Road to a title: LI Lutheran girls basketball prepared to be the best by playing the best

For the Long Island Lutheran girls basketball team, home is where your teammates are.

Long Island Lutheran challenged itself with one of the country's most difficult schedules, full of rigorous travel demands. Reason being, LuHi felt it had a chance to be the best. And the Crusaders proved that throughout the winter.

First, LuHi won the Nike Tournament of Champions, considered one of, if not the, best regular-season tournaments in high school girls basketball, in Mesa, Arizona on December 22. Three months later, the Crusaders won their first state Federation title since 2015 with a 99-58 victory over St. Mary’s in the Class AA final at Shaker High School on March 26. They were then invited to the GEICO Nationals, and reached the final but lost to Montverde Academy, 60-54.

It was a season of firsts for the Crusaders. First time winning the Nike Tournament. First time ranked No. 1 in the country. First time invited to a national postseason championship. First Federation title in eight years. But the best may yet to come for LuHi, which accomplished all this without a senior in its starting lineup.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” coach Christina Raiti said. “We’ve accomplished a lot of amazing things. We’ve had a lot of program firsts this year but I think we’re breaking new boundaries. I think we’re setting new ceilings of what great looks like for the program.”

And much of that stems from the team’s demanding travel schedule. LuHi played its first 13 games on the road against teams from seven different states over seven weeks. LuHi had December weekend tournaments in Virginia and Washington D.C. before the trip to Arizona.

Although the travel can be challenging at times while balancing school work, the student-athletes loved the opportunity to be together nearly 24 hours a day on some trips. They would switch roommates every trip to get the chance to learn about more teammates. That chemistry off the court translated on it in LuHi’s championship-filled 23-3 season.

“Just talking to each other helped a lot,” said Kate Koval, a junior forward/center who scored a tournament-record 38 points in the semifinals of the GEICO Nationals. “You could see the difference on the court when you understand each other and one another’s emotions. You know what’s happening in each other’s lives so that definitely translates on the court.”

“I think for a lot of us, it’s just what we’ve grown up around,” said Kayleigh Heckel, a junior guard. “A lot of us have played basketball for as long as we can remember, so it’s just been a part of our normal. It’s also something we love doing so it’s not much of a sacrifice, it’s more of just what you enjoy doing.”

Raiti said the team runs road trips like a college program. Meals, film study, practice and study hours are all scheduled. Electronics get collected at night. The team was extremely diligent in its preparation — but that doesn’t mean it was 100% serious all the time.

They blasted Taylor Swift on the way to the Nike Tournament of Champions final, a game broadcasted on ESPNU. Dealing with additional lights and cameras became second nature for the Crusaders. They understood the magnitude of each moment but wanted to soak in every second of it.

“I think those are really the memories they are going to take with them,” Raiti said. “Obviously the wins are great and it’s nice to celebrate but I can’t think of a group that genuinely loves each other more.”

“We’re definitely a different group but we genuinely love each other,” Heckel said. “We hug each other whenever someone leaves a room, it’s just a really important thing that you can’t fake. So I think that’s also been a really big part of our success.”

LuHi needed its depth at times during the season. One example was Olivia Jones, a freshman from Brentwood who played limited minutes off the bench. But in the Federation semifinals when LuHi was struggling to create separation against South Side, Jones made a crucial steal for a layup and the team reacted as if Jones sank a walk-off three-pointer.

“That’s bigger than anything,” Raiti said. “The fact that they can be so excited for a defensive stop for one of our freshmen who hasn’t averaged a ton of minutes and name hasn’t been in the front of things and picture hasn’t been everywhere this year. But I think that’s what traveling does and I think that’s what playing the toughest schedule in the country does and that’s what the together time does. It creates opportunities like that.”

Before the season, players wrote their goals on a whiteboard. For Syla Swords, her main goal was clear from Day 1. Winning the school’s first Federation title since 2015. She had 27 points in the championship game.

“We knew it was ours,” said Swords, a junior guard. “We knew we were New York’s team and we knew everything we worked for was going to show so just being able to win that state championship was really important for us and something we’ll never forget.”