Archbishop Mitty women's basketball star gears up for CIF championship game
The Archbishop Mitty High School women's basketball team returns to the CIF Open Division championship game on Saturday, facing the same team they lost to last year.
Going into that match up, the Monarchs are undefeated and ranked number one nationally.
"My goal is to play in the WNBA and I'm super excited for UConn and this next step in this new chapter," said Morgan Cheli, a senior on the team. She has declared to play with the University of Connecticut after graduation.
Cheli will join an elite group of athletes from Mitty to go on to college sports and continue competing at the highest level. She's carrying on a long tradition of excellence for the program, which she does not take for granted during Women's History Month.
"I think it's a great thing, but it can be even better. It can always, you know, be improved upon and I just think it's heading in the right direction. So I'm super excited," she said about the growth in women's sports at the professional level.
The WNBA will expand to the Bay Area in 2025 with a new team joining the league that season. One more reason for her and everyone else at Mitty to be optimistic about the future of their sport. Her coach Sue Phillips could not be prouder of what Cheli has accomplished as she prepares to end her run as a Monarch.
"Morgan's an outstanding person, just a just an incredible human being, kind, considerate, respectful, endearing to all that come across her," Coach Phillips told KPIX. She was named 2024 Naismith Coach of the Year and has led the program at Mitty for three decades.
Both Phillips and Cheli hope the new team and the larger presence women athletes are capturing in society attract more people to pay attention to what they're doing in sports.
"It's an amazing legacy that we have and for women's sports in general, and I think we're just continuing to grow, and people should tune in and celebrate women in sports," Cheli said.