It’s going to be a very Merry Christmas for an Archbishop Mitty community that’s centered in San Jose but extends beyond the Strawberry Park neighborhood of the western part of the third largest city in the Golden State.
The Monarchs faithful will be singing carols that celebrate Christmas, but they’ll also be singing the praises of their girls basketball team and the present they delivered last Thursday night in Arizona.
Just like Santa Claus and his reindeer do for kids around the world, head coach Sue Phillips and her Monarchs delivered the biggest prize girls basketball has to offer to their fans and their school when they took down national No. 1 New York Long Island Lutheran of Brookville in a thrilling 73-72 victory at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix.
The win in the nation’s most prestigious girls basketball tournament will almost assuredly vault Archbishop Mitty (7-0) to not only No. 1 in California but No. 1 in the nation.
“I’m incredibly happy for and proud of our players,” Phillips said. “It was very special to witness firsthand the joy and celebration of our team in embracing the underdog role, battling all game long, and finishing the game victorious.”
Phillips admits to not being favored, and some analysts are calling it an upset, while others are saying it was one of the greatest displays of girls basketball ever. In reality, both are somewhat correct.
“Mitty came in as the theoretical underdog as LuHi had blown out many quality opponents this year and is a great offensive team loaded with future Power 5 talent,” said longtime girls basketball analyst Bob Corwin. “Regardless, I doubt LuHi supporters thought this would be easy as a Sue Phillips team is always well prepared.”
Did Mitty come into the matchup as an underdog to a team from the Empire State known perennially for national powerhouses since the advent of modern girls basketball? Programs like Christ the King and Murray Bergtraum? The answer like Corwin said is obviously yes. but there’s a twist.
In some respects Phillips' relationship with her players is a lot like the one old Saint Nicholas has with his reindeer. She gets the absolute most out of her Monarchs each and every time on the floor, win or lose, and they love playing for her.
Over the years she’s had a lead reindeer, and in some seasons like this one, more than one.
Without question the Rudolph for the 2023 Christmas season is sophomore phenom McKenna Woliczko, with the rest of the herd storming the chimneys not far behind led by Donner and Blitzen, aka Connecticut-bound senior megastar Morgan Cheli and senior standout Belle Bramer.
The game was like a tug-of-war back and forth affair, particularly in the fourth quarter when there were 10 lead changes. Phillips orchestrated two late defensive stops on a star-studded Long Island Lutheran, and with ice in her veins Cheli the would-be reindeer calmly deposited two free throws with 16 seconds to play for the game’s final tallies.
It still wasn’t over. Mitty got a stop on a held ball but committed a turnover and Long Island Lutheran got a second possession with 3.2 seconds remaining. However, with the Monarchs swarming on defense the desperation shot they gave up to Michigan-bound senior Syla Swords wasn’t close to touching iron.
“I enjoy the opportunity of playing on the big stage,” said Woliczko, who is only 15 years old but talks with and shows the maturity of a much older young woman. “I get nervous for every game regardless of the level but once I’m out there I just play.”
And did she play.
Woliczko finished with 22 points and eight rebounds against Long Island Lutheran and earned the MVP of the Vincent Cannizzaro Division, the top division of the nation’s top tourney. In four games McKenna had 91 points and was the only player in the Cannizzaro Division to have at least 20 points in all four games of the TOC.
Prior to the game many analysts felt the 6-foot-2 Woliczko would be overmatched going up against Long Island Lutheran post and 6-foot-5 senior Notre Dame-bound Kate Koval. Not only did she hold Koval to nine points, in two other TOC contests she dominated Baylor-bound Miami Country Day senior post Kayla Nelms in a 62-35 Monarchs rout, and did the same guarding Duke-bound Crestwood center Tobie Fornier in a solid 69-55 win over the top girls prep program in Canada.
“All those girls are really great players, and I love Tobie,” Woliczko said. “It was definitely fun playing against the best girls in the country. These are the players I’ll be facing in college.”
