Normally, skaters compete individually or in pairs. In 2014, the team event was added to Olympic competitions. Different skaters can skate the long and short programs for each event (men’s, women’s, pairs, dance), but a team can repeat in two events.
Only the ones chosen to skate win medals, rather than the entire Olympic team.
The team event began with ice dance on Friday and ran through Sunday. Individual events begin Monday, also with ice dance.
In 2022, Russia was poised to win the gold, with the United States right behind it and then Japan. But after 15-year-old Kamila Valieva was found with banned drugs in her system, she was retroactively banned for four years. (That period recently expired, and Valieva is training again.)
In past team events, the United States won bronze in 2014 and 2018. Russia and Canada were the other medalists both years (Russia won in 2014, and Canada in 2018).
Pairs has the big jumps, throws, and lifts. Dance is almost entirely footwork and is based on ballroom dance.
What is the difference between the short program and the long program?
The short program has a set of required elements that the skaters must perform. They have some freedom within those restrictions. For example, if they are told to do a triple jump, they may choose any triple jump. Generally, they choose the harder jumps because they earn more points. But they may also choose the jump they do best.
If skaters miss a required element, they get a zero for it. For example, if a triple jump is required and the skater does a double instead, it is as if he or she didn’t jump at all.
In dance, the short program is called the rhythm dance. A theme is chosen every year. This year, it is “the music, dance styles, and feeling of the 1990s.”
The long program has more freedom, but it still must be a “well-balanced program,” meaning a combination of elements covering the full surface of the ice.
The short program for singles and pairs is 2 minutes, 40 seconds, plus or minus 10 seconds. The rhythm dance is 2:50, plus or minus 10 seconds.
The long program for all is four minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds.
What are the differences between figure skating jumps?
The skating blade looks flat, but it actually is sharpened to a curve with two edges.
Jumps take off from an edge (axel, loop, Salchow) or from the skater tapping in his or her toe (flip, Lutz, toe loop).
The axel is a forward entry but lands backward. All other jumps start and land backward.
The flip and Lutz are very similar toe jumps, but the flip is from an inside edge, and the Lutz from the outside, meaning the Lutz requires slightly more rotation, and thus is given more points.
A common mistake is that a skater will aim to do one but change the edge at the last minute. Commentators often talk about that as a “flutz.”
Another common mistake is a “cheated” jump, meaning the blade lands at least a quarter turn short of rotation. That results in a deduction or sometimes even a downgrade, meaning an intended triple jump is called a double.
Which skaters are expected to do well?
Along with the U.S. women, the Japanese women are very strong. They are led by three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who won the Olympic bronze medal in 2022.
On the men’s side, along with Malinin, the top contenders include Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, who earned the silver medal at the 2022 Olympics and is also a three-time World silver medalist. France’s Adam Siao Him Fa and Kazakstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov are others to watch.
The top ice dancers are Chock and Bates. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the silver medal behind Chock and Bates in the last two world championships.
Silver medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (left), gold medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and bronze medalists Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson celebrate their medals at worlds in 2025.
The pairs contenders are led by Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, the reigning world champions. Others include Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii (Italy), Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (Germany), and Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia).
How is Olympic figure skating judged and scored?
The judging system was changed after the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics judging scandal, when two judges allegedly colluded to make certain skaters champions. The 6.0 system was replaced by IJS, the international judging system, which defines how many points each element is worth.
The officials include judges and a technical panel. The technical panel determines an element — including whether a triple should be downgraded to count as a double — and the judges decide the quality of the element. Skaters may be given a positive or negative grade of execution depended on how the element was performed. They also are given points for skating skills, transitions between elements, and performance. This is how a more artistic skate with fewer big jumps, can still do well. It is also how a skater with lots of impressive jumps but easier footwork may not win.
Paging through the bulky Sunday Inquirer on Nov. 28, 1976, readers encountered a sports section that might have been compiled in Mount Athos, the tiny Greek republic that’s been off-limits to women for centuries.
It was stuffed with man’s-world staples — stories, stats, and standings on the NFL, NHL, pro and college basketball. There were columns on hunting, golf, boys’ high school sports; features on boxing, men’s cross-country, minor league hockey; an entire page devoted to horse racing.
The ads were no less macho-flavored, promoting car batteries, rifles, tires. A prominent one hyped January’s U.S. Pro Indoor Tennis Championship at the Spectrum with its lineup of “50 of the world’s top male pros.”
About the only indications that women participated in sports were an account of a West Chester State field hockey game and, buried on the gray scoreboard page, a truncated leaders’ list from that weekend’s LPGA tournament.
But for those who reached Page 16, a strange interloper awaited. Sandwiched between two men’s basketball previews, as if editors thought it incapable of standing alone, was one of the earliest and most consequential harbingers of a bubbling sports revolution — the first women’s college basketball poll.
Conceived by then-Inquirer sports editor Jay Searcy and obsessively nurtured by a Temple-educated newspaper clerk named Mel Greenberg, its headline read like a polite plea for recognition: “Move over guys, here comes another Top 20 poll.”
