Driveway battles vs. big brother prepared Grace Reedy for top competition

(Updated with Saturday’s scoring total in win over Warwick.)

Grace Reedy’s competitiveness on the basketball court can be attributed to genetics and environment.

The Exeter senior’s genetics branch from her late grandfather, Joe, who graduated from Central Catholic in 1946 and was a standout in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He received a full scholarship to play football and baseball at Holy Cross and played professional baseball in the Boston Red Sox organization, in the Piedmont and Eastern leagues.

“I remember going to his house for Christmas and just talking sports with him,” Grace said of her grandfather, who died in 2021 at the age of 92.

Grace’s father, also Joe, continued the elite athlete trend by averaging 27.5 points per game as a senior at Central Catholic in 1980. He went on to score 1,305 points at Mount Saint Mary’s. He can see a lot of himself in his daughter’s game.

“Some of my friends over the years who have come to her games have said, ‘She’s you,’ ” Joe Reedy said. “It’s hard for me to see that sometimes because I didn’t develop an outside shot until I went to college. I had the height to just get most of my points down low in high school. She’s a very good 3-point shooter. If you look at my shot and hers it’s almost identical.”

The environmental aspect in the development of Grace’s elite offensive game comes from growing up with an older brother; Joey is a 6-4, 230-pound defensive lineman at Lycoming and a former driveway combatant of Grace’s.

The two were always going one-on-one or playing sports around the neighborhood. Occasionally they’d come back with bruises, but Grace always held her own.

“He’s a lot bigger and stronger than me,” Grace said. “But I was able to score on him. I think going up against him has helped me a lot when I’m playing with people my size.”

Grace held her own against the boys in co-ed basketball in the fourth and fifth grade. She had stints playing soccer but Joe and her mother Leigh Ann (Levandowski), who played tennis and ran track at Wyomissing, soon realized their daughter would be solely focusing on basketball.

“The competitiveness that Grace had with Joey, that really prepared her for high school basketball,” Joe said. “The kids in the neighborhood played a lot of basketball at our house. That’s really how she picked up the tools to excel. Then it just really took off. I couldn’t get her to play other sports.”

“I really fell in love with basketball in eighth grade,” Grace said. “I was very interested since fifth grade, but my team in eighth grade made me realize how fun it was and how good I could be.”

When Grace was in eighth grade her cousin Caroline Reedy was a sophomore bursting onto the Berks Girls League scene with Berks Catholic. Caroline was named MikeDragoSports.com Player of the Year in 2022 after a successful high school career that included over 1,000 points and a Berks championship. She’s now playing at Franciscan University.

“It was really cool seeing her do that,” Grace said. “I looked up to her. She is a really great athlete.”

Grace had the opportunity to join her cousin at Berks Catholic and create a Reedy super team; Caroline averaged 13.5 points per game her senior season while Grace averaged 15.1 as sophomore. They were two of the top six scorers in the league. 

Grace decided to stick with her teammates and try to build something at Exeter even after the Eagles struggled to a 2-19 record with two lopsided losses to the 21-7 Saints.

“I really liked my team here,” Grace said. “And just our bonds between each other. I loved my teammates and coaches already.”

Reedy has Exeter (12-7) in position to win another division title and make the BCIAA playoffs for the second straight season. 

“Our main goal is definitely to win the division and get some playoff games,” Reedy said. “I’m excited to see how far we can go.”

Those physical driveway battles conditioned Grace to keep her cool in tense situations. She plays the game with a rare combination of aggression and calmness that allows her to attack the rim yet maintain a soft shooting touch.

She has averaged over 20 points per game two seasons in a row and climbed to second on Exeter’s all-time scoring list; she broke the program single-game program record with a 40-bomb earlier this month against Twin Valley.

Frequent double- and triple-teams haven’t stopped her: Her scoring average has remained constant from 22.3 her junior year to 22.1 so far this season.

After scoring 24 points in Saturday’s win, she enters play Tuesday against Daniel Boone with 1,313 career points, 76 behind program record-holder Courtney Crockett.

“When I first started, I don’t think I thought of (the career scoring record) being reachable,” Grace said. “I don’t think it really came to my mind. But now at this point in my life, that’s definitely a goal to get to. It’d be really cool to get that.”

It remains to be seen if she will continue her basketball career at the next level. She certainly can play college basketball but she’s also a bright student and has already been accepted into prestigious nursing programs at both the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State.

Whatever her future holds she has already left her own everlasting mark on the Berks County basketball scene just like her grandfather, father, and cousin.