The Future is Bright for Hurricanes Basketball

It will be strange for girls basketball fans in Chester County to see the final week of the PIAA state championship tournament play unfold without a Villa Maria team involved.

The Hurricanes were eliminated last Wednesday by Allentown Central Catholic—a team they had beaten during the regular season—in the second round of the AAA playoffs. In short, it just wasn't Villa's night as the offense didn't click and the Vikettes seemed to grab every rebound.

But while the somewhat surprising loss was discouraging for Kathy McCartney and her troops, the bottom line is, Villa will be right back in the thick of things next year and will be a favorite once again for a run at the state title game.

The Hurricanes are a talented group. While you really never replace a key player such as senior Brooke Angelos, whom Villa will lose, they will return all their other key players that won the District 1 AAA championship a few weeks ago.

There is an old adage in sports about teams that "don't rebuild, they reload," and that has been the case with Villa during the McCartney era. The Hurricanes have been to four straight district title games, came within a last-second shot of being the Athletic Association of the Catholic Academies' best team, and play an up-tempo non-league schedule that prepares them for not only their conference season, but the post season as well.

While Angelos, Maria Ferrari and Lauren Martinelli will leave via graduation, the cupboard is by no means bare. Angelos will pass the mantle of team leader to sophomore Lisa Mirarchi, who emerged in 2010-11 as a scoring force that gave opponents fits as they tried to figure how to negate both her and Angelos.

Returning at the other guard spot will be Kellie O'Rourke, a junior, who can hit from almost anywhere on the floor and brings an urgency to defense. O'Rourke will be asked to be the long-distance shooter for sure to replace Angelos' deadly three-point shot.

And both forwards will be back as well in juniors Maddie McTigue and Kristen Walheim. Both showed that they can work their way beneath the boards and at 5'10" and 6'0" respectively, they will certainly add a few inches before next season and give the Hurricanes the height advantage over many teams.

So, while the weeks ahead will be quiet on the Villa campus when it comes to basketball, and the recent loss was a bitter pill to swallow, the future remains bright for one of the top girls basketball programs in Eastern Pennsylvania for 2011-12.