A clipping from the Nov. 28, 1976, edition of The Inquirer that features the first installation of what became the AP women’s basketball poll.
It came. And it stayed. Week after week, year after year, Greenberg’s poll accumulated popularity and heft, becoming a building block in the growth of women’s basketball. A sport that had been widely ignored and loosely governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Women’s Athletics now had validation, a common sense of purpose, and unity.
“That poll gave coaches and others around the country an opportunity to know what was going on everywhere with women’s college basketball,” said Marianne Stanley, a star on Immaculata’s 1970s championship teams and later a successful college and WNBA coach. “Prior to that, there was only word-of-mouth. Newspapers didn’t cover it, and no one was tracking what was happening nationally.”
Revisiting that debut poll in this, its 50th anniversary year, is eye-opening. Its top 10 might today be mistaken for a ranking of Division III field hockey teams — Delta State, Wayland Baptist, Immaculata, Tennessee Tech, Fullerton, Mercer, William Penn, Montclair State, Queens, and Mississippi College.
Theresa Grentz (second from left) and Marianne Stanley (fourth from right) with Immaculata teammates and coach Cathy Rush at right. Immaculata was one of women’s college basketball’s first powers.
The large state schools that dominate in 2026 mostly were absent.
But not for long.
Motivated by the mandates of 1972’s Title IX and by a desire to see themselves in the new rankings, many started to invest in the sport.
By 1981, when the NCAA replaced the AIAW as the game’s overseer, there were 234 women’s Division I programs. That jumped to 284 in 1991, 317 in 2001. Last season there were 325 D-I programs, and more than 1,000 when Division II and III are included.
“The fact that so many schools where women’s basketball was nonexistent or an afterthought went all in is a credit to Mel and his poll,” said Jim Foster, the retired women’s coach at St. Joseph’s, Ohio State, and elsewhere.
Deirdre Kane, the retired West Chester University coach, said that “until Mel’s poll, the NCAA wasn’t even acknowledging our existence. That poll made people realize, some of them for the first time, that women’s collegiate basketball was being played.”
Greenberg built a national network of coaches and administrators, contacting them weekly for information and input. As newspapers beyond Philadelphia added his poll, its significance deepened.
“We were all fighting for recognition, but none of us were getting much,” said Geno Auriemma, the Norristown-raised, spectacularly successful coach at Connecticut. “Mel came along, and he was one of the few who gave us a little. His poll helped us all grow the game.”
It grew so widely that in 1996 the NBA launched a women’s pro league, stocked with the stars of the college game. The WNBA now has a national TV contract, recognizable superstars, and a lineup of big-city franchises that in 2030 will include Philadelphia.
“When Philadelphia gets that team,” Foster said, “they ought to call it the Philadelphia Mels.”
It took 28 years after the inception of the Associated Press’ men’s college basketball poll for the women to get one. In 1976, Searcy, who before arriving at The Inquirer had covered women’s sports for the New York Times, decided the time had come. His motivation likely sprang from developments in that Bicentennial year.
Women’s basketball made its Olympic debut that summer in Montreal. A few months earlier, Immaculata had appeared in its fifth straight AIAW national title game. The Mighty Macs, who in 1971 played in the first nationally televised women’s game, had won the first three and were runners-up the next two years.
Searcy reached out to Greenberg, an editorial clerk who by then was the de facto Immaculata beat writer.
“Jay called me into his office and said, ‘What do you think of the idea of a women’s basketball poll?’” Greenberg said. “And I said, ‘I think you’re nuts.’”
As Greenberg prepared for the poll’s November launch, Searcy promoted it. He revealed his plan to Temple students during a campus visit. In that audience was Foster, then a physical education major who also coached Bishop McDevitt High School’s girls.
“It was really exciting news for anyone interested in the sport,” Foster said. “He told us he was going to start a women’s basketball poll that would be just like the men’s.”
Still, many scoffed. Women’s basketball, after all, existed deep in the shadows. Most newspapers and TV stations ignored it. With few exceptions, games were played before tiny crowds, often in substandard gyms. Rules weren’t standardized, qualified coaches and referees were in short supply, and, until the AIAW’s 1971 founding, there was no universally accepted end-of-season tournament.
“The only people who followed women’s basketball then were the people involved in the game,” Kane said.
But if there was a hotbed, it probably was the Philadelphia area. Numerous elementary schools, high schools, and colleges here had teams. West Chester State, with its strong physical education program, gained prominence in the 1960s under coach Carol Eckman, now known as “the mother of women’s college basketball.” And it was a West Chester grad, Cathy Rush, who turned Immaculata into the nation’s best team in the early 1970s.
“There was always a huge basketball presence in Philadelphia,” Stanley said. “But it wasn’t until Immaculata that many people noticed the women. Then, the AIAW was formed, and that was big. Now, here comes the poll, and suddenly we’ve got a way to track and pay attention to what was happening not just here but across the country.”
Members of the Immaculata College basketball team gather around their coach as they return after winning the first women’s collegiate national championship in 1972. From left in the foreground are Theresa Shank, college president Sister Mary of Lourdes, coach Cathy Rush, and Janet Ruch.
