Three days.
Two sports.
One opportunity to finally prove herself as a Pennefather.
It could be the best weekend of Mary’s life.
Or the worst.
Drive Since Day One
Mary Pennefather grew up in athletic royalty.
That’s not to say some uncle hit an unbelievable buzzer beater that’s still talked about at family reunions. Mary’s claims are a little more legit. Her father played at Providence College under Rick Pitino, she had two aunts and an uncle who played Division 1 basketball, and one of those aunts won National Player of the Year while at Villanova. Not too shabby. Award-winning Aunt Shelly went on to play professionally in Japan (the WBNA didn’t exist at the time) before coming back home to Virginia to become a cloistered nun.
Oh yeah, that’s the other half of Mary’s background: Catholicism. Sports and faith comprised the two core tenets of her upbringing. The Pennefathers prayed and played. And they played to win.
The family always loved and supported their kin, but they didn’t coddle each other when competing. They played everything from board games to ultimate frisbee to tennis, and of course basketball. One thing remained constant: everyone wanted to come out on top. No matter the season, they were on the court, on the field, or in the backyard trying to best each other.
It was not just Mary and her five siblings either; her parents fueled the competitive charge.
“My dad is not the type of parent to be like, ‘Oh, kids, let’s go play.’ No, ‘We’re coming here, we’re playing, we’re competing, we’re gonna win.’”
Everyone wanted to beat Dad. A phenomenal athlete who never lost his drive, he didn’t go down easily to anyone. He instilled that fire in his children.
As the middle child, Mary wanted more than to just defeat her father. She strived to match her older sisters’ abilities, especially Jane, the one closest in age to her.
Jane always beat Mary. At everything.
The six-year age gap gave Jane superior size, skill, and smarts.
Mary looked pretty small and skinny in general, but especially when facing off against Jane.
At ten years old, Mary got another shot at her sister. Jane helped her father lead his summer basketball camp as head counselor; Mary merely participated as a camper. To demonstrate how to play one-on-one to the campers, their dad pitted the two sisters against each other.
In front of everyone.
First to score wins.
Gulp.
Mary, being the smaller player, started with the ball. She drove right, but Jane quickly shut down the angle. Jane’s size and reach prevented any chance of getting past her.
Mary dribbled back out to the three-point line on the right wing.
Then, she made the mistake: she picked up her dribble.
Jane jumped at the slip-up. She started hounding Mary.
“In desperation, I kind of chucked it over my head.”
An attempted three-point hook shot. Released by a 10-year-old. A prayer.
There’s no chance this even touches the rim.
Nylon.
Pandemonium.
David had beaten Goliath.
Against all odds, Mary finally bested her sister. No one could take the smile off her face. Jane, on the other hand, refused to let her frustration show, but Mary knew.
This was it. She achieved her goal. She had won.
Mary beamed as the elated crowd celebrated. That joy stayed plastered on her face throughout the day and night.
But as the night wore on, Mary’s smile began to fade. A look of determination replaced it.
To Mary, this didn’t feel like an ending. She recognized it as merely a beginning. Instead of dousing a flame, it lit a fire under her.
That taste of victory left her craving more, needing more. From then on, she devoted herself to matching her family’s accomplishments. She would prove herself as a Pennefather.
She had to.
Streaks
Mary often trained with her father, Dick. He coached the high school girls’ basketball team at her school, Seton Catholic 7-12 School in Manassas, Virginia. He obsessed over the game. When not attending daily Mass or taking communion to a homebound relative, he watched basketball.
He had heard of a drill called “Streaks” the great Steph Curry and his father used to do together. The drill consisted of making shots from different spots on the court. Dick implemented Streaks at practices, with a difficult goal. He pushed his players to hit ten free throws, eight mid-range shots, and six three-pointers all in a row.
The mark he set for his seventh-grade daughter?
Twenty threes.
In a row.
To most, it would seem hopeless. To Mary, it was a welcome challenge - at first.
In order to carve out time for this exercise in her busy day, Mary spent her 50-minute lunch period with her father, putting up shots. While her friends gossiped and swapped food around the table, Mary worked.
Some days ten felt impossible, let alone twenty.
Shooting always had been fun for Mary, but as Streaks wore on, the drill almost felt like a chore. Every single time she put up a shot, her dad critiqued it.
