Five seniors – teammates and friends – are the heart and soul of a Souderton squad that repeated as SOL Continental Conference champions. (Article sponsored by B&T Landscape and Patio Design.)
By Mary Jane Souder
“SHYBA Elite”
Jeff Gower – head of security at Souderton – smiles as he greets the basketball team’s five seniors, and while his reference might not mean a lot to most, it actually represents the modest beginning of a senior class that is the winningest in program history.
Megan Bealer, Curran O’Donnell, Megan O’Donnell, Erica Stephens and Megan Walbrandt have been together since they joined forces on their SHYBA Elite team in fifth grade. Back then, there was no talk of winning championships. Or even winning games for that matter. No mention – despite their early success – that they might be something special if they stuck together.
“At least for me, it wasn’t like – ‘This is going to be our high school team, and we’re going to be good,’” Walbrandt said.
“It was more playing in the moment,” Stephens said. “It just kind of happened. We ended up all playing basketball.”
The fact that they ended up being something special shouldn’t come as a surprise, although winning their second consecutive SOL Continental crown after a 14-year drought between titles is impressive. Especially considering the team lost four of its top six players from last year’s league and district championship squad to graduation.
“I didn’t think we’d be this good, but I didn’t think we would be bad,” Walbrandt said. “I knew we were going to compete with the best teams, but obviously to have a season like this is amazing.
“It’s a new team, but it’s not really different for us because we’ve been playing together since sixth grade.”
“I think we all knew it was going to be fun because we’ve been playing together for so long,” Bealer said. “It’s not going to be anything new.
“We knew each other as players,” Curran O’Donnell said. “So we were able to work with each other and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
“We just jell so well together,” Megan O’Donnell said. “We know each person – what shots they like, what moves they like. We don’t even think about it. We just know.”
According to coach Lynn Carroll, the seniors are not especially impressed with their own accomplishments.
“They take it stride,” the Indians’ coach said. “There’s not much fanfare, and they do it the right way. They share the ball on offense, we have a different leading scorer every night, and they play tough, determined defense.”
A team without a superstar
They’re an interesting bunch – the players that comprise this year’s squad. There’s not a superstar on the roster, no one averages more than just over 10.3 points a game, but together – and together is the operative word - they’ve won 20 games and lost just three times during the regular season.
There’s a play – more aptly called ‘the play’ - that in one brief sequence says all anyone needs to know about this year’s squad. Forget the fact that the play resulted in a basket to seal Abington’s fate in a classic non-league showdown. This play – a fast break - isn’t about the outcome but rather the teamwork that has been a hallmark of the Indians’ successful squads the past two seasons.
It began with Curran O’Donnell pulling down the rebound of an Abington miss and was followed by passes to Megan O’Donnell, back to Curran O’Donnell to Mikaela Reese to Megan Bealer and to Megan Walbrandt, who from the top of the circle, found Megan O’Donnell in stride for a layup.
Easily lost in the beauty of the play’s execution is the fact that all five players on the court touched the ball. All five players had a role in the outcome, and that sums up a season that saw the Indians repeat as SOL Continental Conference champions.
“We joked after the game (the win over Pennridge that clinched sole possession of the title) – had people said this was going to happen, I’m not sure how many people would have believed it,” Carroll said. “They have exceeded my expectations, and I’m happy for them. They deserve it.”
This year’s Souderton team has been defined by its teamwork and possesses that special ingredient known as good chemistry. The addition of junior Mikaela Reese to the starting lineup was seamless as was the addition of sophomore transfer Olivia Schneider, a valuable reserve.
“We were so close last year, but we’re still so close,” Bealer said. “Liv (Schneider) is new, but she fit right in. Our practices are just really fun. We can take any moment and just enjoy it.”
Megan O’Donnell stepped into the role of point guard that was occupied by Tori Dowd.
“Megan O’Donnell has made more of a difference than I ever could have imagined,” Carroll said. “She has been consistent for us – great defensively and a threat on offense.”
“Mikaela (Reese) coming into her own after really not getting any varsity experience before this year. Curran O’Donnell was playing well for us last year, and she got injured.
“Other than Megan (Bealer) and Megan (Walbrandt), these kids waited their turn and they are making the most of it. Megan O’Donnell averaged three minutes a game last year, Curran rarely came off the bench, Mikaela was a jayvee player, Erica Stephens – they’ve just been good soldiers and they’ve waited and waited. They deserve recognition.”
SHYBA Elite, Perkasie Knights and Montgomery Fusion: They were in it together
Their history outside of high school extends well beyond their SHYBA Elite playing days. They joined forces on Perkasie Knights on the AAU circuit and more recently played for Montgomery Fusion.
“We were literally with each other all year round,” Walbrandt said. “After SHYBA was over, we went into Perkasie Knights.”
Their SHYBA Elite team developed rivalries that continue today.
“Our biggest rival was Doylestown Elite with Maddie Burke and Izzy Treon because every time we played them it was such a good competitive game,” Bealer said.
Rivalries aside, they invariably found ways to have fun.
“I know that we loved the game, but I think we loved hanging out with each other even more,” Curran O’Donnell said. “It was fun because it was so social for us on the court and off the court.
“We were going out to dinner after tournaments – which we still do.”
“The best was when we would go on overnights,” Bealer said. “Every summer it would be Ocean City, Md., and we would stay in the motels where the rooms were facing each other. We would sneak out and go up to the roof.”