Despite Greenberg’s occasional stories on the Mighty Macs, few readers knew much of the women’s basketball world beyond. And few sports editors and writers besides Searcy and Greenberg saw its potential.
“I loved women’s basketball,” said Dick Weiss, a veteran sportswriter who then was covering men’s college basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News, “but most of us never saw it becoming a regular beat. All our energy went into the Sixers with Julius Erving and the Big 5, which still had NCAA teams filled with local talent.”
Launching the poll proved problematic. If women’s programs were second-class on most campuses, so were their support staffs. Gathering schedules and stats was nearly impossible. When Greenberg reached out to the AIAW for help, the organization balked.
“They told me women’s sports shouldn’t get involved in things like newspaper polls because that would lead to the evils of men’s athletics,” he said.
So he built a Rolodex of contacts, then he and some basketball contacts painstakingly collected information over the phones.
“Mel based the poll operation in our sports department,” said Gene Foreman, then The Inquirer’s managing editor. “His volunteer helpers were several tall women.”
Coaches telephoned in their votes on Sunday nights. One, N.C. State’s Kay Yow, provided an early indication of the poll’s impact.
On Jan. 2, 1977, Immaculata visited N.C. State, which typically played before small gatherings. But the new rankings promised a compelling matchup. The Wolfpack were ranked No. 15; Immaculata, which triumphed, 95-90, was No. 2.
“I remember Yow calling and talking about how excited she was,” Greenberg said. “It was snowing before the game, but there was a long line of fans outside the arena waiting for tickets.”
In 1978, the Associated Press began distributing the poll, giving most news outlets access. Then, in 1994, Greenberg ceded its compilation to the AP, and media members replaced coaches as the voters.
The poll was a cornerstone of the game, and in 2000, another Sunday Inquirer spotlighted women’s basketball’s maturity.
Philadelphia was hosting that year’s Final Four. Its lineup of Connecticut, Tennessee, Rutgers, and Penn State revealed the game’s progression from the days when little Immaculata could win three straight titles. Its two sessions attracted nearly 40,000 fans. Millions more watched on ESPN.
Stacy Hansmeyer, Sue Bird, and the UConn bench celebrate after Swin Cash makes a breakaway layup late in the second half of UConn’s Final Four game against Penn State on March 31, 2000, at what then was called the First Union Center.
The April 2 Inquirer ballyhooed that night’s title game on Page 1. Inside was an entire section previewing the event from every angle. There were profiles of coaches, players, even the referees. There were analyses, features, columns, statistics, photos and predictions.
And the poll?
Well, the championship game itself proved just how plugged in it was. Connecticut, the No. 1 team in the regular season’s final rankings, defeated No. 2 Tennessee.
Greenberg retired from The Inquirer in 2010 but still compiles a widely read blog. Organizations, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, have recognized him and his poll’s contributions.
“Mel was a gift to the women’s game,” Stanley said. “He was so passionate, and so dedicated and so single-minded. Who knows how long it otherwise would have taken for anything of substance to occur? Not many news outlets gave a crap about it, but Mel and The Inquirer decided to do something about women’s basketball. And that poll has stood the test of time.”
Head to the corner of 32nd and Berks, Kahleah Copper says. And find the telephone pole with the backboard still nailed to it.
“That’s where I started hooping,” Copper said Thursday. “That’s where it all really began for me.”
That spot is so meaningful that Copper took her Unrivaled teammates on a walking tour there, traipsing through snow-lined sidewalks and frigid temperatures to reach it. The 31-year-old wanted them to see the North Philly she always boasts about, to “share that little piece of me.”
Kah visiting where it all started👑 #Unrivaled #WNBA
It was part of the nostalgia and “waves of gratitude” Copper felt during this particular trip home, culminating in playing Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena in professional women’s basketball’s return to Philly. While speaking about the family, friends, and mentors in that sold-out crowd — who knew the kid who once shot on that makeshift hoop — Copper’s emotions quickly (and unexpectedly) bubbled to the surface.
“There’s so many people that just kind of stepped into my life,” said Copper, eyes teary and voice breaking, “and did stuff for me, literally not looking for anything in return. … For them to see me now, like I really made it because of y’all. That’s tough. That’s fire.
“Everybody literally planted little seeds for me to be who I am today. That’s why it’s so special.”
An early opponent on that neighborhood basket? One of her three sisters, whom Kahleah claims “wasn’t even that good, and she did not even, like, like it.” It is how she realized how much she did love basketball — and hated losing.
Then there were the guys who welcomed her into pickup games at Fairmount Park playground courts at 33rd and Diamond, even though she was a girl. As long as she did not cry. As long as she was ready to take hits. And as long as, whenever she lost, she got off the court and found her way back into the next game.
“Nothing being handed to me. Got to go get it. Got to be tougher,” Copper said. “That’s kind of where I got my mindset, and that’s how I approach everything.”