Phillips pretty much summed up her budding superstar’s performance.
“McKenna did more than hold her own on the defensive end, and shined on the offensive side of the ball,” Phillips said. “Offensive boards, tough finishes around the rim, run outs in transition, climb the latter on the catch and finish, mid range money all four games.”
The always steady Cheli had a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Long Island Lutheran and was an easy choice for the all-tournament team.
“Morgan was paramount to our success,” Phillips remarked. “Mo was our floor general, play maker, made key baskets and had an abundance of assists, double digits in all four games.”
The third Monarchs player to make all tournament was the Lehigh-bound Bramer. She finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
“Belle was a defensive catalyst and stopper for us,” Phillips said. “She also chipped in on the glass, and hit some timely baskets from mid-range and around the rim.”
A fourth Mitty player to hit double-figure scoring against LuHi was Bucknell-committed Elana Weisman with 11 points plus five rebounds.
“Elana averaged double figures over the course of four games,” Phillips said. “She drained timely three-pointers, crashed the boards, and has been a consistent perimeter threat all season long.”
In fact, a three-pointer and a three-point play on a layup by Weisman, both coming late in the fourth quarter were keys to the win.
Two other players Phillips wanted to mention that played well at the TOC are sophomore wing Emma Cook and freshman point guard Tee McCarthy.
For Long Island Lutheran (9-1), senior Lauryn Swann led the way with 18 points, Swords had 16 points and eight rebounds, USC-committed senior Kayleigh Heckel had 17 points, and sophomore Savannah Swords added 12 points and six rebounds.
An interesting fact is unofficially Mitty had a 39-29 rebounding advantage against the bigger and taller Crusaders lineup.
While it might have been considered an upset it was more like a coming out party for Phillips and Mitty. Yes, the 31-year veteran coach has twice won Gold Medals as a head coach for Team USA, and yes Phillips is being inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame next year along with Maya Moore.
The difference is the Long Island Lutheran win, in what was a display of athleticism, skill and all out determination by the players, strategic coaching by both coaches, was in prime time in front of a national audience on ESPNU.
Corwin, who chairs the committee that makes the all tournament selections at the TOC, pretty much echoed what we saw.
“For talent, shot making skill, competitiveness and intensity, the game was top of the chart featuring two of the very top high school teams in the USA,” said longtime girls basketball analyst Bob Corwin. “Truly an instant classic!”
“On paper, LuHi had more firepower but Mitty was stronger defensively and on the glass on this occasion,” continued Corwin. “This was probably the difference be it a narrow one. To LuHi's credit, they were forced to make more difficult shots to keep pace and they did except failing to make the last one.”
Admittedly we watched the game on the big screen and found it amusing that on the cable television channel guide it said “boys high school basketball” listed for the time slot, but if that brought in more viewers so be it because this game raised some dust when comes to the awareness of just how good girls basketball can be.
Although Mitty had to have depth to beat Long Island Lutheran, and they did with seven Monarchs players scoring compared to five for the Crusades, in the end it was Cheli and Woliczko and the defensive strategy of the math teacher that provided the difference.
For the versatile Cheli, her talents are starting to come to full fruition after missing almost all of last season with a foot injury, including a TOC quarterfinal loss to Long Island Lutheran. She caught the eyes of college coaches like Tara VanDerveer of Stanford and Gino Auriemma of the Connecticut program she eventually committed to, and that says it all. Woliczko garnered the MVP honors but more than one analyst we spoke with felt Cheli was the difference maker against the girls from New York.
Even not totally at full strength, Cheli showed what she could do at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento last March, but with Mitty losing a heartbreaker to Etiwanda in the state CIF Open Division championship, there was no spotlight. Cal-Hi Sports put a special note on its all state team about her and what she did, but it also said she didn’t have enough games played to be selected as much as they would have liked to put her on the first team. Now, after seeing what she did in Phoenix everyone interested in girls basketball in the entire nation knows what she can do on the court. Cheli has definitely put herself on the early season radar screen as a top candidate for Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year.
