Bishop Feehan girls basketball coach Amy Dolores hasn't watched back the entirety of last year's MIAA Division 1 championship game yet. But she has revisited parts — including the final minutes of the heartbreaking, 55-54 loss to Wachusett.
It's still hard to talk about. But graduated senior Charlotte Adams-Lopez (now at Brown) put the game in perspective during a postseason chat with Dolores.
"I was talking to her, and she goes, 'I'm just happy. I know we didn't win, it'd be better if we won, but I'm happy that we got to play for as long as we could together.' And I thought, that's a cool perspective," Dolores said. "I mean, we got to that last game. We got to have as many practices as you could. We got to compete on the big stage again. And of course, it would have been a storybook ending for those seniors to walk out with another state championship, but we just couldn't get it done."
The Shamrocks, one of the state's consistent top programs over the last decade, enter a new chapter. They graduated five seniors who made up the core of a group that went to three straight state finals and won a 2023-24 championship. Here's how they're re-tooling for this winter.
Turning the page
Last year, Bishop Feehan endured spells of misfortune while playing the role of defending champs. Adams-Lopez missed nine regular-season games when she came down with both mono and the stomach flu. Her partner in crime, sharpshooter Maddy Steel (now at Tufts), suffered a double stress fracture in her foot during the playoffs and still played most of the state final.
"We dealt with injuries and illness like we didn't deal with in previous seasons," Dolores said. "And the silver lining of that is we had different kids step up at different points. We had kids that were JV players all of a sudden being the sixth man in the next varsity game because of the way certain illnesses (were timed)."
That's given Dolores some confidence that the upcoming transition year could go more smoothly than expected. But in Dolores' six seasons as head coach, the Shamrocks have always had multiple alpha-type stars at a given time, be it Lydia Mordarski (now at Colby), Camryn Fauria (now at UNH), Samantha Reale (now at Babson) or Adams-Lopez and Steele. Only one starter returns this winter.
"Certainly defining roles for kids (will be the challenge), getting kids to buy into what their strengths are, and also just evaluating as a whole what our team strengths are and really leaning into that," Dolores said. "Because with some of the kids that you named that were future college basketball players, (with) the scoring, there were certain things we didn't have to worry about as much. And so now we're gonna have to really see where people fit best and how those combinations work best for our team."
Mollie Mullen's time has arrived
That one returning starter might be next in Feehan's star pipeline. Mullen has leveled up in each season of high school, first entering the starting lineup as a defense-first sophomore guard, then leading the Shamrocks in rebounding (5.2 per game) and steals (3.2) with a 38 percent 3-point clip as a junior. She also secured a Division 1 commitment to Stonehill this summer.
"Her growth in her game from freshman year to sophomore year, sophomore year to junior year — there's just been incredible strides," Dolores said. "And I think she's making the same kind of jump — maybe even a bigger jump — from last year to this year, in terms of the time she's put in individually. Her strength, speed, and then her individual skills — she's a gym rat. She loves to be in the gym."
Dolores is also Mullen's calculus teacher and says she's noticed significant growth in Mullen's maturity on and off the court. With a giant void in on-court production and leadership, Feehan could heavily on Mullen to carry the torch through another season.
"We graduated, I think, over 40 points per game," Dolores said. "We're going to need someone to fill, or a couple people to step up and fill that hole scoring-wise, and she knows that. We're going to need people to handle the ball, so I think she's ready to do whatever the team needs, and now the opportunity presents itself for her."
Two wings ready to step up
Last year's Shamrock rotation was defined by elite guard play. At times, all of Adams-Lopez, Steel, Mullen and Sam Carlson would share the floor with small-ball post player Lily Singer, creating a lineup that could push the pace and light up the 3-point arc.
That's likely going to change, but the positive spin is that Feehan might be a taller, stronger team. Wings Shannon LaMorticelli and Addison Frenette held rotation spots last year and showed promising flashes when called upon during injury-plagued portions of the season, along with Emmette Barry.
"We're certainly going to need a lot from them," Dolores said. "They're very versatile in what they can do: good length, good athleticism, (and an) ability to defend multiple positions."
Right now, the rest of the backcourt is still uncertain. Dolores could list a handful of players who might be ready for those minutes, but she doesn't know for sure until tryouts and practices get underway in the winter. But she's confident the right answers are in the program.
"I think in the last five years, our JV team has lost one game — like, we have talent throughout," she said. "It's talent that's unproven at the varsity level, but we have a lot of kids who've been working. They play AAU (and) they're in the weight room in the offseason. So there's going to be opportunity, and we're going to compete it out and see who can step up and help fill those roles."
