Dec 2, 2022 4 min read

Focusing on the next play, the next game or whatever upcoming challenges and objectives present themselves is what Trinity High School girls basketball coach Kathy McConnell-Miller and her staff preach for the Hillers to focus on.

No focusing on things outside of the Hillers’ control.

Forget the rear-view mirror and continue full steam ahead.

But history sometimes tells us a story of what to expect – or at least somewhat anticipate – could happen. And if that history tells us anything about Trinity, it’s that success for the program is the precedent.

One of the most consistent programs over the last decade, the Hillers have made the WPIAL playoffs nine years running. In those nine years, they’ve won more than 17 games all but one time. The combined record since 2014 is 173-58.

“I completely credit that to our feeder program,” said McConnell-Miller, who was hired as the head coach around the middle of the incredible stretch of success. “Kristen Laseko (in charge of the youth program) does an exceptional job with the player development. Coming to the high school level made me realize how important that was. So many coaches in our feeder programs have done an exceptional job. Our staff is a recipient of that. We are handed some pretty talented players.”

Talent starting with former Observer-Reporter Players of the Year Sierra Kotchman, Riley DeRubbo, Courtney Dahlquist and Alyssa Clutter, the latter last season. Not to mention the countless other players that have fueled the sustained success.

Win. Reload. Then win some more.

Despite the loss of the ultra-athletic Clutter to graduation – she now starts as a freshman at North Alabama – the Hillers return four starters from a team that went 18-7 a season ago. They lost on a near half-court heave to McKeesport in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals and took District 3 champion Gettysburg down to the wire in the opening round of the PIAA tournament before a two-point loss.

“I never feel like when I approach a year it’s about replacing somebody,” McConnell-Miller said. “When you look at the points, rebounds, steals and just the overall energy Alyssa brought, you have to do it by a committee.”

That committee starts with dependable senior guard Eden Williamson, who has been in the starting lineup dating all the way back to parts of her freshman season. Williamson averaged 15.3 points and 4.2 assists last year to land on the Observer-Reporter’s all-district second team.

An onslaught of juniors, each of whom started last year, also return in Maddy Roberts, Macie Justice and Ruby Morgan. Roberts led the group with slightly more than nine points and seven rebounds per game. Justice averaged 8.3 points and Morgan was just shy of eight points per game.

Sophomore Sam Horne, the only player standing above six feet on the Hillers’ roster, will help on the interior.

Trinity will also rely on a deep, athletic bench – 13 of the 18 players on the roster are multi-sport athletes – to impose its up-tempo style.

“The multi-sport athletes just bring such versatility,” McConnell-Miller said. “We had so few players in other sports that we couldn’t even enter a fall league. When you have kids coming in with different skill sets it allows us to play in so many different ways.”

McConnell-Miller hopes the leadership of Williamson and fellow senior Kristina Bozek, a Central Connecticut State softball commit, will help the Hillers advance further in both the district and state tournaments. That, and becoming a better shooting team to help finish down the stretch of games will be keys for the Hillers.

“There are a lot of talented teams in 5A,” McConnell-Miller said. “There are probably 10 teams, that if they had a good summer, are going to be a challenge. Anybody could get beat any given night.”