Lower Merion hoopster Sarah FitzPatrick heading to Harcum

Ardmore >> For Lower Merion High School senior guard Sarah FitzPatrick, the answer to her college basketball decision was just two miles down the road on Montgomery Avenue.
FitzPatrick, who received second team All-Central League girls’ basketball honors this winter as well as All-Main Line recognition, will be heading to Harcum College to play basketball this fall.
“Sarah has good size for a guard,” said Harcum women’s basketball head coach Brittany Clark, who watched a few Lower Merion games this winter. “I saw the way Sarah moved, and the way she shot the ball – I was impressed with her fundamentals. I admired Sarah’s work ethic on the floor and being a friend of Mo’s [Lower Merion girls’ basketball head coach Monique Boykins], I asked her recommendation of Sarah’s character, so when she told me that Sarah was a gym rat and was a committed student-athlete, along with her shooting ability, I knew she would fit our culture and wanted to bring her into our program.”
FitzPatrick, who has been a starter for the Aces since her freshman year, is a sound all-around player, having averaged 10 points per game this winter, making 25 treys and averaging two steals per contest.
“Sarah is a hard worker and an underrated defensive player,” said Boykins. “When I started coaching Sarah I was able to identify quickly, that this girl could shoot the ball and she displayed great hand-eye coordination. Sarah is what I call a ‘silent leader’ – she doesn’t say much but she shows you much.”
Since the 2004-05 season, when the Harcum women’s basketball team was the college’s first sports program to participate in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), the Lady Bears have established themselves as NJCAA Division II national power. Harcum has won five NJCAA Region XIX championships, and advanced to the NJCAA National Tournament for the second time this winter. The program has seen dozens of Lady Bears players transfer to four-year colleges to continue their playing careers, and this past fall, boasted a team 3.51 grade-point average.
FitzPatrick’s older sister Annie , a 2014 Lower Merion grad, majored in the Animal Center Management at Harcum and is now a dual marketing and organizational management major at Drexel University.
Sarah, who would like to major in law or criminal justice at Harcum, enjoyed her Lower Merion basketball career. Boykins has been her AAU coach since seventh grade, and came to Lower Merion when FitzPatrick was a sophomore.
“It’s been great having Coach Mo here,” said FitzPatrick. “She’s taught us the fast-paced game, to get up and down the floor quickly.”
Boykins said, “Sarah developed the name, ‘Hot Handz’ while playing with me on the AAU circuit for Team SUCCESS. We played a team from Chicago and Sarah had seven 3-pointers in that game.
“I am so happy that she is going to Harcum. Sarah has set the mark for our program. Now players in the Lower Merion girls’ basketball program can look at Sarah and say, ‘I am playing at the next level!”