Last winter, in a loss, Worcester South played the game that best exhibits its rise into an MIAA statewide power.
The Colonels traveled to Bishop Feehan and pushed the Division 1 finalists to the final seconds before a Maddy Steel 3-pointer proved the difference in a 47-44 result. But South’s competition against the state’s elite became the real takeaway.
The lead-up to that game is even more stunning.
Coach Diago McClain called off the previous day’s practice after less than ten minutes — drawing concern from his assistant coach and even the school principal — because he noticed a lack of focus among his players. The next day, the Colonels got on a quiet bus to Bishop Feehan, and McClain benched two starters in the locker room before tip-off. After starting down 17-4, McClain put the typical starters back in, and they soared in the near-comeback.
“Those two days, I think the team and myself, we really self-reflected and just dug deep within ourselves in wanting to make a statement of who South is — to come into Bishop Feehan and put up a good fight against them,” senior Gianah Estevez said.
In four years at South High, McClain has steered a Worcester Public Schools girls team that has never been on the map into one of Massachusetts’ best city programs. South is 84-10 during his tenure with back-to-back Division 2 state final appearances and a perfect 41-0 record at home.
McClain’s passionate, sometimes erratic coaching decisions and his emphasis on team culture and community is all part of how he wants to sculpt the image of Worcester hoops. The Colonels believe there’s a stigma against inner-city girls basketball, and they often feel like outsiders when they play the state’s suburban powers.
“I feel like, when we go and play other towns, they kind of look at us as, ‘Oh, Worcester Public Schools?’ They may even look at us as ghetto,” senior Ava MacCollom said. “Or they just give the Worcester Public Schools that label — ‘public school’ — they take it and they just make it into something that it’s not, without even understanding us first. We have to show that that's not how we are.”
McClain, the brother of Villanova national champion and Pacers second-round draft pick Dwayne McClain, is a Worcester lifer. When he took over the South team in 2021, he already had plenty of girls basketball experience, having coached at Holy Name and with the Worcester Sting AAU program as well as his own nonprofit training service. McClain also noticed a stark divide in support between the city’s girls and boys teams.
“I wanted to come in and change the culture of girls basketball at the time. I felt they weren't getting a fair share,” he said. “I felt there's a lot of girls that can actually play college basketball (and) can get out of the city. Some of them have never even been out of the city. So I took this job for that reason, and they train just as hard as boys. They could play just as good as them.”
McClain overhauled the Colonels’ social media presence and badgered anyone he knew to attend even part of a South game. He involved the players in several community engagement activities; among their favorites are helping coach McClain’s Tiny Tots skills program for early basketball learners, and a Halloween Trunk-of-Treat event at Worcester Academy, where the players dress up as referees to hand out candy. The goal wasn’t just to give players leadership opportunities, but also for Worcester to see what the South team is really like.
Senior Madi Leighton attended middle school in nearby Quabbin, Mass., before joining South. At first, she had outside voices pushing her to go to high school in Quabbin, too, because South’s program wasn’t very strong and the reputation of an inner-city public school wasn’t attractive.
But she soon found South a great fit beyond basketball. The building itself was brand-new when she arrived in 2021, following a $210 million construction project. Leighton participates in the Goddard Scholars Academy (GSA) accelerated learning program, will graduate having taking nine A.P. classes and plans to study criminal psychology in college.
Leighton most appreciates how diverse the student body is and how it’s taught her to be a more empathetic classmate and teammate.
“I think I've learned not to judge people just like how they are in school, because I know some people act a certain way in school and they're really a sweet person,” she said. “So I think being able to get to know someone really counts, because they might put on a tough persona, but in person, they're very sweet and they're very kind.”
South’s diversity extends to the Colonels; though Leighton is White, most of the roster brings a wide range of backgrounds — like Estevez and twin sister Vianah, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic. They also come from varied family situations.
“I've had senior nights that I have to step in to be the father, and some parents don't even come,” McClain said. “They don't have money to purchase things. They don't have money to eat. I have my own daughter who's actually in my program, so I have all these girls that look up to me and me and my wife, and they come to our house for team bonding and stuff.”
MacCollom is an only child and has grown up with just her mom, Laurel, in the household. They’re incredibly close and love watching local sports together, from Holy Cross women’s basketball to MacCollom’s friends in other sports. Laurel has never missed a South game, MacCollom says, but she’s still strained for time with her job as a social worker. McClain helps both logistically and as an additional mentor. She sometimes goes with McClain and assistant Sam O’Gara to help scout opponents.
“He's always a person that I could go and talk to,” MacCollom said. “He always shows me the rights from wrongs. Even when I make mistakes in life, he doesn't sit there and look at me and think ‘wrong’ — he'll help me and show where I went wrong, but here's how I could fix those mistakes.”
South’s on-court identity is swarming, in-your face ball pressure and defense. That’s another conscious choice by McClain. The Colonels are a tiny team; Bryan Bascones, the top player on last year’s squad, functioned occasionally as a 5-foot-8 center. Their only option is to outdefend and outhustle larger foes.
“That's all I coach. That's who I am as my personality. All my friends say, ‘Dude, they play like you,’” McClain said. “So it's hard. It takes work, it takes grinding, it takes skill, it takes scouting. It takes all this stuff to get kids to try to do what I’ve done so they buy into it.”
McClain will make bold decisions, like he did before the Bishop Feehan matchup, and the players agree he gives them tough love in intense practices. Estevez says she was scared of him when she first joined the team. But they also feel he knows how to boost their confidence. Last year, MacCollom was mired in a bad shooting slump, and McClain guessed she’d score 13 points in the following game. MacCollom hit the exact point total, including three 3-pointers.
“That showed that he had faith in me and he trusted me,” she said. “Little things like that, him just speaking, puts confidence into people.”
McClain has a connection with Worcester County District Attorney Joe Early Jr., and he leveraged that relationship via the city’s Drug Forfeiture Reinvestment Program, which takes in funds from money seized in drug-related investigations and distributes them to area nonprofits, to put $5,000 from the program toward new uniforms.
McClain believes this group will be the best defensive team he’s coached yet. But South has also been moved up to Division 1. For all the historic progress made by the Colonels, a state championship eludes them.
They’ve lost twice in a row to Medfield, including last year’s 62-20 shellacking, the largest margin of defeat in MIAA girls championship history. McClain has begun fueling his team already by having every returner put headline clippings of the loss as their phone screensavers.
Springfield has recently been the most successful MIAA big city with perennial contenders like Springfield Central, Renaissance and Springfield International Charter. Boston has Cathedral, the recent dynasty in Division 4. But now The buzz is coming to South and its gleaming new school to see this new era.
“Even though our jersey may say South High, I feel like South High girls basketball is putting Worcester Public Schools on the map,” MacCollom said.