Shot goes up. Clank. “Flat as a pancake!”
Back to the beginning.
Shot goes up. Swish! Still, “Make sure to jump straight up and down.”
Mary couldn’t get away from Streaks. Her schedule consisted of going to school, spending lunch doing Streaks, team practice doing Streaks, getting in extra work after practice doing Streaks, then going home with her dad where all he talked about was doing Streaks.
It exhausted her physically and mentally.
She couldn’t give up, either. Not an option provided by Dad.
Twenty felt like an unreachable dream.
Days with a miss on 18 or 19 infuriated Mary.
Each attempt brought frustration and annoyance, but Mary wouldn’t quit. She had to keep pushing. The family success she chased could finally be achieved.
Behind her bright blue eyes lay a burning desire.
87 days in, the goal seemed unreachable.
She failed for 87 straight days.
Maybe, just maybe, day 88 would be the day.
Nope.
Yet another day without the ending she so badly sought.
Day 89. Mary’s back out shooting.
Could she finally do it?
Nope.
Day 90.
After 5 makes in a row, Mary felt pretty good.
10 down. The pressure started building.
15 straight in the hoop. Could Mary really do it?
18…19…
Her father’s commentary continued regardless.
Mary let it fly.
20!
This culmination of her father’s coaching and her hard work paid off. She accomplished the unthinkable.
Pride washed over her. Proving herself as a Pennefather took a massive weight off her shoulders.
But, had she?
Her dad hit 87 in a row. She didn’t come close to that.
Getting to 20 she expected to be her mountaintop. Upon arriving, instead of some gorgeous view, she looked up and saw more mountain.
This success gave her no contentment, instead it fired Mary up. Pennefathers won awards, set records, and played college basketball. Mary simply had to keep working.
She picked the ball up and kept shooting.
The day she hit 20, she hit 25.
She kept going to the gym during her lunches. Some days she wouldn’t make it past 10, but those days of 20-plus felt so good.
Smaller, weaker
Mary’s constant effort earned her a spot on the varsity basketball team-as an eighth-grader.
With her lights-out shooting, Mary threatened to score from anywhere on the court. That is, except for within ten feet of the basket.
Mary’s youth and tiny frame exposed her. Her drives consistently ended in blocked shots. She could out-shoot anyone, but she couldn’t score any other way. Once teams knew this, they could easily guard her.
She heard her uncle yelling from the stands, “Attack the basket, you’re faster than them!”
Jane critiqued her while offering solutions, “Well, why don’t you use your left hand more?”
Her other sister put it far more bluntly, “Why did you lose? Why didn’t you win?”
Heading into ninth grade, Mary knew she needed to get bigger, stronger, and faster if she wanted to have an impactful role. She had heard stories of relatives leading their high school teams and watched her sister dominate at Seton. Their shadows loomed large.
As a freshman, Jane averaged nine points per game for the varsity squad, a real impact. Mary knew she could have one too.
The summer following the frustrating eighth-grade season, she took on an explosiveness drill her father did while in college.
It consisted, in part, of pushups, core and leg work, hand coordination, and 30-60-90 sprints. As Mary describes it, “really easy.”
Those hours of work made all the difference. She felt stronger, faster. She could jump higher than ever before. Formerly a kid playing with the big girls, she now competed as a worthy adversary.
Mary had a smashingly successful season. She averaged 15 points per game, second on her team. As a freshman.
An impact indeed. Mary bested her sister’s points per game mark and played a pivotal role in the team’s triumphs.
The season stats showed her improvement, but her biggest test lay on the horizon. All her work built to the most important game of the year.
Their crosstown rival, Highland, had been having a far superior season to Seton’s. Jane beat Highland as a freshman. Could Mary do it too?
In preparation for the game, Mary and her dad worked nonstop on her step-back threes.
The ball tipped off, the game began and - shots weren’t falling.
Seton started losing.
Mary needed to win. Matching her family’s accomplishments mattered. More than that, it was everything.
Jane did this. She had to too.
Regardless of Mary’s determination, they kept losing and trailed the entire way.
Despite her successful season, Mary’s biggest hurdle seemed insurmountable.
Slowly, Seton clawed back, and with seconds left on the clock Mary found herself with the ball and down by three. Without hesitation, she recreated her drill.
