Proving that you are never too old to keep playing the game that you love, Chestnut Hill College alumni, Cassie Sebold '22, Lauren Crim '23, and Abbey Spratt '23, took to the court this summer to participate in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's Basketball Summer League. All three had taken part in the league before, but for Spratt and Crim, this was their first time on the other side. The two had joined Sebold in playing for the league as members of the Chestnut Hill College team, even reaching the championship in 2021. The team was ultimately defeated in the finals, falling short against the alumni squad. It was the first of what would be three consecutive titles for the alumni group, with their most recent coming this summer. And after falling short in 2021, the Griffins were on the winning side of things this time.
Sebold, who played high school basketball with USciences alumma and one of the alumni team's organizers, Shannon May, joined the alumni summer league group after she graduated from Chestnut Hill College in 2022. With some openings on the team the following summer, Sebold recruited her two former teammates in Spratt and Crim. And as Crim told Andrew Robinson of The Reporter, "when you're playing with your friends, why wouldn't you keep playing?" For both her and Spratt, the decision to participate in the summer league was an easy one.
After an average season, which saw the alumni go just 4-4, the team, designated as Team Pink this year, really put things into high gear. Their postseason run began with a quarterfinal victory over the Chestnut Hill College undergraduate team, followed by a huge upset of the undefeated Jefferson University undergraduate team. This brought about a championship match against Holy Family University that saw the alumni secure a 65-56 victory en route to their third championship in a row. Sebold was the star of that game, scoring 23 of her team's points including shooting 11-of-12 from the line in the game's final three minutes. In fact, it was Sebold's clutch free throw shooting throughout the entire postseason, that helped lock up the championship for the alumni team as she went 30-for-32 from the line during the last three minutes of each of the three playoff games. Spratt and Crim combined for an additional 14 points, meaning that in all, the Griffins were responsible for 37 of their team's 65 points.
Clearly, the alumni aren't going away in this league and neither is their passion or skill for the game of basketball.
