Amateur basketball is constantly evolving. It's a complicated, competitive and imperfect world — and no one knows that better than the athletes themselves.
Our five Players of the Year — Jae Scott (MIAA), Jasmyn Cooper (NEPSAC AAA), Elyse MacDonough (NEPSAC AA), Alicia Mitchell (NEPSAC A) and Camdyn Nelson (NEPSAC B) — are five primary representatives for the New England hoops landscape. Four have completed the youth basketball development process and attained a Division 1 college future, and Scott, a junior, is on the same path.
I interviewed all five to talk about their standout individual seasons. But I had a second mission in mind during our chats: to learn what it's like to be a girls basketball player today. What do they think about high school, prep school, AAU and the culture of amateur hoops? If they had the power, what would they change, and what would they want the community to know?
Our talks started with a rough series of questions, and though some common themes emerged, each player took their critiques in notably different directions. Here are the highlights of our discussions.