She stepped back. Two seconds left.
She released from deep. The buzzer sounded.
Cash.
Never had a swish sounded so good.
The arena erupted, but the game wasn’t over. That merely forced it to overtime.
The heated battle continued. Locked in a close game, Mary once again received the ball with little time on the clock.
With five seconds left, she pulled the same step-back move. Deja vu.
This could be the dagger. This could solidify her freshman year.
Her father on the sideline and her family in the stands watched in awe.
She pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A win. The win.
Mary had done it.
She topped off an amazing freshman season with that incredible performance.
This by-far-and-away surpassed any basketball moment of her career. It had been nice to hit 20 threes in a row, but these threes mattered. These threes sealed the game and her place as a Pennefather.
She went home that night thinking she could talk about this game for years at family gatherings.
Although, her relatives hit big shots in their day too, and a good high-school freshman season didn’t really compare to the careers they had.
Mary lay awake wondering. She really believed she had made it to the peak, but it started to feel more like a foothill.
Surely, she could do more.
Double Trouble
Mary’s prowess as a player grew over her sophomore season. In addition to her basketball stardom, she excelled as a varsity tennis player, soccer player, and swimmer. Both tennis and soccer fit the family legacy just like hooping.
Originally, her father had encouraged her to join the swim team when in eighth grade, but he didn’t expect her to participate for more than one year. Sure, Mary and siblings played tennis and soccer, but those were separate seasons. He had never heard of anyone playing basketball and swimming, two strenuous sports, in the same season for an entire high school career.
Mary vividly remembers her first practice. “I had swum 50 meters fast enough to practice with the top lane, but I had very little endurance and thus had to sit out for most of the practice because I was slowing everyone down.”
She told herself she would swim for just one year, and then she would return to fully focusing on her basketball career and chasing her family’s greatness.
But when her ninth-grade winter came along, Mary plunged back into the water. Her father’s doubts only fueled Mary to try to do the impossible. More importantly, she loved the team, coach, and sport.
Basketball seemed the obvious path to Pennefather glory, but suddenly this new road opened in front of Mary. Dominating two sports in one season would be something no other relative could claim.
In the middle of her junior year, she got the opportunity to do just that.
A huge basketball game and a swim meet at "National Catholics" All wrapped up into one weekend.
Worries crept in throughout the weeks leading up to the big weekend. The grueling schedule started taking its toll.
Mary woke up at the crack of dawn to swim. From there, she went through a rigorous school day filled with high-level classes. Afterwards, she trained with the basketball team. To finish the evening, she practiced more basketball before the nightly Rosary as a family.
Day after day she put her body and mind through this. Her swim times started to slow.
Despite this, Mary kept hope. She had faced adversity in the past; she just had to keep pushing herself.
First up, the basketball game.
An 85-point victory.
For the other team.
Mary hadn’t lost like that in her life. She finished with 10 of her team’s 21 points but shot a poor 3 of 13 from the field.
With no time to reflect on the crushing defeat, Mary drove up to Baltimore directly after the game. She arrived late in the night, feeling tired and depleted.
Mustering up any strength remaining, she fought through the weekend hoping she could persevere.
Diving into the water, Mary felt weak.
Mary couldn’t let that slow her down. Mind over matter she kept repeating in her head as she cut through the water.
Mary swam ferociously, trying to will her body past the other girls.
She knew she could beat them.
Pennefathers overcame, Pennefathers prevailed.
Mary’s determination and resilience stayed strong, but her body weakened after each stroke. Her mental fortitude started slipping away as her competitors blew by her.
One by one they passed her.
Race after race she lost.
Mary had lost before, but this felt different. No matter how hard she tried, Mary simply couldn’t go faster.
Even worse, Mary’s coach dropped her down from the starting line to the second-string relays for upcoming meets.
It was the worst weekend of her life.
Hours of practice and preparation built towards this, but when the big moment came, she faltered. A hopeless feeling started clouding her mind.
Attempting to equal her family’s success exhausted Mary. More than that, the self-inflicted pressure pushed her down.
She started to believe it might just be unobtainable. Maybe she could never be as successful.