Eric Worley, the cofounder of Philadelphia Youth Basketball, first met Copper as a middle schooler. Sabrina Allen, a friend and then the coach at Girard College, recognized potential in Copper. Worley agreed that Copper “could run real fast, could jump real high” — and “got off the ground twice before the other player got off the ground once.”
“She just came in the game and you knew she was going to bring energy,” Worley told The Inquirer in front of an arena suite Friday night. “Get some offensive rebounds. Get some putbacks. And just kind of bring that North Philly toughness that she always kind of goes back to.
“That’s really true, and that has always been part of her makeup.”
Kahleah Copper introduced in front of the Philly crowd. Got something cooking on her that you’ll be able to read tomorrow 👀
Yet because of work and family obligations for Copper’s mother, Leticia, Kahleah often needed a ride to practices or AAU games. Worley and his family stepped in. Reminiscing about that kindness is what first made Copper’s voice waver in front of reporters on Thursday. The next day, Worley called the gesture “easy” because of the Copper family’s honesty about their situation and appreciation for the support.
“She trusted us with her baby,” Worley said of Copper’s mother. “She was like, ‘Hey, I know y’all are good people. I know you have her best interests at heart. Come get her. What time do I need to have her ready? She’s going to have her bags packed and ready to go.’”
Copper later moved to 23rd and Diamond, into the same Raymond Rosen projects where basketball legend Dawn Staley grew up. Copper started playing at Hank Gathers Recreation Center and walked Broad Street to Temple to join the pickup games with the women’s basketball team.
Eventually, Copper branched out, starring in college at Rutgers before turning pro. She blossomed into a four-time All-Star and won the 2021 WNBA championship and Finals MVP. She played overseas in Belgium, Poland, Turkey, Israel, and Spain. This past fall, she helped the Phoenix Mercury to a surprise Finals run, upsetting the defending champion New York Liberty along the way.
Then Unrivaled, the offseason league in its second season, finally brought Copper home to play professionally.
Veteran star Skylar Diggins sat behind Copper on the bus once they arrived, watching her take in her hometown. Copper kept a camcorder handy to document everything from the familiar surroundings to her teammates crammed in an elevator in their hotel. Awaiting everybody was a massive cheesesteak order from the iconic Dalessandro’s, ready for Copper to dress her sandwich with mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and ketchup (but no onions).
“Everybody I know [eats it that way],” Copper said. “That’s real Philly right there.”
All four Unrivaled teams practiced at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center located about 10 minutes from where she grew up. She marveled at the easily accessible “safe space” — complete with study areas, therapy rooms, and meals — it provides area kids today. That is where she first reunited with Worley, the coach calling it “genuine love.” Copper then spent time with some of Worley’s current players, along with kids who have grown up attending Copper’s summer camp, launched nine years ago.
“Now it’s time to really cement your legacy,” Worley said, “by paying it forward for the next generation.”
Kahleah Copper of the Rose scored 19 points and had four rebounds during the Philly Is Unrivaled doubleheader on Friday.
And with her Rose BC teammates in tow, Copper still squeezed in that neighborhood walk she made countless times as a kid. They began at the park and then moved to the pole with the backboard, which Copper said left everybody “in awe.” Then they went to her home, sat on the stoop, and yelled “Norf!”
Throughout the stroll, Copper pointed out her favorite water ice stand and go-to gas station. She shared memories of trying to hurry back home before the streetlights came on. It all illustrated why, in teammate Shakira Austin’s words, Copper is an “embodiment of Philly.”
“You can just see the way she speaks about things,” Austin said Friday. “She’s so excited about this opportunity and about this experience. She’s been rambling a lot, but it’s so fun to hear and just to see her be her true self.
“She’s probably been the most out of her shell since we’ve been here.”
Copper took all 60 tickets provided by Unrivaled for “her people” to attend Friday’s game, with several others sharing that they had bought their own. She could not wait to scan the crowd and “probably see people I haven’t seen since I was maybe in college, or maybe in high school.” After the Rose’s 85-75 loss, in which she totaled 19 points and four rebounds, Copper ventured into Section 123, wrapping those loved ones in hugs and posing for photos.
Many of them know all about 32nd and Berks, and the pole with the backboard. And now, so do her Unrivaled teammates.
“I made them walk in that cold,” Copper said. “But they love so much, so they did it for me. I was just super grateful to be able to show that little piece of me.”
Fans hold up their signs supporting Kahleah Copper of the Rose and Natasha Cloud of the Phantom during the Philly Is Unrivaled doubleheader on Friday.
A deep bench has been crucial as Villanova maintains its hold on second place in the Big East.
Just look at Saturday’s 69-56 win over DePaul at Finneran Pavilion.
Senior guard Ryanne Allen accounted for 17 points for the Wildcats (16-5, 9-3 Big East) and was their second-leading scorer behind sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe (27 points).
The 6-foot-1 Perkasie native aims to bring a spark and is averaging 9.0 points and 2.3 rebounds, mostly off the bench.
“Our bench has been tremendous,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “I think any of them are capable of being in that starting lineup, with Ryanne, Dani [Ceseretti], and Brooke Bender. They generate a lot of offense for us. It’s so nice to have that spark coming off the bench.”
