Ask any coach in the Bay State Conference who’s going to be at the top of the standings and be ready for them to name almost the entire league. In return, they will ask to find a tougher conference to play in.
It’s hard to argue after how successful the conference was in the 2024-25 season. Five teams were in the top-20 for Division I’s power rankings. Seven teams made the playoffs, six made their respective Sweet Sixteens, three in Elite Eight, and then a Final Four representative.
This season, almost every team returns a player from the Conference All-Star teams. Four new coaches join the league looking to either rebuild from the bottom or remain at the top.
1. Braintree
Last season, the Wamps made it to the Final Four for the first time since winning the state title in 2019. After going 10-10 in her first season, Braintree head coach Kelley Macdonald did not expect her team to make a deep run.
“It was a little bit of leapfrog for us to go that far,” she said. “But getting Braintree back to where it should be, one of the powerhouses in D1, is the goal you have. I didn’t think it was going to happen in the second year of my head coaching career.”
Braintree has a big hole to account for with the graduation of Herget Division MVP, center Francesca Spadorcia. She averaged over 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks a game.
Leading the charge will be senior Francesca “Frankie” Mazzini and Eva Downing. Fellow junior, Izzy Rotondo, moves into Spadorcia’s spot at center. She anchors a defense that looks to be more aggressive.
2. Natick
Natick head coach Oryx Cohen saw a 12-win improvement in his second season, leading the RedHawks to a top-10 seed in the playoffs and an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen.
“Every single one of them outperformed what we thought they would do last season,” Cohen said. “And that’s a credit to them working hard in the offseason, working hard at every practice.”
Though returning one senior, plenty of last season’s contributors are back for Natick, including Kayla Dunlap. Bridget Pole and Denai Williams will be on the perimeter as well. Katie McMahon starts at center after splitting time at the position last season.
3. Needham
First-year head coach Lindsay Miller’s team is already facing adversity the first week before the season. Just a few days getting back onto the court, senior captain Annie Camozzi tore her ACL, ending her season before it started.
“It’s a huge loss to lose Annie for sure and we have to just respond with like the way that Annie plays,” Miller said.
The good news, the Rockets return 11 players from the Sweet Sixteen squad that fell to Braintree. While introducing a new system can be challenging for some coaches, having an experienced playoff team has helped Miller transition into the new role.
“They’re experienced. They want to win,” she said. “They want to compete hard so I would say it makes it easier, but more specifically because of the type of kid we have on this team. They are learners and really, really into bought into doing well.”
Among the returners who will be tasked with filling Camozzi’s shoes are Hannah Levine and Eva Andrews, who made the Bay State Conference All-Star First Team and Honorable Mention team, respectively, last season.
Levine will likely handle point guard duties while Andrews, a Bowdoin-commit, will provide a two-way presence inside the paint.
After playing smaller roles last season, juniors Aislin Flaherty, Lila Jantzen, and Lacey Williams expect to be important pieces as well.
“It’s going to be about balance,” Miller said. “It’s going to be about our defense and being able to play together versus chopping apart Annie’s 20 points a game and distribute them to different people.”
4. Newton North
It would be hard to find a team that’s bringing back as many minutes as Newton North. The Tigers return 11 players, four of which were starters.
After a teachers’ strike disrupted head coach Todd Sundstrom’s first season leading the Tigers, the team finished 12-8 last season and earned a the No. 18 seed in the playoffs.
Allie Danis will be one of the top playmakers in the conference. With interest from schools like Bentley and MIT, her coach Todd Sundstrom says her basketball IQ is unmatched.
“I can put her lots of different places,” Sundstrom said. “In a timeout, she has very insightful comments, what she’s seeing on the floor, so we make adjustments almost together. She is like having an assistant coach on the floor.”
The one starter who graduated from last season was Devon Burke. A conference all-star, she averaged over 17 points a game.
Senior Nikki Rao expects to take a step forward as one of the top shooters on the team. She scored 14 points in the team’s playoff win over Belmont. She typically joins Danis and other at the YMCA to practice before school begins.
Sophomore Annabelle Wardley, who started 22 games as a freshman returns to the starting lineup as well. Without Burke patrolling the paint, its going to be a group effort to make up the scoring.