Back on Track
She needed to prove the weekend merely knocked her down, not out. She had been taught all her life the way to finding success was through working hard. But working hard didn’t mean more time in the gym or the pool, it meant more time on the couch.
Mary worked at resting.
She realized her insane schedule asked far too much of her, despite her last name. In order to achieve success, she had to relax.
Normally, every second outside of practice she spent practicing. For the first time, she dedicated free time to relaxing.
Mary stuck with her strategy, hoping it would pay off.
Nine days after her lowest point, mentally and physically, she had a basketball game. She recognized the opportunity to bounce back.
The team won, but Mary scored a weak four points and shot one for six from the field.
Did her adjustments even matter? Could she ever get back to where she used to be?
This didn’t deter Mary. She stuck with her plan: Practice hard and rest harder.
All her preparation built towards their next game, a matchup with Trinity Christian.
Another blowout.
78-26.
Mary couldn’t believe it.
A 52-point difference.
A 52-point victory!
Mary dominated. She dropped 25 points and shot 75 percent for the field.
Mary didn’t just play well, she led the team. More than merely a bounce-back performance, Mary shined in a statement game.
This success continued. After starting the year 1-4, hope seemed lost. With Mary leading the charge, Seton went on a 13-2 run over to finish the year.
At the end of the season, she brought her basketball squad to the state semi-final while finishing first in nearly every major stat.
Similarly, she regained her swimming skills. Instead of opponents outpacing Mary, she started leaving them in her wake.
She returned to the starting relay line for three events.
Her work paid dividends on the court and in the pool, but her mindset started to shift slightly as well.
Unlike earlier in the season, she saw sports as pleasure, not pain. Mary still clung to her chase for family success, but athletics started to become personal fulfillment.
Maybe something more than family legacy existed out there for Mary.
New Beginnings, New Mary
With the experience of her junior year under her belt, Mary confidently managed both basketball and swimming her senior year. In fact, she did a whole lot more than just manage.
She led the swim team as head captain in a legendary season for the program. At conference championships, she won gold in both the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle races which launched Seton to a comeback victory. The team went on to win the state championship.
Meanwhile, she also captained the basketball team and starred in a remarkable senior season. She spearheaded the team’s conference championship run and surpassed 2,000 points for her career, the first of the Pennefather children to do so. This feat brought her national attention with Maxprep's ranking her amongst the top 100 scorers.
Her overall basketball success propelled towards playing in college, to follow the Pennefather lineage.
But Mary’s childhood aspiration to play Division 1 basketball like her relatives didn’t drive Mary like it used to.
Mary’s grandpa used to tell her, “If you want to be good at a sport, if you want to go pro for that sport, you just have to focus on that sport.”
Mary wanted more than that. “I knew I just never wanted to do that because I love playing so many sports and being good at a lot of them.”
She realized she needed to carve her own path. This brought her to the Christendom Crusaders in Front Royal, Virginia.
After a couple visits and a summer program, Mary fell in love with the college. It fostered an environment of success with humility. The basketball team consisted of amazing players, but far more importantly, amazing people.
She felt especially grateful to have met Catherine Thomas, a counselor at the summer program and player for the basketball team. Catherine, and the team as a whole, made Mary feel appreciated for more than just her talent, but for who she was. Additionally, she could continue her Catholicism education with like-minded peers.
She easily made her decision.
In the fall of 2023, Mary packed her bags and began her journey at Christendom.
It thrilled Mary to be with a wonderful group of people and she couldn’t wait to start the season. Unfortunately, that excitement soon turned to frustration.
They couldn’t defend.
They had all the pieces to be a good team, but they just couldn’t play defense.
Mary remembers getting a call from her father after a particularly bad game, “You guys stink at defense. It’s painful for me to watch.”
Mary knew they could be better, but she didn’t understand how the defensive plan would work for the team.
Then came a game against Washington Adventist.
Mary had 17 points and 7 rebounds, but Christendom trailed. With 5:38 left in the fourth quarter, Christendom fought to be down three, 76-73.
With 1:14 left on the clock, the scoreboard showed 97-73.
Christendom had collapsed, letting up a 21-point run in just over four minutes.
With 2:40 left, Mary sensed the game slipping away. In a moment of pent-up frustration, Mary turned the ball over and followed the mistake up with an unnecessary reach-in foul more than 60 feet from her basket.