Bringing a ‘spark’
Allen’s specialty has been her consistent shooting from beyond the arc, where she’s averaging 48.7% this season. Against DePaul, she shot 5-for-6 from the field, including 3-for-4 in three-pointers.
Allen led the Wildcats to a strong finish against the Blue Demons (5-18, 2-10), contributing a three-pointer and a layup on consecutive possessions in Villanova’s 7-0 run in the final two minutes of action. She also led Villanova with seven rebounds, as it edged DePaul, 38-34, on the boards.
Dani Ceseretti shoots over DePaul’s Michelle Ojo during the first quarter at the Finneran Pavilion on Saturday.
“The big challenge today [against DePaul] was rebounding,” Dillon said. “It’s been a challenge for us as a team. So we crowned a rebounding leader today, and Ryanne was awarded the crown today. I think we’ve got to compete against each other. If we’re doing that, then we’re getting better.”
Although she has only started one game this season, Allen’s experience and sharp shooting have made her a crucial part of the rotation.
“When I come in, I just want to make an immediate impact and bring energy to those who have already been out there,” said Allen, who’s in her second season at Villanova after spending the first half of her college career at Vanderbilt. “Being on the bench, you’re able to see things, see what’s happening out there. So I want to bring that energy and see what I can do to help the team in any way.”
Allen is embracing the opportunity to finish her college basketball career not far from where it started, at Archbishop Wood.
“That’s one of the reasons I came back here, to be able to have my family here, especially to be able to see my siblings, my parents, grandparents, and aunts show out for me every game,” Allen said.
Every game will be crucial in the final stretch of conference play before the Big East tournament. Allen hopes that the energy she brings to the court will reverberate around the rest of the team.
The Wildcats next travel to Indianapolis for a matchup with Butler on Wednesday (7 p.m., ESPN+).
“In February, you’ve already played every [Big East opponent], so everyone knows what you can do, and they see your strengths and your weaknesses,” Allen said. “So it’s important to be able to find different ways to win, continue to put our foot in the gas and push forward when everyone’s trying to get as many wins as possible.”
We hear often that it’s good to run things in life like a business. It’s said especially loudly about women’s sports, in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
So let’s do that.
The 21,490 fans who packed Xfinity Mobile Arena for Friday’s Unrivaled basketball showcase clearly had business on their minds. It was the largest announced attendance in arena history, helped by Unrivaled’s three-on-three court being smaller than regulation, and it was full of wallets.
They were opened often, to buy T-shirts, hats, hoodies, hot dogs, and all the fancier food and drinks on offer these days.
The crowd roared for hometown heroes Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper, but not just for them. Paige Bueckers, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray, and Marina Mabrey also drew big cheers.
Kahleah Copper during player introductions before the Rose game against the Lunar Owls in Game 2 of the Philly is Unrivaled doubleheader on Friday.
“I think it was awesome to see them come out and support us like that,” Mabrey said after scoring an Unrivaled game record 47 points in the Lunar Owls’ 85-75 win over Rose. “I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t realize it was going to be so much hype around it and so much support.”
There was celebrity wattage from Wanda Sykes, Leslie Jones, Freeway, and Jason and Kylie Kelce. Dawn Staley was in the front row, of course. The 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond, Trendon Watford, and Dominick Barlow had courtside seats too.
They all helped answer a question that’s been simmering in town for a while.
At any business school, they’ll teach you that the most fundamental rule of economics is supply and demand. But how can you prove there’s demand when there’s no supply in the first place?
One way, for sure, is to not try in the first place. That was the case with women’s basketball in Philadelphia for 28 years, the time between the end of the Philadelphia Rage in 1998 and now. It’s mostly been the case with women’s soccer since the Independence folded in 2011, though at least the U.S. national team visits every few years.
Yet Philadelphia has now set two women’s sports attendance records in recent years. In 2019, Lincoln Financial Field hosted 49,504 fans for a U.S. women’s soccer game, and that’s still the largest crowd for a standalone home friendly. On Friday, the arena across 11th Street hosted the largest crowd to watch a regular-season professional women’s basketball game.
Another path to travel invokes another rule of economics. In a free market, shouldn’t someone be able try something? If they fail, so be it, and if they succeed, they profit.
The people who brought Unrivaled here, and those who will bring a WNBA team here in 2030, chose the second road.
‘It wasn’t a charity event’
On the day in October when Unrivaled announced it would come here, Comcast Spectacor chief financial officer Blair Listino watched her phone light up with notifications of ticket sales.
A Phantom fan cheers the team during its game against Breeze.
“While we were sitting there waiting for the [announcement] event to happen,” she told The Inquirer, “7,000 tickets were sold within the first few hours of the event being on sale. So right then and there, I knew, ‘OK, there is demand.’”
Listino also is an alternate governor of the Flyers. She was the team’s CFO from 2019 to 2023 and has worked for Comcast in a range of finance-related capacities since 2011. So she has plenty of experience with measuring what Philadelphia sports fans want — and with making hard business deals.
