Shorter girls thriving in a game where bigger is better

to shoot better. For me, I can’t drive all the time. When I play AAU, players are a lot bigger. If you’re small and try to drive all the time in college, you’ll get blocked. I think you have to know what you can and can’t do.”

Around the WPIAL, some smallish players are making their teams extremely competitive. And some of those small players have a future in Division I basketball.

• Hampton senior Laryn Edwards is 5-6, averages 21 points a game and has signed with Division I Loyola, Md.

• Chartiers Valley sophomore Megan McConnell is 56 and averages 19 points. Robert Morris has offered a scholarship and other Division I colleges are interested.

• Riverside senior Sydney Wolf is 5-5 and averages 17 points, while her 5-6 sophomore sister, Marley, averages 13.

• Trinity’s Alayna Cappelli is 5-5 and recently scored her 1,000th career point.

• Blackhawk sophomore Mackenzie Amalia and junior Mady Aulbach make for one of the WPIAL’s best backourts. Amalia averages 17 and has Division I offers. Aulbach averages 16 and has committed to Youngstown State. Both are 5-5.

“I don’t see it changing for girls, as far as being a spot for the smaller player. I have college coaches calling all the time about our guards,” said Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico. “I think it is harder for a smaller guy to make it. I think the colleges look at size more for guys. But I don’t think height matters as much at the next level for a girl. … I think it’s amazing the way some of these small kids can score and the ways they can score. I think as long as they work hard and have a skill set, they’re going to get looked at.”

Small female players have had big impacts for years at the WPIAL level. Pitt coach Suzie McConnell Serio was a legendary player at Seton LaSalle in the 1980s who went onto play in the Olympics and in the WNBA. She was 5-3 comingout of high school.

“If Chassidy Omogrosso was 5-11, she would probably be playing at UConn,” said Lodovico. “That’s how skilled she was. To get to that top level, I think you have to be a little bigger. But she was just so skilled her size didn’t matter.”