Not only that, she fouled out. Mary never fouled out.
Their defensive struggles began to break Mary.
And despite the new surroundings, he life long goal still floated in the back of her head.
So many times she thought she finally achieved success equal to her family’s just for her to realize she wasn’t close. For so many years she believed she needed to make all-conference, win a game, or earn a new PR to really be a Pennefather. Every single time, she decided she needed to do more.
She worried she might never truly make it.
These doubts circled in her mind as she went home for winter break.
While home, Mary competed with her siblings and parents as usual.
But she also laughed with them.
And loved them.
And they loved her.
She then came to a realization: she didn’t need to prove she played like a Pennefather.
Coming back to Christendom, she no longer concerned herself with chasing her family’s success; she had to define success for herself.
Mary decided to focus on bettering herself every day, both on the court and off. Her time at Christendom had opened her eyes to the greater world.
She grew in her faith and devotion. She attended daily Mass. She dedicated time to bonding with teammates and classmates. Lunches were no longer spent doing Streaks, she ate and laughed with her teammates in the dining hall.
These revelations off the court benefited the season greatly. The team’s newfound chemistry helped them prevail over their defensive struggles. They met as a group to figure it out.
“We got together and we said we’re doing this, we’re sticking to this game plan, everyone’s on board.”
It worked. Christendom had an incredible back half to the season. The united team seemed unstoppable. The players ate their meals together. Headphones stayed out of sight on team bus rides. Instead, laughter, conversation, and music filled the air.
In turn, Mary had a remarkable individual season. She averaged nearly a triple double, a feat unheard of for a freshman. She averaged 24.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 9.1 assists per game. She led the entire USCAA in total assists. Catherine and Mary finished number one and two in points scored for the USCAA.
Led by Mary and Catherine, the team won their first ever conference championship and entered the national tournament as a seven seed. It had been a fun season, but they faced the big dogs now. Despite their turnaround, nobody expected Christendom to make a run.
Against all odds, Christendom found themselves in the national semifinal game against Central Maine.
They played a terrible first quarter.
Down 17-6 at the break, this seemed to be the end of the road.
Mary couldn’t let that happen.
Through sheer will, Mary scraped Christendom back into the game. They came out stronger in the second quarter and cut the lead to seven at the half.
With hope and a genuine belief they would win, Christendom departed the locker room with a fire under them. They exploded in the third quarter, winning it 27-9. This put the overall score at 51-40, an 11-point lead for Christendom.
Mary took over in the game. She led her team in the three major statistical categories with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists.
They finished the game 60-48, earning them a spot in the national championship game.
No one had seen this coming, except for Christendom themselves.
With swarms of Christendom students cheering for them, the team walked onto the court for their shot at the national championship against Johnson and Wales.
Johnson and Wales shot out to a hot start, taking an early lead, 9-6. Mary wouldn’t let her team go down again. Scoring eight in the first quarter, she willed Christendom to a 17-13 lead at the break.
Johnson and Wales came back early in the second quarter to take a 18-17 lead, but a three-pointer from Mary put Christendom back on top. They finished the first half up 36-28.
Christendom burst out of the locker room, dominating the third quarter. They headed into the fourth quarter with a 56-40 lead.
The lead grew as large as 23 with under three minutes left in the game. Despite this, Johnson and Wales refused to quit. In a series of scores, they cut the Christendom lead to nine.
With seconds left on the clock and with a chance to ice the game, Mary stepped up to the free-throw line.
This was just like doing Streaks.
First shot up.
Swish.
Just one more and the championship was theirs.
Second shot up.
Nylon.
Game sealed.
Christendom won 76-65.
National Champions!
Finally, Mary did it.
Sure, she proved herself as a Pennefather, but more importantly, she made it as Mary.
The End.
Well, not really.
Much like Mary, life keeps going. Same is true of the Christendom Crusaders. With the help of Mary's 24 point, 9 assist, and 9 rebound per game average, the team is having a stellar season. Or maybe that's better stated as a dominant season given that as 2025 commenced, they ranked #18 in the Domination Rankings - including all college basketball divisions, men's and women's combined.
And Mary has just recently accomplished something matched by no other Pennefather: she has become the feature of a College Basketball Times cover story.
Not that it matters.
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