41-0: North Hills Middle School girls undefeated for 2 years in basketball

Last season’s North Hills Middle School seventh-grade girls went undefeated on the basketball court.

Coach Jason Pirring wasn’t necessarily expecting a repeat for the players as eighth graders.

“This year, we had the bull’s-eye on our back,” he said. “Everybody knew. A lot of coaches came up before the game and said, ‘Hey, anyone get you yet?’”

He generally declined to answer, not wanting to provide opponents with extra incentive.

But a Feb. 5 win over Shaler secured another perfect season for 2023-24, boosting North Hills’ two-year record to 41-0.

“It was a challenge, but we went through it as a team, and stuck together mentally and physically,” point guard Zoe Devlin said. “And I think we did a pretty good job, game by game.”

Many of the eighth graders have been teammates on various scholastic and traveling squads for several years, with Pirring at the helm throughout guiding his oldest daughter, Lucy, and friends.

“I think it was fun, playing that long with everyone,” Lucy said, adding somewhat of an understated comment about their coach: “I guess he’s fine.”

Her dad, a former boys varsity coach at Shaler Area High School — that’s where he teaches — seeks to instill a strong sense of self-esteem in his younger charges.

“I tell these girls all the time, I want them to be proud of wearing the North Hills Indians jersey when we go onto the floor,” he said. “And I want to make sure other teams know that when you play us, you’re not going to get an easy game.”

That became evident as the victories piled up to start the seventh-grade season.

“We were about 15-0, and I came home and talked to my wife and said, ‘I think we can do this. I think we can run the table, but I don’t want to mention it to the girls. I don’t want them to get all worked up,’” Pirring recalled.

To go undefeated, North Hills had to beat Pine-Richland in the finale.

“Three of our starters fouled out of the game, against a really good team. We were never leading the whole game,” the coach said. “And I kept telling them, ‘Just relax. We’re going to win this. We’re fine.’ And we tied it with a few seconds left going into overtime.”

With the OT triumph came cheers from a healthy home crowd.

“We made it a big deal. We really advertised it like crazy, and I never saw a middle school gym that packed,” Pirring said. “And I told the ladies, they created this culture. They made this happen, not me. They did. They’re the ones making people come to see them play.”

He mentioned some challenges in the eighth graders’ keeping the winning streak alive, including an overtime contest at Butler where Emmy Schall came through in the clutch.

“She made a big foul shot at the end of that game,” her coach said.

For Emmy’s part, a favorite memory from middle school is her sinking her very first three-point shot.

“It was a buzzer-beater, so I just decided to throw it in the air. And it happened to go in,” she said.

Her coach recalls, too.

“When she made her first one, it looked like she just won the lottery,” he said. “She’s actually a really good shooter, and it took me how many years to finally tell her, ‘You can shoot three-pointers. You’re allowed.’”

In addition to coaching Lucy, Pirring leads teams on which his other daughters play: Maggie, who’s in sixth grade, and Nellie, fourth grade.

“When all three of them wanted to get into basketball, I realized what that means to me: Goodbye, winter,” he acknowledged. “I’ll be constantly on a basketball court.”

Other members of this year’s eighth-grade squad are Georgia Krogmann, Maddison Kuhn, Mallory Lutz, Scarlett McCarthy, Jordan Palmer, Lauren Patsilevas and Haylie White. The assistant coach is Sierra Seneta.

“We definitely had some ups and downs, but I kept on pushing them to the highest level I possibly could to get them ready for varsity basketball,” Pirring said. “I feel that the future of North Hills girls basketball is bright.”