“We worked with Unrivaled management, and we treated it like any other event,” she said. “It wasn’t a charity event; we didn’t give them a sweetheart deal. It was a true rental agreement where we said, ‘We believe in you, we think that you’ll be able to sell out this building, and we’ll all be profitable from it.’”
That made it, she said, “good business sense for both us and Unrivaled.”
Philadelphia welcomes Paige Bueckers to the floor:
It was not just based on Jen Leary, the founder of Watch Party PHL, holding events and selling out of “Philly Is A Women’s Sports Town” T-shirts for over a year. Or Chivonn Anderson opening Marsha’s, a women’s sports bar on South Street. Or any number of people on social media, or in this reporter’s inbox, or so on.
No, this was Philadelphia’s biggest company believing that women’s sports can be profitable in its city. And now there’s proof.
Along with that, an Unrivaled spokesperson told The Inquirer on Saturday that the night delivered $2 million in revenue to the league, including over $1 million in ticket sales and $400,000 in merchandise sales at the arena.
“I think when choosing a market that doesn’t necessarily have a team, but there’s demand, you take a leap of faith into your decision,” said Cloud, whose Phantom beat Breeze, 71-68. “And Unrivaled chose the right city, the right sports town, and the right fan base.”
The crowd returned the favor many times over Friday, bringing the Broomall native to tears in a postgame interview on court.
“You just give us the opportunity to actually do it,” North Philadelphia’s Copper said. She recalled playing a WNBA preseason game in Toronto with the Chicago Sky in 2023 in front of a sellout crowd at the city’s NBA arena. That moment lit a spark that led to the Toronto Tempo, an expansion team that will tip off this year.
“How they were able to kind of lead up and have that build up, I think it’s kind of the same,” she said. “And I think the city has been wanting it. So this is a good introduction, and we’ll give them something to look forward to.”
It’s not just the local products who’ve felt that. Players from elsewhere who are used to big crowds at their games were excited to be part of a first here.
“Kudos to Alex [Bazzell], our president, and the whole league having ‘Tash’ and ‘Kah’ be spokespersons for this amazing city,” said Breeze’s Cameron Brink, who played collegiately for Stanford and is now with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “Kah has done so much for women’s basketball in this city and the resources that are now available. I’m just proud that we saw that this is a city that wants to cheer on women’s basketball — so hopefully there’s more of it in the future.”
Cameron Brink leaps past Natasha Cloud (right) during the first quarter of the Breeze-Phantom game.
Brink grew up in Princeton, N.J., and her parents played college basketball at Virginia Tech. She moved to the Portland, Ore., suburbs at age 8, but heard plenty of stories from her mother, Michelle, about the East Coast.
“I was talking with her the other day — she’s like, ‘I honestly can’t believe women’s basketball has gotten to this point,’” Brink said. “I mean, we’ve always believed, but it’s really special that we get to soak in this moment. So I just think back to the women before me, and I’m just thankful for how they paved the way.”
Kate Martin of Unrivaled’s Breeze has played for Iowa and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, both of which draw huge crowds to every game. She knew Philadelphia doesn’t have that track record, so she was excited to be part of a first.
“I think it’s really important for young girls to be able to see people that they want to be like,” Martin said. “I think it’s important for them to be able to see if they want to be a women’s basketball player, to see that in their city, and be able to have access to going to a game.”
Kate Martin in action Friday.
Friday’s spectacle undoubtedly will push Unrivaled to take more of its games on the road next season, and they may well come back here. There might not be another full house with the novelty factor gone, and one night in 2026 doesn’t mean the future WNBA team will sell out all of its games years later.
Nor does it mean that what’s true today was true in past years, when Cloud and Copper weren’t yet big names.
But it does mean there’s demand for a product right now, and that it can make money right now. Philadelphia finally got an opportunity, and took it.
The crowd inside Xfinity Mobile Arena for Philly is Unrivaled already was high-energy. Then Marina Mabrey brought the house down with an Unrivaled-record 47 points in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Belmar, N.J., native plays in Connecticut and has no real connection to Philadelphia, but the crowd went crazy for every three-pointer like she was one of their own.
“I brought my Jersey to Philly, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it,” Mabrey said. “Thank you for welcoming me with open arms.”
Friday’s Unrivaled doubleheader at Xfinity Mobile Arena was the first time the three-on-three league had left its Miami-area home. Unlike the WNBA or NBA, the teams are not tied to a specific city or region. That makes the league a fascinating “social experiment,” TV analyst Renee Montgomery said.
Unrivaled is driven by fans’ love for players and for the game, Rose BC’s Lexie Hull said. A number of the 21,490 fans in the building came in repping their favorite players across the women’s basketball world, with plenty of love for superstar Paige Bueckers and Philly locals Natasha Cloud and Kahleah Copper, or in T-shirts declaring that “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” or that “Philly is a Women’s Sports Town.”
“Philly is a basketball city,” Montgomery said. “… I think there’s certain cities that lean in and they don’t just halfway do anything, and I feel like Philly is that type of city. They see that Unrivaled chose this place to be the first one, and Philly’s like, ‘Bet, let’s show out.’ That’s what it felt like to me.”