“It means a lot that we were able to play in front of a national audience,” said Cheli, who wanted to talk more about the team than herself. “That being said we strive to bring the same amount of passion, competitiveness and energy to every game we play in.”
The superlatives for Woliczko didn’t just start coming at the TOC last week. This past summer she was a member of the USA Basketball U16 team that won a Gold Medal at the 2023 FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico. She was named a member of the 2023 FIBA Americas U16 Championship All-Star Five, and the only player analysts felt was better was MVP Jerzy Robinson, now of Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth. Now, after amazingly winning the MVP in Phoenix as a 15-year old sophomore, Woliczko looks poised to add a Cal-Hi Sports State Sophomore of the Year honor to her selection as last year’s State Freshman of the Year, and she is definitely a candidate for Ms. Basketball along with Cheli.
And what about the math teacher?
What some girls basketball fans don’t know is besides being one of the greatest coaches in the history of girls high school basketball, Phillips, who could have gone on to coach college, and who had a short stint as an assistant at Cal, is content teaching math and coaching at her alma mater.
After Christmas Mitty will be heading to Oregon to play in the three-game Nike Holiday Classic in Portland.
It doesn’t take a math wizard to add up the career wins Phillips has since taking the Monarchs helm for the 1993 season. With the win over Long Island Lutheran the veteran Phillips is sitting on 796 career coaching wins. If her Monarchs win the three games in Portland starting with a Texas No. 10 DeSoto team that has a 70-46 loss to Long Island Lutheran, but also has a 55-52 win over an Etiwanda team that was ranked No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings before suffering the loss, Phillips will be poised to get career win No. 800 on January 4 when Mitty opens West Catholic Athletic League play on the road at cross-town Presentation.
The odds are Phillips will be getting to 800 wins sooner than later and when she does, according to the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book the venerable veteran will join three other coaches with 800 career coaching wins led by all-tine leader Kevin Kiernan of Mater Dei-Santa Ana who currently has 884 victories.
For Woliczko, who commutes almost 50-miles each way from her home in San Bruno to San Jose to play for Phillips, and who is one of the top softball players in the state as well, the sky is the limit. Not only does she relish playing for Phillips and with Cheli as arguably the current top 1-2 combination in the state, she has even bigger plans.
“Having the opportunity to play with Morgan this entire year will be special,” Woliczko said. “She is such an amazing passer that gets me the ball at the correct time, and she knocks down big shots like her free-throws that won the championship game at the TOC. She is such a fierce competitor and I’m glad we’re on the same team.”
“My ultimate goal is to win a gold medal in the Olympics,” McKenna remarked. “Part of that was is being able to play for Team USA at an early age. When I decided to execute that plan I knew there was only one program in the country I wanted to play with.”
“Playing for Coach Phillips is amazing,” Woliczko continued. “Her coaching USA is incredible and invaluable experience. She gave me a plan to make the U16 team and we were able to execute that plan in detail, and I made the team and won a gold medal.”
“Coach Phillips means the world to me and she is an amazing mentor,” said Woliczko in conclusion. “I enjoy my commute. It lets me get to do homework, or simply reflect on the amazing opportunities Archbishop Mitty and Coach Phillips provide.”
Right now Mitty is sitting on top of the girls basketball world. However, there’s a whole bunch of unfinished business left if the Monarchs are going to erase the disappointment of a last-second loss to Etiwanda in state CIF Open Division title game last year, win a seventh CIF state championship, and a first in the Open Division.
“We are collectively still a work in progress,” responded Phillips to where this team rates with her other top teams. “We have the potential to be one of the best teams in Archbishop Mitty women’s basketball history. Right now it’s one practice or game at a time and relishing the opportunity to improve each time we step out on the court. The past and the future have no bearing on the present. We will maintain our focus on the here and now and strive to achieve our standards of energy, execution and efficiency.”
