Gov. Mifflin freshman off to Super start
2023 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
Gov. Mifflin freshman standout Bella Super has been enthralled by basketball since she was 5, so her immediate success at the varsity level hasn’t come as a surprise.
“I came into the season pretty confident,” Super said, who scored 14 points in a season-opening win over Boyertown. “But I wasn’t cocky about it. I just let the game come to me and see what happened.”
Super got a head start in both the genetic and mental departments of the game; her dad Paul played at Stockton University in New Jersey, and she tapped on his knowledge of the game.
“I’ve been playing since I was in kindergarten,” Super said. “Basketball just always interested me, even when I was little. My dad played in college and he would always show us film.”
Super’s sister Krystalyn played on Mifflin’s 2016-17 district qualifying team and is now a senior running track at Messiah. Bella always tagged along to watch her sister’s games and imagined herself playing at that level, even though the players looked huge to her.
“I would always go to the high school girls games during the season,” Super said. “I watched them play in the Santander Arena a lot.”
She became aware of the basketball tradition at Gov. Mifflin — the Mustangs have won five Berks titles since 2015 — before she stepped onto the court in Shillington.
Super is one of three freshman starters for coach Mike Clark, joining Bridget Martin and Brooklyn George. Martin is the younger sister of former Mifflin standouts Jen and Melissa Martin.
“We’ve been playing together ever since we’ve suited up in a Mifflin jersey,” Super said of Martin and George. “I think it’s been since third or fourth grade. We’ve always been playing together.”
There’s a learning curve for anyone getting their first varsity minutes, especially freshmen who are going up against players several years older. It takes time to adjust to the physicality and speed of the game.
It has helped that Mifflin seniors Taylor Koenig and Keira Estrada have won a county championship and can guide the freshmen as they get their footing. Super has also played in the 17U age bracket during AAU ball, which she plays for the Berks Panthers and Team Pennsylvania out of Harrisburg.
“The seniors are great,” Super said. “They both know the game and I feel like all of us look up to them as role models. They help us out with the game and slow us down, keep us on pace.”
Super is averaging 10.9 points per game, a rare feat in the Berks Girls League. Over the past 10 seasons only nine Berks freshmen have averaged double figures.
Wilson’s Laila Jones (13.4) and Twin Valley’s Hailey Kilgore (10.5) did it last season.
The others: Wyomissing’s Amaya Stewart (10.5, 2022); Brandywine Heights’ Addison Benner (14.1, 2022); Fleetwood’s Alexis Hess (14.9, 2020); Schuylkill Valley’s Julia Kowalski (11.0, 2019); Twin Valley’s Peyton McDaniel (10.6, 2017); Fleetwood’s Keeley Suzenski (10.8, 2016); and Antietam’s Paige Glovenski (18.0, 2016).
Jones and Hess are the only freshmen to make All-Berks in that timeframe. All the others, except McDaniel, made an all-division team. Other freshmen who earned all-division honors: Wilson’s Violet Houck, Muhlenberg’s Ryanna Hightower-Prentice, Exeter’s Grace Reedy, Brandywine Heights’ Olivia Moyer, Berks Catholic’s Taylor Blunt, and Reading High’s Brianna Seltzer.
Super’s scoring average is second on the team behind Koenig’s 14.5 and 15th in the league. An All-Berks selection is a long shot but all-division honors aren’t. The skill is already showing and the potential should be worrisome for the rest of the Berks Girls League.
A glimpse of that potential was shown against Berks I heavyweight Berks Catholic earlier this month at Wolf Gymnasium. Super scored a career-high 23 points as the Mustangs fell by seven points. Any first-year jitters were apparently gone.
“The freshmen are very talented,” Clark said. “I don’t think they know how talented they are. If they blossom when they need to blossom, I think we’ll be right there in the end.”
The Mustangs are 3-3 in Berks I and 7-6 overall yet the goals of winning the division, county, district, and making a run in states remain.
Super wants to get Mifflin back to a district championship; the Mustangs haven’t played for that title since 2016. Their only championship came in 1993.
“I want to win a district title because that would be great for Gov. Mifflin and we would get into states,” she said. “An individual goal I have is to score 1,000 points.”
She’s well on her way.