The neutral crowds make Unrivaled a different environment in the pro sports landscape, but neutral didn’t mean there was any less passion.
“One thing I know about Philly is, it’s really passionate about its sports, good and bad, through and through, the City of Brotherly Love,” Bueckers said. “You feel that, and we felt that tonight, just how passionate they were and are about women’s basketball.”
Philadelphia has never been home to a WNBA franchise, and was home to an American Basketball League franchise for just two years before the team folded in 1998. But with an expansion franchise set to come to Philadelphia in 2030, Unrivaled’s sold-out crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena was just a taste of Philly’s appetite for women’s professional basketball.
Hull said she hoped to see Unrivaled continue to thrive in that niche, serving markets like Philadelphia that don’t have WNBA franchises yet. Unrivaled’s Philly tour stop set the record for most fans at a regular-season professional women’s basketball game, and a building record for Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“With the growth of the sport, there’s just so many people that want to see it live and don’t have the opportunity to fly to a [WNBA] city and watch a game during the season,” Hull said. “This gives them the opportunity to get to watch and grow the game, so it’s awesome.”
Sixers Kyle Lowry, Andre Drummond, Trendon Watford, and Dominick Barlow, and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu were among the basketball stars in the building.
But of course, one of the most excited fans in the building was South Carolina head coach and local basketball legend Dawn Staley. For Phantom BC’s Aliyah Boston, who played for Staley in college, it was an amazing surprise to see Staley courtside again.
“I was shocked, when I came out, one of our assistants was like, ‘See Coach Staley?’” And I was like, ‘What? What?’ Saw her right over there, gave her a hug.”
Boston said that the two still have a “special relationship,” and she had to go up to Staley at halftime to ask for feedback on her game.
After playing for Staley, Boston said she had an idea of what to expect of playing in Philly, and the intensity and toughness needed for the tight game matched her expectations.
“The biggest thing for her was just that mindset,” Boston said. “She talked about her upbringing and that grind in Philly, and that’s the approach that she wants us to take on the court. Just have that dog mentality. Being able to hear that for four years just continued to shape me into who I am as a player today.”
Friday’s event was a huge head start in showing the players just how good of a women’s basketball market Philly can be. With the record-setting, energetic crowd, the conversation now turns to how to keep the momentum going until the WNBA franchise establishes itself in 2030.
Unrivaled players were excited about the prospect of adding new tour stops and continuing to travel in the seasons to come, and Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell confirmed Friday that the league plans to do more road trips next year.
Could Philly be on that list a second time?
Breeze BC’s Kate Martin, who played for the Golden State Valkyries in their inaugural season last year, shared the advice she’d give to anyone playing for a Philly expansion franchise, after the Valkyries quickly became the most-attended team in the WNBA in their first year.
“When you start to build that sense of community, that people feel more like they have a relationship with you, they want to come, they want to support,” Martin said. “Making the atmosphere fun, making people feel welcome, making people feel excited about basketball.”
Kate Martin, who plays for the Breeze and the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, knows a thing or two about building a fan base.
The project, directed by Melanie Page, was featured at Temple on Thursday night. Page shared a teaser of her documentary about women’s basketball greats who have come through the Philadelphia area over the years.
The event included a panel discussion with Temple coach Diane Richardson, Temple Hall of Famer Marilyn Stephens, Philly basketball legend Yolanda Laney, and former Army coach Lynn Arturi-Chiavaro. Page’s first documentary, about women’s basketball in the Washington, D.C., area, also was screened.
“I’m a student of basketball, but that was how I was raised in my upbringing from 5 years old,” Page said. “Seeing the Washington Mystics, it’s never left me. And here I am today, being able to tell more stories and bring the youth up to speed.”
The Philly documentary will feature prominent local women’s basketball figures like Laney and Stephens. The DMV documentary starred Richardson from when she was the head coach at Riverdale Baptist School and Towson and an assistant at Maryland, along with Temple associate head coach Wanisha Smith, who played for Richardson at Riverdale Baptist. (Richardson also was an assistant at two other Washington-based universities, American and George Washington.)
Page started the project during the pandemic in 2020. A DMV native, she began her storytelling there, and it gained some traction in 2021, when she released clips of her interviews from the documentary.
The next step was to bring it to Philly. Arturi-Chiavaro played for the city’s first professional women’s basketball team, the Philadelphia Fox of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which only lasted from 1978 to 1981.
Stephens was a ball girl for the Fox and starred at Temple from 1980 to 1984. She scored 2,194 points and grabbed 1,516 rebounds, ranking second in school history in points and first in rebounds. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
“You can’t erase our history,” Stephens said. “We got to just stand strong and educate the generations that’s come behind us and give them the information about women’s basketball.”
Richardson and Laney also emphasized the importance of not letting the history of women’s basketball be forgotten.
Laney helped lead Cheyney State (now known as Cheyney University) to the first-ever NCAA women’s national championship game in 1982. Her daughter, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, plays for the New York Liberty. Richardson is not from the area, but has become one of the biggest advocates for women’s basketball in the city since being hired at Temple in 2022.
