Springfield-Delco senior Mia Valerio is one of a number of returners. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)
By Josh Verlin
It was an injury that changed the course of not one but two seasons for Springfield (Delco.) girls’ basketball. When junior guard Lexi Aaron went down with a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in the fifth game of the 2021-22 season, the Cougars were left short-handed and without their leading scorer, a significant disadvantage for a team that didn’t have a single senior on the roster.
But instead of folding, Ky McNichol’s team rallied. The Cougars ripped off seven straight wins to begin 2022, went 13-3 in the Central League, won 19 games overall and made it to the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals, where they ran into Catholic League powerhouse and eventual state champs Cardinal O’Hara.
“I think we all grew a lot last year as players and coaches,” said McNichol, in her ninth season coaching the Cougars. “We had to make an adjustment on the fly, we figured it out, how we were going to win basketball games […] We had a bunch of kids step up, fill some roles that we needed to fill, and they figured out a way to win.”