After four years of Loomis Chaffee dominance in Class A, Sacred Heart ended the dynasty and kick-started a new era for the class last season.
Powered by senior Eva Wilkerson, a rare Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year sweeper, Sacred Heart met Loomis in a championship rematch and prevailed for its first title in program history.
But with Wilkerson now at Towson, her wide-ranging team impact will be irreplacable. Ava Curto's graduation as a top two-way guard also leaves a major hole. So how will Sacred Heart shift and build its championship defense?
Here's what to expect as they pursue a second straight title.
MORE TEAM PREVIEWS: Berkshire |Newman | Hoosac
State of the program
Sacred Heart has been building towards a championship for some time, but the real breakthrough happened two years ago. That squad, which included Wilkerson, Curto and current Arkansas guard Oushy Salem Hassan, got to the Class A final and took a dominant Loomis Chaffee team down to the wire. That set the stage for last year's 21-7 season.
Sacred Heart is also a rare all-girls school to capture a NEPSAC title. Located in Greenwich, Conn., it follows the theme of most NEPSAC Class A schools as some of the oldest and most traditional when it comes to academic and athletic balance.
The head coach
Ayo Hart has been at Sacred Heart for the last 10 years, bringing the girls program up to its current status. In 2024, Sacred Heart won the FAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. That team was led by Hart's daughter, Madison, who won NEPSAC Girls Basketball Coaches' Association (NEPSGBCA) Defensive Player of the Year and who is a current junior at Babson.
Hart is also NEPSGBCA president. Her championship day was a whirlwind last year as she oversaw Super Sunday in addition to coaching her own team. Hart is among the most influential coaches in NEPSAC because of her role. She led the charge orchestrating the annual Scholastic Showcase in June and helped implement the current playoff seeding system.
The star player
It's been a jam-packed 2026 for Lucianna Parrotta. The 6-foot wing captured last year's championship and appeared on our All-Class A First Team after averaging 16.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals as a junior. Parrotta them competed with Mass Rivals on the Adidas 3SSB grassroots circuit, but stepped away midseason to suit up for Puerto Rico at FIBA Americup. She averaged 9.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.4 steals in five games on the U18 national team.
This past month, Parrotta committed to Texas State. Parrotta is No. 8 in our Best of New England 2027 rankings and the top college prospect regardless of age in Class A. She's a high-impact defender with her length and ability to guard most positions on the court. Parrotta is also capable of scoring at all three levels and has improved her handle and off-dribble playmaking.
But this calendar year has tested Parrotta to bounce back from changing teams and down-games to stay focused. Hart believes that experience will benefit Parrotta as a senior leader.
"It's just that mental growth, and that's I think what we're gonna need as a young team," she said. "(If) we're down 10, or we're up against a wall, or it's 6:30 in the morning, or we have had our third game of the week, (we need) someone who has that mental resilience to kind of pull the team together and say, 'Look, we've got this,' and to be able to look them in the eye. And if Luch is saying you've got this, (with) the way the kids all kind of rev for her, I think that will be huge for us."
The under-the-radar players
Sacred Heart threw Addy Sipkin into the starting lineup as a freshman, and aside from injuries that held her out of the playoff run, Sipkin held her own.
A strong, tough point guard who can also pull up and score behind the arc, Sipkin learned how to run an offense via trial by fire. She picked up her first Division 1 offer from Robert Morris this summer while playing grassroots ball with NY Gauchos, where Sipkin has played as more of a forward. Hart is excited about the confidence and freedom Sipkin can play with as a sophomore.
"I feel like last year, there was a little bit of security and knowing, 'If I get stuck, I got Eva right there on my left and Ava on my right, and Luch in front of me.' And now it's like, 'OK, left and right, I got a lot of new faces, and they're looking at me.' This is a kid who rises to challenges, so I feel like that will kind of inspire her, I think, to maybe take more risk and do more things (where) she might have thought she had to defer to the older girls last year," Hart said.
Sipkin has the most starting experience of the underclassmen, but Sacred Heart will need more from its young talent to stay in the championship mix with six total returners. Keep an eye on Adrian Allegretti, another 2029 guard who made a difference with four big 3s in last season's title game.
"If Adrian plays with no fear, I truly think the sky is the limit for her," Hart said. "She's an incredibly smart player. She knows the game so well inside and out. So we're gonna rely on her more heavily to look to score, not just to facilitate to others, (but) to use her size as a guard."
The newcomers
Hart kept the newcomer potential under wraps during our interview. She cited Sacred Heart's school policies around tryouts, which happen in mid-November, and that even returning players are not guaranteed roster spots. But expect some talented younger basketball recruits and multi-sport athletes to fill out the team.
"Depending on how tryouts go, I hope they will be impactful because they are so passionate about the sport and because they put so much time into their skills and their development," she said. "We had a great summer with a lot of new faces and a lot of new kids. I'm excited to see them put on a Sacred Heart jersey for the first time in November."
Our expectations
There's a lot unknown with Sacred Heart because we don't fully understand the picture of newcomers yet. It's also such a young roster; the eight-player team at the Scholastic Showcase included seven underclassmen plus Parrotta. Sacred Heart will need time to grow as a unit and I expect early bumps in the December schedule.
But I trust few in Class A more than Hart and Parrotta. Hart knows how to get the most out of her players and has plenty of experience working with younger cores. Parrotta is the best player and prospect in Class A entering the winter. She'll have the freedom to take over on the court early, but has support in Sipkin and Allegretti to start. As long as those top players stay healthy, Sacred Heart should improve as the winter progresses and find itself back in the title hunt by March.
