Emmaus High School has a long history of success in many of the 23 sports that District 11 has to offer for both boys and girls.
Despite sustained success in the 1960s and 1970s and another strong run at the turn of the century, girls basketball is not often thought of as one of those dominant sports for the school’s athletic department.
Three senior starters, two dynamic guards and a new coach changed all that as the Green Hornets secured 25 wins, including 22 consecutive spanning three different months, and the program’s first championship in 18 years to earn The Morning Call’s team of the year honors for the 2024-25 season.
“To end my basketball career with this just feels really special,” senior captain Emma Naccarato said. “It gives me one last hoorah to end my career.”
Beyond the five starters mentioned above and the new leadership taking over, Emmaus received contributions from all 24 players who compiled the varsity and junior varsity roster on its way to a season none of them will soon forget.
Avon Mack, the first-year coach and The Morning Call’s coach of the year, said it himself when discussing his gratitude for the honor he received as the area’s top head coach.
“Not one coach of the year has ever come out without great players. Without them, this isn’t possible,” Mack said. “It’s an amazing accomplishment, but if anybody asks how it was accomplished, I’d have to say all 24 [players] and an amazing staff. I look at it more as a coaching staff award than just me.”
“Being team of the year and having the coach of the year is a really great feeling and everyone on this team contributed in some sort of way,” senior center Cassie Doemling said. “For years to come, people will remember what happened this season.”
The new regime needed less than two months to set the tone for what would be a special season as the Green Hornets topped all local competition at the famous A-Town Throwdown at Cedar Beach Park at the end of July.
Even without a trio of eventual all-area selections, Emmaus battled the heat and fell just short of PIAA 4A runner-up Lansdale Catholic in the tournament’s championship but not before sending a message to the area that things would be different this season.
It didn’t take long in the regular season for the Green Hornets to double down on that message as they ended a pair of losing streaks against two perennial powers, Nazareth and Easton, that lasted more than a decade.
The first drought-buster, a second-half comeback to defeat Nazareth for the first time in 18 years, helped Emmaus improve to 3-0 and provided one of the first realizations that this group was capable of achieving everything they set their mind to in the summer.
“When I really knew we were going to do so well this season was when we beat Nazareth for the first time in a while,” senior captain Sofie Laird said. “We all played together so well and were hitting shots, and it was just a really good experience. I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be a good season.’”
The first and only loss of the regular season followed less than 24 hours later leading to an entire season’s length of consecutive wins ranging from Dec. 10 through the EPC Tournament in the middle of February.
The Green Hornets posted more wins in a row (22) than any other conference foe registered for the entire season with only two Colonial League teams notching more than Mack’s group enjoyed in a row.
“When you say we won 22 games in a row, that’s kind of hard to believe,” Naccarato said. “But when [Coach Mack] made it seem smaller [by breaking it into smaller increments], that was less stressful for all of us.”
The accomplishment alone might be hard to believe but stars like junior Gabby DeVita and reigning freshman of the year Kayla Snyder in the backcourt made things easier for everyone.
“Playing with Gabby [DeVita] and Kayla [Snyder] makes it so easy because you know that they’re going to bring their best and perform their best, so all you have to do is help them and be their support,” Laird said.
DeVita was the leading scorer on one of the most well-balanced squads in the league, averaging 14.6 points per game, and earned EPC Tri-MVP honors because of it. Her dynamic shot creating, outstanding finishing in the lane and an improved 3-point jumper allowed her to make the leap as one of the area’s premier stars.
One of her finest performances of the season, a 20-point outburst in the EPC Championship against Bethlehem Catholic, gave her the exclusive MVP honors she was looking for as the championship game’s most valuable player.
“Getting Tri-MVP was good, but it was definitely a little weird,” DeVita said. “Winning MVP of the championship game was a good feeling because it finally showed that all my hard work is starting to pay off and people are starting to see what I’m here to do.”
The honor easily could have been won by Snyder who was equally impressive in all facets of the championship win over the Golden Hawks and a valuable star alongside DeVita in the best backcourt in the area.
That’s been the case ever since she broke onto the scene last year as the all-area rookie of the year and it only continued on her way to all-area second-team honors in 2025.
“Ever since I came in, those four [seniors] especially have been really welcoming and they made sure that I felt included,” Snyder said. “They showed great leadership, and their encouragement was so big this year.”
That kind of love and camaraderie epitomizes what made this swarm of Green Hornets so special and why the girls basketball banner in the school’s gymnasium will need a remodeling before next season tips off.
“Being able to come in and see that year up there is just going to be a big confidence booster,” DeVita said. “We didn’t do it individually. We did it as a team.
“And that’s what it’s going to take to keep going.”
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.