By August, most of the rosters for the upcoming prep girls basketball season have taken shape, outside of a handful of late additions.
With a general picture of who's playing where, what do coaches think about the championship contenders for next season?
That's the subject of Part 2 of our coaches' survey. Participants were granted anonymity so they could voice opinions freely. The only requirement in this portion of the survey was that coaches could not answer with their own program.
Part 1 focused on the top players making up NEPSAC next season. Now let's see what coaches have to say about the teams.
Who is the best girls team in your NEPSAC class?
Most of our survey respondents came from Class AAA and AA, so those teams are more represented here.
In AAA, the race seems to be between New Hampshire powers Tilton and New Hampton.
The defending class champion Rams return Bela Cucuta, Brooke Golden and Maddie McCaffery as starters from last winter's title game, a thrilling victory over Nobles. Then they went out and added a handful of impact transfers headlined by Bella Owumi.
New Hampton, meanwhile, has been on the rise and pushed Nobles in the semifinals. The Huskies have Top 100 guard Elyse Ngenda and standout forward Serenity Lancaster leading the squad, which counts MIAA star Kailey Sullivan and Australian transfer Chloe Dix among the new additions.
"I think it’s them or Tilton for best in New England," one coach said of New Hampton. "Great squad. And perhaps the best head coach (Jamie Bavaro) in (New England)."
Newman also received a shoutout amid its intentions to move to Class AAA this season.
The consensus in AA centers around Northfield Mount Hermon, Darrow and Wilbraham & Monson. These were three of the four semifinalists in last year's playoffs, though they all fell short to champion Worcester Academy. NMH, Darrow and WMA each return several top players and may be in better position to capitalize this winter.
"WMA, Darrow and NMH would all be good choices (though it's never a good idea to count out Worcester),'" one coach said. "I'll go with NMH, as they have a compelling combination of continuity in their backcourt with impact acquisitions in the frontcourt."
We got a tongue-in-cheek "Loomis (Chaffee), shockingly," in Class A as the Pelicans attempt a five-peat, though they graduated most of their championship-winning rotation. Rivers and Berkshire each received mentions in Class B. Those two teams met in the semifinals last year, with Rivers prevailing on a Grace O'Sullivan layup with 2.6 seconds remaining before going on to win the title.
What NEPSAC team will take a leap next season?
I expected a wide range of answers, and though we got diverse responses, coaches expect a few teams to have serious breakout potential.
Dexter Southfield is the big name in Class AAA. After finishing sixth of seven AAA schools last winter, Dexter has a new coach in Tammy Millsaps who has done a lot of winning in the CIAC. The team has top 2028 star Ella Peper leading several returners, including rising seniors Izzy Adams and Brooke Nunnally-Gardner, plus another young phenom in 2029 center Avery Bollin.
"Great new coach and highly talented," a coach said.
New Hampton received multiple shoutouts as many expect them to make the jump to true championship contender, and one coach also mentioned Newman, in its second year as a program. Don't sleep on Hoosac either, which earned some big wins and flies under the radar as New York's AAA representative.
"Hoosac will take a leap next season," one coach said. "Their roster is deep, complete with size and great guard play; that and the combination of home court advantage in that gym, they will surprise some people and possibly jump into the top four of Class AAA."
Marianapolis has been slowly building up in Class AA. Opposing teams have respect for head coach Wes Howard and believe that years of continuity and roster-building should pay off soon.
"Marianapolis returns their entire roster, and Wes does a phenomenal job getting the best out of his players," one coach said.
Class C champion Hamden Hall drew a mention; the Hornets return a good portion of the title-winning roster and added more, like high-motor 2027 guard Maddie Benigni. They also might be in a new class as NEPSAC appears to again be revamping its class structure (more on that TBD).
Class A has recently been top-heavy, with Loomis Chaffee the dominant force and 2-3 contending schools behind it. That could change with some younger teams on the rise. Milton Academy is one that got a vote. The Mustangs earned the No. 7 seed in last year's postseason with a young roster and will bring back talented guards like Anjolie Abelard and Bella Baez. They also went out and added sharpshooter Jen Xue, an incoming freshman.
"I think Milton had a really strong season for having such a young team," an opposing coach said. "There's no substitute for experience, so being a year older and stronger under a good head coach should have them primed for a jump (either this year or next)."