“We heard a question for what would you name the Philadelphia WNBA team … I would call it the Philadelphia Cradle,” Laney said. “Because we are cradling basketball history in this area and we have a different style of play in Philadelphia basketball.”
With a WNBA franchise coming to Philly in 2030, Richardson and Laney believe the documentary will help keep the city excited.
“Doing things right now like what Melanie is doing and just opening people’s eyes to the explosion of women’s basketball is really important,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to catch that lightning in a bottle and do it now because five years from now, we’re going to be too late.”
Stephens, Arturi-Chiavaro, Richardson, and Laney have a hand in the history and future of women’s basketball. Page wants to keep educating folks about their impact.
“This is the standard,” Page said. “This is how it should be. This should be the norm of what we are doing. People should know Yolanda Laney’s name off the top of their heads. They should know Marilyn Stephens. … It should definitely be the standard. That’s the message.”
If you would’ve told Solange Mota two years ago that her cheerleading squad would go on to make history on the national level … she would believe it.
“Honestly, we knew we were going two years ago,” said Mota, 29. “We kept saying, ‘We’re going to Disney; we’re going to Disney.’ I think the biggest obstacle about it was financials. It takes a lot of money to get them there because you have to go to camp. After camp, you have to make it to regionals.
“It’s kind of their way of filtering out teams before you get to nationals, and that was our biggest problem. We know the girls can do it. But how are we going to make this happen?”
Now, thanks to a whole lot of resilience — and a $30,000 grant from Mastery Schools — Mastery Charter School at Smedley, which serves predominantly Black and Latino students, will be the first inner-city public school to compete at the Universal Cheerleaders Association nationals in Orlando, it says. (A Philadelphia public high school, George Washington High School, competed in the 2023 NCA finals in Dallas, finishing 10th and starring in a documentary about their journey.)
“There’s privilege in that,” Mota said. “But there’s also a weight. When you’re the first of anything and when you have a privilege to do something, there’s always a sense of responsibility.
“You’re seeing that it’s Catholic schools, it’s private schools, but the demographic is all the same. So, the biggest thing that we talk about with the girls is that we’re going out there, not only as an all-Black and brown team, but also as the first Philadelphia inner-city elementary school. I think the girls feel a sense of pride in that.”
The team, known as Bulldog Blitz, will compete in the junior high intermediate division of UCA’s National School Spirit Championship.
Mota, a former competitive cheerleader and first grade teacher at Mastery Smedley, started the squad with Ana Rosario, 29, in 2021. It started as an after-school program, but a year later, it became an official competitive cheerleading team consisting of 22 girls ranging from first to sixth grade.
The school educates 737 kindergarten through sixth grade students in the city’s Frankford section.
Some of the girls on the team have been with the program throughout its five years, including 11-year-old Malayah Bell. In her final year with the team, she’ll finally be competing on the national stage.
“Since it started, I never really thought that it was going to be something big,” Bell said. “I thought it was just going to be an after-school program where we just had fun. Until I noticed that the cheer team can really do big things.”
The age gap between some of the girls could be seen as a challenge. However, Mota says it works perfectly with their big sister, little sister program — pairing a sixth grader with a first grader as a mentor.
“People are like, ‘How does a first grader get along with a sixth grader?’ Mota said. “But I’m like, ‘If you see it, it just works out.’ Our sixth graders are so loving and kind to our babies.”
That sisterhood has deepened through their practices. They typically train Tuesdays through Saturdays from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. However, that schedule changed as they prepared for nationals, and their practice hours were extended to 6 p.m.
With a busy schedule ahead of them, the team took a 19-hour bus to Florida on Tuesday and arrived on Wednesday morning. Bell said they had one activity to help them pass the time: rapping.
“Honestly, I thought it was going to be a very long drive,” Bell said. “But it just felt really quick with us just playing and then going to sleep. It was fun. I liked the whole experience with my team just being with them for basically a day. We did a lot of rapping.”
Once they arrived, they had a day of fun with their families at the Disney parks before training for the next two days.
“It’s so heartwarming,” Rosario said. “As a former cheerleader, I’ve come as a spectator with my cousins that competed. But I’ve never got the chance to compete. So, just watching them live out a dream and be a part of this opportunity just makes me super emotional.”
The Smedley team first had to advance out of the regional competition before clinching its spot in nationals.
Mastery Smedley will take the stage on Saturday for the first round of nationals. If they score high enough, they’ll make it into the finals on Sunday. Although winning is one of the goals entering the competition, Mota is focused on only one thing.
“My biggest thing is just watching them come out on that stage,” Mota said. “You know, watching their smiles. Like, this is everything that they worked for. So just watching it all piece together, this is why we’ve done everything that we have done. Watching the girls, seeing our school name and it saying Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary, Philadelphia, Pa. That’s a first. It’s going to leave me starstruck.”
However, Bell has her eye set on something else.
“I’m looking forward to the white jackets when we win,” Bell said.