“That’s the excitement of it,” Sundstrom said. “Is just there’s always somebody since I’ve coached that steps up and takes next level. That fills these gaps. I don’t think it’s going to be one person.”
With a little less height, the Tigers are going to have to rely on their athleticism to score in transition, while stepping up as unit on defense.
“We just got to get gritty, you know, because, I mean, there’s no excuse for not rebound just because we don’t have the length, so we got to work twice as hard with being fundamentally sound in defense and boxing out.”
5. Walpole
Bella Bingham is set to lead Walpole in her senior year.
A Bay State Conference All-Star, Bingham averaged 17.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game last season. She is joined by Tori Adams and Kaite McDonald, who both received accolades. Adams, a senior, was also a conference all-star and expects to be a leading scorer.
McDonald, a junior, was an honorable mention. She stepped up in the playoffs when sunk six three’s and finished with 18 points in the Timberwolves’ win over Minnechaug.
In addition to a top-notch trio, Walpole will lean on juniors Riley Halloran and Ryan MacDonnell.
6. Framingham
Framingham returns just six players from last year.
While last season’s team relied on its veterans, this year’s squad has more freshman (four) than seniors (three).
A lot will hinge of the return and health of Grace Hanna. The senior opened as a starter before tearing her ACL the second game into last season.
All returners move from reserve roles to team leaders. After experiencing a deep playoff run, senior Korery Xayasane and juniors Celia Ruddock and Jianna Da Rocha carry the standard into this season.
Don’t be surprised if freshmen see the court this season. Sophie Fresco brings a strong shot from the outside while Jazzy Marshall has the height to help with rebounding.
7. Milton
A captain for the school’s softball team, Victoria Fish, a returning Bay State Conference All-Star, is the leader for a team that could run 12 players deep this winter.
Sophomore Gabbi Vaughan returns alongside Fish in the front court.
Fish’s younger sister, Sophie, is one of eight guards on the team will compete for minutes.
Much like Walpole, the tough schedule benefits Milton in the power rankings. Despite a 7-14 record, the Wildcats were four spots from a play-in game.
“I think one of the keys for this group is them to realize we are good enough to be in the tournament,” Drane said. “It shouldn’t be ‘We hope that we get to play in the tournament.’ That’s for this group, that’s ridiculous.”
8. Weymouth
Leshon Crawford arrives at Weymouth after the Wildcats finished a 0-20 season. A Rockland native, Crawford plans to bring back the culture he remembers from Weymouth.
“We’re going back to the old style. What it means to be Weymouth Wildcat,” he said. “That’ll be our identity trying to rebuild this year. It’s about all those things it takes to get through a game when you’re down 10. It’s handling adversity the right way.”
The Wildcats do return players who were on the team during the last playoff run two seasons ago.
Senior Maggi Cullivan enters her fourth season on the varsity team, now as a captain. Her fellow captains Julia Egan and Molly Linnane return for their third varsity season.
Crawford believes Weymouth was better than what it record showed. Many of the losses came by giving up second half leads.
He doesn’t mind if the rest of the league remembers the record.
“I‘m very excited because I think across the entire league, we’re underdogs, every single week, every single game,” Crawford said. “So I’m kind of excited to take on that underdog mentality and go in and kind of show people what we about it this time around.”
9. Brookline
Last season the Warriors saw a huge improvement from a one-win campaign two years ago. Brookline finished 9-11 and secured a spot in the state tournament before losing to Framingham in the Round of 32.
This season, head coach Kendell Jones hopes to make another step forward.
The team returns Bay State Conference All-Star, guard Nefeli Aga-Kitch. The senior guard play on both sides of the ball will be key for Brookline’s success.
“She’s a good leader, and locks in on defense. She’s a really good all-around player. so we’re looking forward to her having a good successful senior year,” Jones said.
Sophomore Skylar Makalusky made big strides as a freshman last season, making significant scoring contributions in the second half of the year.
“I think she’s comfortable now with taking on a bigger role this year,” Jones said. “She put in the work during the offseason. She looks pretty good at starting off, so we’re pretty excited.”
10. Wellesley
A year after coming within a point of the Elite Eight, Glen Magpiong’s team took a step back last season, going 3-17 and missing out on the postseason.
Junior Maria Gianarikas, a conference honorable mention, leads the team along with co-captain junior Lily Andrews.
