In February, Morgan McMahon ’21 became the first Saint James female basketball player to be named a McDonald’s All-American nominee.

Morgan, who will take her talents to Colgate University next year, was one of 700 boys’ and girls’ players nationally who earned the prestigious nomination, and one of 82 girls representing the East region.

Because of the pandemic, McDonald’s changed the criteria for nominations. Players were “being recognized for the consistent hustle, grind and passion each have brought to the game of basketball over the course of their high school careers,” according to their press release.

Hustle, grind, and passion happen to be three words that perfectly describe Morgan's play on the court. Morgan did not get to play games her senior season, but she had a major impact in her three years in a Saints uniform, averaging 12.1 points and 2.8 steals per game in that span. In her fourth and fifth form seasons, she accounted for 182 assists, including 6.0 per game last season when she was leading the Saints offense night in and night out as the point guard. She was also named All-County in each of her three seasons.

A Hagerstown native, Morgan said she started seriously playing basketball in middle school. She played on her public school team and also started playing on a club team in Martinsburg, WV. By eighth grade, she had started to outgrow the local talent and wanted to push herself more, so she joined a club team in Bethesda, MD, more than an hour’s drive south of Hagerstown.

“My parents agreed to take me down to Bethesda three nights a week,” Morgan said. “The drive was almost three-hours round trip. I don’t think I would be where I am without that commitment from my parents.”

When it came time to consider high schools, Saint James checked off a lot of boxes for Morgan and her parents, Todd and Carrie. Her younger sister, Grace ’24, also attends Saint James.

“We really wanted a good academic school and a religious school as
well, and it just happened that Saint James had a growing girls’ program and Coach [Nate] Naylor had big aspirations for the program, and that’s something that really appealed to me,” Morgan said. “The whole athletics department is really special and didn’t compare to the other schools that I was considering.”

In addition to playing for the Saints, Morgan continued to
play club basketball, joining the Germantown Lady Panthers who are members of the Girls Under Armour Association. Morgan and her parents made the 45-minute trip to Germantown, MD, three days a week, a commitment that was difficult at times to juggle as a Saint James student.

“I would have to eat and do my homework on the road and not get back until 11:00 at night. It was a lot sometimes, but it was definitely worth it,” she said.

Morgan received her first college recruitment letter in the fall of her eighth-grade year, before she even arrived at Saint James. She explained that many colleges and universities will host their own camps in the summer, which presents the best opportunity to get on the radar of those programs. Morgan said she attended Colgate’s camp the summer after her third form year and caught the attention of Colgate’s coach Bill Cleary.

“The coach saw me, and we had never had a phone call, he had never sent me a letter, and he said ‘we’re going to offer you a scholarship, we really want you to play here.’ So that was the first offer I got,” Morgan said.

Morgan describes the recruiting process as “insane” as she continued to consider schools, including Davidson, William and Mary, Villanova, and Fordham. She decided to make a decision early
in her fifth form year so she could “relax and get the process done with.” She hit a snag when she had
a quad injury during cross country season that prevented her from going to camps or filming scrimmages, but during that time she really figured out who had prioritized her on their recruiting lists.

“I talked with my parents, teachers that I have a close relationship with at the school, and my basketball coaches, and they all said ‘go where you’re wanted. Go where you know you’re going to play and make an impact,'” Morgan said. “Colgate really stuck with me throughout

the process. Even when I was entertaining these other schools, they didn’t waver.”

She made a verbal commitment to Colgate in her fifth-form year and signed her letter of intent in November. Morgan plans to study law and hopes to go into politics.

Due to the pandemic and not having all of our students on campus, there was no girls’ basketball team this year. Kevin Breslin, assistant athletics director and coach of the boys’ basketball team, invited Morgan and a few other interested girls to practice with the boys’ team.

“It was a lot of fun practicing with them, and it definitely helped me to get stronger and faster and improve all of my skills,” she said. “They’re such great guys and very competitive and we pushed each other in practice.”

Aside from being a member of the basketball and cross country teams, Morgan is also an usher in chapel and a prefect in Holloway. During her time at Saint James, she has learned the importance of “always having people in your corner.”

“Something that I have always cherished here is my relationships with dorm parents and teacher/ coaches and people who are in

my life constantly and giving me advice,” she said. “I find myself leaning on them more than my friends sometimes. In addition to the rigorous academic standards that Saint James upholds, that has certainly played a role in me being prepared to go to New York.”