Heritage’s Aronsky achieves rare title streak
Of the thousands of girls’ basketball players in Florida this year, only one — American Heritage’s Daniella Aronsky — has an active streak of four consecutive state titles as a starter.
Heritage’s Wyche twins — University of Florida signees Taliyah and Tatyana — have also won four consecutive state titles, but Patriots coach Greg Farias said they were backups as freshmen in 2018 when the program won its first state championship.
In addition, Patriots junior Sydney Shaw has already won five state titles, including four with Miami Country Day. But she is not on an active multi-year streak since MCD came up a bit short in 2020. Shaw then transferred to Heritage.
All of that leads back to Aronsky, a 5-7 senior point guard who went 4-for-4 on free throws in the final two minutes as the Patriots defeated Palm Bay 41-36 in the Class 5A state final on Feb. 27. Aronsky has a big game and perhaps an even bigger brain as evidenced by her stellar 5.25 grade-point average. She has received straight A’s while taking Advanced Placement classes, and she scored a 1490 out of 1600 on her SAT.
Aronsky’s academic skill — along with her passing, shooting and defense — attracted the attention of the Ivy League, including Cornell and Penn. But COVID-19 left colleges with fewer scholarships available, and Aronsky ended up at Division III Emory University in Atlanta.
“Yes, I’m disappointed, but I love Emory,” Aronsky said when asked about not getting the chance to compete at the D1 level. “Emory has great medical and business schools, and those are two majors that interest me.”
Aronsky believes she would’ve been a D1 signee had she played travel ball. But she spent the summer of 2019 working on her game as opposed to playing the AAU circuit. In 2020, which Aronsky thought would be her breakout summer, the travel-ball season was cancelled due to COVID.
But that doesn’t diminish Aronsky’s talents.
Shaw, who has held a scholarship offer from the Miami Hurricanes since sixth grade and is now in high demand as a national recruit, spent the entire 2020-21 season going up against Aronsky in practice on a daily basis.
“She doesn’t give you space to think,” Shaw said of Aronsky’s pressure defense. “She studies you and picks up on your tendencies, and the angles she takes are very good.
“In games, her defense frees us up. We know ‘Dani’ is going to play her behind off. She is going to get in the other team’s heads, and that allows us to turn them over.”
Farias, who has been the coach for Heritage’s entire run of four state championships, said he would always put Aronsky on the other’s team best perimeter scorer.
Among the elite players Aronsky has guarded the past couple of years are Pompano Ely’s Ja’Leah Williams, a Hurricanes signee; St. Thomas Aquinas’ Samara Spencer (Arkansas signee); Miami Norland’s Jaiyah HarrisSmith (Ole Miss); Jacksonville Bishop Kenny’s Jasmyne Roberts (Hurricanes); and Aquinas’ Bella Lachance (now at Vanderbilt).
Most of the time, Farias said, Aronsky held those players below their averages, which is why she has been named Heritage’s top defensive player for fourconsecutive years.
“She really listens to my game plan,” Farias said. “She knows whether to push a player left or right or to play straight up.”
Aronsky said she prides herself on defense.
“My goal is to disrupt the opposition’s offense,” said Aronsky, who turns 18 this month. “I take it personally when a top D1 player scores on me.”
Offensively, Aronsky is a pass-first guard. As a senior, she was fourth on the Patriots in scoring (10.3) and second in assists (6.7), steals (1.4), three-pointers made (44) and three-point percentage (46.3). She was also No. 1 in free-throw percentage (81).
Heritage finished 25-2, but Farias believes the Patriots would’ve been undefeated had Emani Theodule not suffered a season-ending knee injury in their Nov. 21 opener. Theodule made five threepointers and scored 18 points in that win over Gulf Coast.
But with Theodule out, Aronsky played more shooting guard, sharing playmaking duties with Joey Delancey (team-high 7.0 assists average) and Shaw (team-high 16.7 scoring average to go with 5.0 assists).
Aronsky has shown she is capable in that shooting role. She made six threepointers and scored 18 points in last year’s 67-55 state-semifinals win over Bradenton Southeast.
“I want to do what’s best for my team,” Aronsky said. “Sometimes I [defer] too much, but I love to see my teammates succeed. I love to win.”