Wednesday, January 22, 2025
After a six-year hiatus, Lawrence Woodmere Academy has reignited its girls basketball program with a tight-knit team that proves size isn’t everything in competitive sports.
Led by head coach Ashley Jackson, the squad boasts a promising 2-1 record as of Nov. 22 and a chemistry that goes far beyond the basketball court, Jackson said.
Most of the players have a long-standing history together, having competed on the same AAU — or amateur athletic union — basketball team for years.
“We work harder than everybody,” Mya Brave, a freshman exemplifying the team spirit, said. “We have more fire than everybody. People don’t expect us to come out and win games, but we’ve already won our first two games.”
The team’s unique composition stems from a core group of players who have been competing together since elementary school.
Five of the eight-player roster previously played together in the Level Up AAU basketball program, creating an instant bond that most high school teams take years to develop, Jackson said.
Jackson, who has coaching experience at Nassau Community College and with AAU teams, recognized the potential of this group from the start of the season.
When she received a call about coaching at LWA, she saw an opportunity to keep a group of talented players together.
“These young ladies wanted to play together,” Jackson said. “I knew we could do something special.”
The team’s roster includes players from various Long Island communities, including Roslyn and Amityville.
Despite their small numbers, the players are united by a common goal — to establish LWA as a competitive force in girls’ basketball and to win a championship.
Molly Donohue, another freshman on the team, said that the team has great chemistry, despite being in the first few weeks of the new program.
“We all have really strong chemistry with each other,” Donohue said. “And we have a coach that we trust who will develop us as players.”
Jackson said that the team’s strength lies not just in their basketball skills, but in their approach to teamwork and personal development. In terms of merging a group of AAU players who are familiar with each other, with other students at LWA looking to play, Jackson said it was simple.
“Nobody gets left behind,” Jackson said. “We treat everyone like we’ve known them forever.”
The team practices daily and competes in games weekly, facing opponents like St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip and Stony Brook School in Stony Brook.
Their schedule is ambitious, especially for a program rebuilding after a six-year absence.
Brave noted the joy of building relationships, especially in small school environment.
“Everybody knows each other,” Brave said.
Looking ahead, the team has clear objectives, they said. Beyond winning a championship, they hope to grow the girls’ basketball program at LWA and change perceptions about what a small team can achieve.
Jackson sees this team as a rare opportunity.
“What these young ladies are doing hasn’t been done on Long Island in a really long time,” she said. “A group of AAU players coming together to play at the same school with their longtime coach — it’s something special.”
