Anyone who’s watched Amherst star Delaney MacPhetres knows her basketball skills were good enough to take her to the next level. MacPhetres made that official recently, committing to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to play Division III basketball for the Goats.
MacPhetres was one of the Hurricanes’ top players during her time at Amherst. She scored a career-high 342 points her senior season, including her 1,000th point in a game against Holyoke. She finished her high school career with 1,114 points.
MacPhetres spent a lot of time making sure she found the right fit in a school, choosing to go the Division III route over Divisions II or I in order to maintain a better school-life balance.
“I decided that the Division III level was probably more of what I was looking for because I was able to have like a life outside of sports and play basketball, which is what I’ve always wanted,” MacPhetres said.
MacPhetres spent a lot of time with her head coach, Ralph Loos, who has coached her at both the high school and AAU level, looking at different colleges and comparing the pros and cons. She went on a few visits and narrowed her choices down to her top four schools – Wheaton, WPI, Emerson and Roger Williams. There were several factors that went into her decision to commit to WPI – it was close to home, offered things like project-based learning that interested MacPhetres academically, and was in the NEWMAC conference, which MacPhetres has grown up watching. The team also had the community aspect that has always been so important to her.
“I was so unbelievably close to all my teammates, they’re all like my sisters,” MacPhetres said. “I really wanted something like that when I went to college because it was huge mentally being able to just be so close to people and on the court, I think that our chemistry on my high school team this year was incredible. I wanted something where that would be translated in college.”
Her decision was also fueled in part by family – her grandfather was a graduate of WPI, and though he recently passed away, MacPhetres had a special moment with him during her decision-making process.
“When I was making my decision in the spring, he was really sick. When I went to campus one day, just drove by, not a visit or anything, I just took pictures in front of some of the statues and stuff. Right before he passed away, we were able to go back and we showed him the pictures,” MacPhetres said. “It was kind of like a huge family connection experience for me, so that definitely helped drive my decision.”
It’s that family connection that makes it so hard for Loos to see her go. He’s coached her for a number of years now, and when he and MacPhetres played their last game in the Sweet 16 of the MIAA tournament, he realized that it was time for her to continue her career under a new coach.
“Delaney is like a big sister to my daughter and she’s a big part of my family. Obviously, I’m going to miss coaching her, she’s one of the main reasons I even took the Amherst job. But I’m excited. I posted on Facebook the other day that I guess I’m now a Goats fan,” Loos said, laughing. “I guess that’s what I am now, and I will forever be Delaney’s fan.”