Toohey: In a year of COVID, a banner year for Springfield

SPRINGFIELD >> There are no championship banners hanging in the Blue Gym at the recently opened, Springfield High School.

Don’t worry, it’s not an oversight. Getting the sparkling, state-of-the-art building up and running in the middle of a school year was the first priority. Adding amenities such as championship banners and the logos for all 12 Central League schools had to take a back seat.

Besides, a shiny new facility deserves pristine banners. New ones are on order for championship teams, individual state champs, 1,000-point members and 100-win wrestlers and should be up in a few weeks, athletic director Glenn Mallon said.

And when those banners are raised, there will be one more to order, after the Cougars claimed their second straight District 1 Class 5A title and third in the last five years with a 46-39 over Central League rival Harriton Wednesday night.

As with most championship banners, it will just reflect the year, not what the team had to go through to compile a 20-0 record, win a league and district championship in the same year for the first time in program history and to do it in the middle of a global pandemic as the Cougars have. It will not list the sacrifices the players and coaches were willing to make just to have a season.

They wore masks in practice and games and followed all the other safety protocols. It was the price the team was willing to pay to have a season.

“Winning a championship is always an awesome feeling,” Springfield coach Ky McNichol said. “But to be able to win two in this crazy year that we’ve all been dealt and for these kids to come out and play their hearts out game in and game out and to give this school and this community something to look forward to and something to cheer about has been truly special.

“Our community has been phenomenal. Our parents have been phenomenal and our kids have been phenomenal. It’s a run that I’m not ready to see end. I’m not ready for these seniors to finish yet. They’ve left a lasting impact on this program. I’m kind of speechless to be standing here with two championships in one year.

“It’s really been special and it’s given me hope in a really tough time and it’s given this community hope in a really tough time. It gave us something to look forward to and smile about.”

The really special part is that the Cougars got to win both the league and district championships on their home floor, not at neutral sites. But in this year of COVID, and many school districts unwilling to host events that do not involve their teams, it was decided that game would be played at the home court of the higher seeded team, unless that gym was not available.

Springfield benefitted from that. It played all six of its playoff games, three in the Central League tournament and three in districts, in their new gym.

“We got to cut down our own nets,” senior Rachel Conran said. “To be able to do it in front of our home crowd made it even more special.”

And, of course, the Cougars did it their way, with defense. Springfield came into the game allowing 32.6 points per game, holding 11 opponents to 35 points or fewer and six to less than 30 points. It’s not easy to get any team to buy into that kind of defensive philosophy, but that’s what McNichol has done in her seven years as head coach.

And even though Alexa Abbonizio scored 14 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter when the Rams made a run in an attempt to win its first district title, it was Springfield’s defense that made sure that didn’t happen.

Senior Mikayla Cox stepped into the lane and took a charge from Harriton’s Annie Aspesi to keep the Cougars in front, 42-36 with just under three minutes to play. Harriton had one basket after that, a 3-pointer by Annie Aspesi with 48 second left.

“Coach always tells us that if you’re not going to play defense, you’re not going to win championships,” Cox said. “This shows us that she was right.”

The sacrifices, the willingness to play defense, those are things that will never appear on a championship banner, but what make hanging them possible.

“This team has written an incredible story,” McNichol said. “To have the mentality that we refuse to lose and we’re not going to let anybody walk in here and stop us. I use the Kobe Bryant quote. ‘Dear basketball, we ask for your hustle and they gave us their hearts.’ It became more than basketball. It became something for this community to smile about. For me, as a coach, I’ve had some incredible runs at Springfield and this is right up there with all of them.”

To contact Terry Toohey email ttoohey@delcotimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @TerryToohey.