Of the eight varsity high-school basketball teams in Arlington County during the recently-completed winter season, the campaign brought accomplished and improved play for some squads, and about the same, record-wise, for others.
Four teams amassed more victories than last season and three accumulated the same number of wins. Overall, the eight teams combined for 91 victories, compared to 83 a year ago.
Three of the teams making the biggest improvements in their number of wins were on the girls side. The Wakefield Warriors jumped to 11 victories this winter after only four in 2021-22. The Bishop O’Connell Knights won a dozen games this winter, also up from four. The Washington-Liberty girls improved from three to eight wins.
The O’Connell and W-L girls teams each had new head coaches – Brittany Davis for O’Connell and Liz Altmaier for Washington-Liberty. Jackie Beathea was in her second season as the Wakefield girls coach.
“It took us a season for our players to understand what we wanted them to do, and they did that this season and we had much more success,” Beathea said.
The biggest boost among the boys teams was the Yorktown Patriots, with 12 victories compared to five a season ago. Wakefield with 11 wins, Washington-Liberty with 18 and O’Connell with 18 had the same total as last winter.
The only team that fell off this season, and significantly, was the Yorktown girls, dropping from 20 to only one win. This season Yorktown’s success was hampered by injuries to key players; another returning starter quit the team after only a few games.
Going forward, the question now for those teams is what will next season bring as far as victories?
On the girls side, all four teams were young this past season, and are expected to return a number of key players for the 2023-24 campaign.
With the exception of O’Connell, the opposite will be the case for the boys teams. Wakefield, Washington-Liberty and Yorktown all graduate key starters and players.
The girls team expected to return the most top players will be Washington-Liberty. Top players back will be guards Frances Shapiro and Harriet Shapiro, Julia Kelly, Ava George and Isabella Menn and forward Eve Jungman.
The Shapiros, Kelly and George were among the top three-point shooters in the Liberty District. Frances Shapiro, Kelly and Jungman received all-district honors of different types for their performances.
The Wakefield girls are expected to return top players Helena Helms, Samantha Stewart, Dominique Harris, Neela Spangler and Samantha Belvo. Helms was chosen honorable-mention all-district.
The O’Connell girls were loaded with young players who saw a lot of action this past season and helped the Knights finish 1-1 in the Division I private-school state tournament. Top performers expected to return are Jamieson McIntyre, Adriana Mayorga, Kristin Smith, Jaylen Manning, Dru and Denver Carlton, Kiera Scott and Daniya Brown.
For the Yorktown girls, Eleanor Mashie is expected to be a top returner.
Like the girls, the O’Connell boys are expected to return scads of players for the 2023-24 season. Among those will be guard Quincy Wadley, who was chosen first-team all-Washington Catholic Athletic Conference this winter as a freshman.
Other returners will be Adlan Elamin, Adam Oummidoch, Jadyn Harris, Aiden Caulker, David Rochester and Shane Lincoln. Harris made second-team all-WCAC.
The Arlington boys team that will be hit the hardest by graduation will be Washington-Liberty, which will lose four or five starters. Some of the top returners should be Cedric Scheu, Matt Bristol, David Pacheco and Max Hickey.
Many of those player were part of the team that amassed 46 wins over three seasons, won a district-tournament champion, finished second in the region tourney and earned a state-tournament berth.
The Wakefield boys graduate its two top players and scorers.
The Warriors have a number of players expected to be back in B.J. Willis, Ricardo Snyder, Ethan Poole and Derrick Bailey.
“In high-school basketball we are used to starting over again with what we have each season,” Wakefield boys coach Tony Bentley said.
Top players expected back for Yorktown are Brandon Pilot and Jack Rubin.
