LYNN — Fresh off winning the Division 3 state championship, the St. Mary’s girls basketball team is ready for the new season — this time in Division 2, and with a youthful roster.
From the final whistle at the Tsongas Center in Lowell back in March to now, the Spartans have lost four of their five starters from last year. Reese Matela and Juliana Conte graduated, while Bella Owumi and Lily Norton transferred to Tilton School in New Hampshire. Despite the turnover, head coach Jeff Newhall is excited for the season.
“Eight days in and I think we’ve done a lot of great things. I don’t have too many complaints, if any. We have a great group of kids and they’ve been working really hard,” Newhall said. “We had three scrimmages against Wilmington, North Quincy and Walpole, and I thought we did really well in all phases of the game. We use these scrimmages to identify where certain people are at and where we are as a team.”
The Spartans will be a young squad this year – 32 of the 37 players in the program are either in middle school or freshmen, according to Newhall. Despite that, he is confident the team will remain competitive.
“Our program has always been pretty deep, and I think that’s my biggest surprise. I’m not making any wild predictions, but I haven’t noticed a drop-off in the way we’re playing. That doesn’t mean certain things aren’t going to be less challenging than they would be if we had some of these other players,” Newhall said. “But a lot of the kids we are relying on this year were on the team a year ago. In some cases we have players who were playing when they were in seventh or eighth grade. Now they’re freshmen and sophomores, but they have two or three years of varsity experience. They may be young in age, but they are experienced basketball players.”
St. Mary’s returns Jillian Roberts, who has started the last two seasons; Sky Watson, who is back after missing last year; and Charleigh Green, returning for her sophomore season after a strong freshman campaign.
“Jillian is going into her third year as a starter, and she is one of our two seniors alongside Sky Watson. Sky played while in middle school; she didn’t play in 11th grade, but she’s back as a senior, so it’s not like she’s a new player. She was in the program for four of the last five years,” Newhall said. “Then we have Charleigh, who’s a sophomore, but this is her third year playing varsity. She played significant minutes as an eighth- and ninth-grader. We need her to take that next step of playing more minutes, more meaningful minutes, and be a little more productive. We anticipate that being the case.”
Freshman Sysy Mcausland-Emmanuel is expected to be one of St. Mary’s top scorers this year, and Newhall is eager to see her continued development.
“Sysy has grown both as a person and a basketball player over the past 24 months, about as much as anyone I’ve seen during that small time frame,” Newhall said. “We’re relying on her to be one of the best players in the state, if not New England. That’s what she’s being recognized as. She’s a freshman and has three Division I offers. In the first eight days of practice, she’s been practicing hard, and in the scrimmages she’s been the most electric player on the court. But it’s a transition going from the seventh man to being the starting point guard and having to play 30 minutes. It might take a bit of time to unfold, but I don’t see it being an issue.”
Janae Holmes, who played significant minutes last year, and Gabi Lorenzini, who appeared in all but two games and made key shots throughout the season add experience to the team.
Freshmen Lina Owumi, Jaylin Frye and McKenna O’Connell are expected to see increased minutes this season. St. Mary’s also welcomes newcomers Taylor Roberts, Gianna Silvestri and Mariella Rivera, who round out the roster.
“We’re excited and we certainly expect big things,” Newhall said. “We’re not going into this with some expectations of taking a step back. I don’t see that being the case.”
