'She gives us everything': Wachusett's Mary Gibbons has Mountaineers locked in on D1 title
HOLDEN — Mary Gibbons was an eighth-grader when the coronavirus pandemic locked down school, sports and spending time with friends, but her dad, Tom, got permission to use an empty church gym in Worcester, so the four-person pod of Tom, Mary and her younger sisters, Sophie and Lucy, went there every day to shoot, dribble, pass and rebound.
As the daughter of basketball-playing parents, and the daughter, granddaughter and niece of basketball coaches, Mary grew up in the game, going to camps, getting shots up in the driveway hoop, watching Tom’s Wachusett Regional boys’ team practices, and listening to Thanksgiving dinner conversation about her family’s favorite sport.
At a young age, Mary showed an interest and an aptitude for basketball, playing up a level in AAU as a third-grader and continuing to develop for the Bay State Jaguars and in middle school.
It was during those COVID sessions, though, when she refined her form, footwork and 3-point stroke, that Mary took her game to a new level.
“When she got to play again,” Tom said, “it showed. I think it clicked for her – ‘All that hard work translates.’ She took a huge jump and she gained a competitive advantage.”
In tryouts her freshman season at Wachusett, Mary drained 3-pointer after 3-pointer.
“Everyone was like, ‘Wow,’” Mary said after a recent Wachusett practice, “and I was like, ‘Wow. This is not the middle school me.’ I really saw a difference.”
Over the last three seasons, Mary has helped Wachusett maintain its standing as one of the top teams in the state. A three-time T&G Super Team honoree, Mary, a 5-foot-8 guard, was the 2022-23 T&G Hometeam Player of the Year after averaging 18.5 points per game, topping Central Mass. in made 3-pointers, and leading the Mountaineers to their second straight Division 1 state semifinal appearance.
Mary is one of seven seniors on a loaded 2023-24 Wachusett roster that includes her sister Sophie, a sophomore, and is ready to take the next step.
“We’ve been practicing so hard,” Mary said. “You can tell that everyone is 100% in it to win it. We will do whatever it takes to win a state title.”
Last month, Mary, who trains with Tyler LeClerc, the former Groton-Dunstable star, signed her national letter of intent for the U.S. Naval Academy. During the ceremony at Wachusett, her proud parents and friends wore Navy sweatshirts and held a Navy banner, and Mountaineers coach Jim Oxford called Mary, who is 33 points from 1,000 for her career, one of the best players in Wachusett history.
“Because she gives us everything,” Oxford said while reiterating his declaration after Monday’s practice. “It’s not just the skill set. It’s the leadership on the floor. It’s the hard work the first day we get back from Christmas break. It’s winning every line that we run. It’s the ‘Yes, Coach,’ to everything we run so younger players know that’s what a Wachusett player is supposed to do. It’s everything.
“We’ve had some great players that didn’t have everything,” Oxford said. “We’ve had a handful of great players that were also the hardest working kid on the team and the most coachable kid on the team, and she falls into that category. That’s how imposing her status is as a player in this program. You have a player like that leading you, that’s amazing.”
Mary spent most summers of her childhood at Holy Cross basketball camp. Her uncle, Bill Jr., was the HC women’s basketball coach for 34 years. In the winter, she would shoot on the side courts in Wachusett’s gym while Tom’s teams practiced on the main floor.
When she wasn’t playing or practicing basketball, Mary was performing and competing in Irish step dance at McInerney School of Irish Dance.
Mary’s mom, Amanda (Ashe), who was a three-sport (soccer, basketball, softball) at Nipmuc Regional and played softball at Assumption, believes Mary gained much of her on-court composure and confidence from Irish step dancing.
“I wasn’t the best at it,” Mary said, “but I was surrounded by older girls with such nice poise and physique and I was like, ‘Wow. I want to be like these girls,’ so I always had that drive to get better. You have to dance on stage in beautiful makeup and a beautiful dress and a beautiful wig and you have to have great stage presence. That’s where I think I got part of my confidence from, and that’s such a big part of the game, having confidence in yourself.”
Mary wants to take the shot at the critical time.
In last year’s state quarterfinal against Springfield Central, Mary calmly sank a 3-pointer during a decisive third-quarter run.
When Mary was in second grade, her family moved from Worcester to Holden. As a fourth-grader, when she joined the Wachusett Travel Basketball League, she met her BFFs and current senior teammates, including Elizabeth Cain.
“We’ve played with each other all the way up,” said Cain, who was also a Super Team selection last season. “I love her so much and we’ve grown together on and off the court, and we’ve been able to learn from each other. She’s an amazing leader, who is always there for you.”
Tom played basketball for his father, Bill Sr., at Doherty High, and went on to play collegiately at Clark.
Before his death in 2018, Bill Sr., was able to watch some of Mary’s travel league games, and Tom knows his father would be reveling in her high school career.
“He would have stopped going to my games,” Tom said with a laugh.
Tom’s mother, Patricia, passed away in 2022. Her morning routine was checking the T&G sports section for write-ups about Mary.
“That was her favorite line,” Tom said. “‘Is Mary in the paper?’”
Last year as a freshman, Sophie played in 21 games and averaged 3.2 points. Lucy, an eighth-grader, will join the Mountaineers next year.
When Mary’s college search began, she wasn’t necessarily considering a service academy. An offer from the U.S. Military Academy piqued her interest; a visit with her parents last fall to Navy, which also recruited her, sealed the deal.
“Junior Day” activities included attending a Navy football game, walking around the Annapolis campus, watching a women’s basketball practice and talking with the players.
“On the last day,” Mary said, “I was like, ‘Why do I want to cry right now?’ I didn’t want to leave. I told my parents, ‘I think I want to go here. This is the place.’ There was that spark.”
Navy is a Patriot League opponent of Holy Cross, so Mary will visit Worcester every season, as well as nearby Boston University, also a PL member.
Some of Amanda’s family lives in nearby Pasadena, Maryland.
“From the beginning,” Mary said, “they were like, ‘Go Navy!’”
Mary isn’t sure yet what she will study in college, but, after helping Wachusett to the pinnacle, she hopes, this season, she is prepared for the rigors of the Naval Academy, competing at the Division 1 level, and serving her country.
“Before I got recruited,” Mary said, “I wasn’t thinking of a military school. Then, once I learned more about it, met the girls, saw the benefits of it, I was like, ‘I want to do this.’
“I view myself as a leader on and off the court,” Mary said. “I want to be surrounded by leaders and learn from them. What better place to do that than the Naval Academy?”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Wachusett's Gibbons looks to cap stellar career with title for Mountaineers
