The Penn women's basketball team finds itself staring at the proverbial half-full, half-empty glass this summer.
Nearly all the Quakers' shooting guards are returning this fall, along with junior center Jennifer Fleischer and dynamic underclassmen Joey Rhoads and Monica Naltner.
But Jewel Clark is gone, and has taken her 1,743 career points -- second all-time in Penn history -- with her. Mikaelyn Austin, and her leadership qualities as a team co-captain this past season, are gone as well.
So the task at hand for head coach Kelly Greenberg is to build a team that can contend for what would be an unprecedented second straight Ivy League title.
With the foundation mostly in place, Greenberg will welcome three new players this fall -- all guards -- who will complement the current backcourt and perhaps be ready to step up and take the lead for themselves when the Class of 2007 moves on.
Kimberly Franklin, Brilynne Parrish, and Andrea Wright are the newest additions to the Red and Blue, and Greenberg is excited about their potential -- especially since she feels that they were overlooked by other programs.
And while all five of Greenberg's recruits came from north of Philadelphia, this year's class comes entirely from south of the Mason-Dixon line -- more specifically, the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Franklin was the starting point guard at South Lakes High School in Reston, Va., for her entire high school career, until she blew out her knee at the end of the regular season her senior year. At 5-foot-7, she averaged 8.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game, and was named to the Northern Virginia Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Classic team this past Spring.
Franklin may also continue the tradition of strong Quaker free throw shooters, as she set the South Lakes single-game record with 13 consecutive made free throws in December 2003.
"Kim just brings an all-around solid floor game," Greenberg said.
"Obviously, we have a couple guards in that position, and I think she'll fit in well working with and learning from the ones we already have."
Parrish, a 5-foot-9 graduate of Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, Md., averaged 15 points, six rebounds, and four assists per game her senior year. She captained her team two years in a row, and was first-team All-Montgomery Gazette and Washington Post All-Met Honorable Mention her junior year.
"'Bri' is one of those players I really think was overlooked," Greenberg said. "She has very good size for a guard, can shoot the three, is pretty athletic."
Greenberg described the 5-foot-10 Wright as "the very athletic one of the three."
Wright scored 1,011 points for Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Bowie, Md., and averaged double figures in points every year of her high school career. This past season, she averaged 13 points and 12 rebounds and was a McDonald's All-American nominee.
"I really don't know what position she'll be coming in," Greenberg admitted, adding that she would "see really what she does best and fit her in, whether she'll be a small forward like Jewel or just play a guard spot."
That all three members of the team's class of 2008 hail from the same area is in fact nothing more than coincidence.
"You go in with ideas of 'this is who we're looking for,' and you come out with something totally different," Greenberg said. "The fact that they're all from the same area is really amazing, we didn't focus on that at all. But that's fine, it's a good area of high school basketball."
The Penn coaching staff is certainly familiar with the Washington region, having taken Clark from Waldorf, Md., and junior forward Rachel Wilson from the District of Columbia itself.
With regards to next season, Greenberg acknowledged that the team will look different from how it has in the past, but that the team's philosophy will not be changing much.
"I think we'll still do as a team the same things, but what comes out of that will be different," she said. "We certainly have some girls on our team who really do like to play the up-tempo style and taking that away from them would not be a wise thing- that's what they enjoy."
"There's no one on our team who can make up for [Clark's graduation] for themselves," Greenberg said. "We certainly have some experienced players in Karen [Habrukowich] and Cat [Makarewich], Katie [Kilker], Joey Rhoads, Monica and Fleischer. All of them stepping up a little bit can maybe heal that gap that Jewel's graduation has made."