They laugh at the mention of the dance-off that never did result in a winner.
“We split into two teams and had one hour to make the best dance routine,” Megan O’Donnell said. “Each team thought they won.”
Megan O’Donnell was a late arrival on the school scene. The Indians’ fiery point guard went to school at Corpus Christi and opted to join her teammates and friends when it came time to choose a high school in ninth grade.
When she arrived at Souderton, many assumed that Megan and Curran were sisters or – at the very least – cousins, a myth Megan encouraged.
“We tried to do ancestory.com a long time ago,” Curran O’Donnell said. “We put all the information in, and they said you had to pay for it. We had to cancel real quick.”
It was always about more than just basketball for this group.
“It was your time to hang out with your friends,” Walbrandt said. “And you also got to play basketball.”
Bealer surveyed her fellow seniors.
“This is my friend group,” she said.
“Your see us on the court every day together,” Megan O’Donnell said. “We have off practice on Friday, and it’s like, ‘What are we going to do?’”
The question was raised not because they were without options, but rather because they knew they would be doing something together.
The case of the two Megans
There are actually five Megans on this year’s squad – three in the starting lineup. Two of the Megans – Bealer and Walbrandt – represent the lone returning starters from last year’s squad and the only two players who saw significant varsity minutes last year.
“Obviously, having Megan and Megan back is big with all the experience they bring, but how they have approached this year – for them, it could have been ‘Okay, now it’s our turn. Now we’re the ones who get most of the shots,’ but they’ve never been that way, they’ve never acted that way,” Carroll said. “They truly do not care who scores, who’s the leading scorer, and those two have set the tone, without a doubt, for that stuff.”
And if it seems as though it might have been a huge transition for the duo, guess again.
“It’s different because of obviously losing Kate (Connolly), Tori (Dowd), Alana (Cardona) and Sami (Falencki),” Walbrandt said. “It was just the transition of people getting into different roles, and it was easy because the five starters all play (Fusion) AAU together, so it was an easy flow. We already have that team chemistry, so it wasn’t hard.”
“It was – just stay with the game, keep up the intensity,” Bealer said. “This group - I think we have so much energy.
As for those who doubted this year’s squad, the players say they understand.
“We knew from the beginning of the season that teams would look at us differently because of who we lost,” Walbrandt said. “We proved that just because we lost four great basketball players doesn’t mean we’re not good anymore.”
Walbrandt and Bealer will remain teammates for the next four years. Both committed to take their talents to DeSales University, keeping a promise Megan Walbrandt made in a letter she wrote to herself in seventh grade that was placed in a time capsule.
In the letter, Walbrandt wrote, “You met Megan Bealer when you were in fifth grade, and you love hanging out with her. In fact, you will be going to college with her… She knows everything about you and you love her, so make sure she is still your closest friend.”
The duo remain close friends, but it’s about a whole lot more than the two of them.
“This whole team is close,” Bealer said. “Even the girls who aren’t playing. It’s a good environment.”
Here’s to good times
If there’s one thing this team does easily, it’s laugh.
“We could right now have a conversation, and you would have no idea at all what we were saying, but we would be dying laughing because of the memories we’re thinking about and the times we’ve had and the teams we’ve played and all that,” Megan O’Donnell said.
It doesn’t take an inside joke to evoke laughter.
“We have a nickname for every single person on the whole entire team,” Megan O’Donnell said. “And we have different nicknames for coach’s baby.”
There’s Auntie Mo, Grandpappy Walbrandt, Nurse Bealer, Uncle Eric and Cousin Corn.
Drop the cousin, and Curran O’Donnell is best known as simply ‘Corn.’ She explains its origin.
“We went to Chick-fil-A – they ask for your name and they wrote, Kernel,” she said. “And it turned to popcorn kernel and then corn.”
“The whole school knows her name is Corn,” Megan O’Donnell said.
Ask them what has made it work, and they echo similar sentiments.
“We hear other teams yell at each other,” Walbrandt said. “We’re so positive. We know how to talk to each other in a way that works.”
“Everyone supports each other,” Stephens said.
“I think each one of us brings something different,” Curran O’Donnell said. “Which makes the team work.”
“We pick each other up,” Bealer said.
“I think we all know what each person needs,” Megan O’Donnell said. “One person might need criticism, another person needs to be picked up with positivity, and someone else needs to be picked up with something different.”
“We’re all open to hearing it from each other,” Walbrandt said. “It’s not like if Megan said something to me I’d be mad at her. I’d be like, ‘She’s my teammate, she’s my friend.’”
“We can take it,” Bealer said. “I think that’s part of growing up playing with the same group. We’re so comfortable.”
“If something’s not working, we’ll go in the locker room and talk it out, figure it out before coach comes in,” Stephens said.
When they walk away from their final high school season, these seniors will take with them enough memories to last a liftetime. Most will have very little to do with the outcome of games.
“All the inside jokes we have – and playing basketball with my friends,” Bealer said. “Also all the things we do off the court are good memories too.”
“For me, what I’ll remember most is being able to play my favorite sport with my best friends,” Walbrandt said. “I don’t think a lot of people get that opportunity to grow up and for literally six years play with your four best friends.
“I just think that’s special, and that’s what I’ll remember about high school basketball.”
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