Richmond, Va. — Coming off an 11-11 campaign in which they failed to win a playoff game in 2023-2024, the Heritage High School girls basketball team was ready to make a splash in 2025.
The Pride started their road to the state championship by hiring head coach Tayler Cook to lead the charge. Cook was coming off back-to-back state semifinal appearances at Tuscarora High School in 2023 and 2024. Despite never coaching in a VHSL state championship game until this year, Cook had played in two, leading Spotswood High School to VHSL state titles in 2013 and 2014.
“I knew when I took the job, we were in for a big change, and our girls quickly bought into that,” Cook said. “Obviously with that comes the pressure to win, but we did a good job of having fun down the stretch.”
Returning all their impact players from 2023-2024, the Pride knew they had the talent to get them to the finish line in 2025, but they needed to build some trust to get across it.
“Coach Tayler uses what everyone gives her and she maximizes it,” Heritage senior forward Kaitlyn Puzenski (9 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists) said. “Over the past few seasons, we’ve been good, but we’ve never been great. This year, being in a position where we were all comfortable and all able to trust each other, is thanks to Coach Tayler.”
That trust and confidence in each other shined most brightly in the state championship game as the Pride pressured and trapped on defense—forcing 22 Salem turnovers—while spreading the ball around on offense—assisting on 13 of their 17 baskets.
“Our motto all year was ‘as one,’” Cook said. “It didn’t matter who was scoring each night, there was no ‘me, me, me,’ it was always about who was open and who could we get the ball to, and that allowed us to showcase our talents in the best way possible.”
Even when the Spartans made a fourth-quarter run, the Pride stuck together to outlast Salem and earn Heritage its first ever VHSL Class 4 State title in girls basketball, 46-37, on March 14 in Richmond.
“We’ve all grown up playing basketball together since we were about ten years old,” Puzenski said. “Getting to play with these girls and getting to see how much everyone has grown is just crazy.”
Heading into the state championship matchup, Heritage knew they’d be undersized and that they wanted to get back to their fast-paced, high-pressure blitzing defense, which they deviated from in their VHSL Class 4 State semifinal win over Hampton on March 7.
The Pride got to work quickly forcing turnovers on each of Salem’s first three possessions while grabbing three offensive rebounds on their first offensive possession of the night.
“We knew if we didn’t box out, we weren’t going to win,” Heritage junior forward Alyssa Stanford said. “We knew we were undersized, but we wanted to use our strengths: our quickness, our positioning. Getting rebounds is a big reason we won.”
Despite Stanford being their only player over 5’10”, the Pride placed a huge emphasis on rebounding leading up to the state championship game, and it paid off as Heritage outrebounded the much taller Spartans, 43-27.
Even though they controlled the boards, the Pride struggled to find an offensive rhythm early, as they led by just three heading into the second quarter.
The Spartans scored on an offensive rebound and putback to open the second quarter, cutting the Heritage lead to 8-7, but Stanford (21 points, 15 rebounds, 3 steals) responded with a basket off an assist from junior point guard and Dulles District Player of the Year Riley Makitka (6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals).
Two possessions later Stanford grabbed a defensive rebound and got the Pride into transition where sophomore forward Keira Stanford (4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals) kicked a pass out to senior guard Rachel Stewart (6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals) for three.
On the very next Salem possession, the younger Stanford stole the ball and made a pass up to Stewart, who finished from inside as the Pride extended their lead to 15-7, forcing a Salem timeout.
Out of the timeout, Stewart returned the favor as she stole a pass and found Keira Stanford in transition for two. Then Alyssa Stanford grabbed another defense board and made an outlet pass to Makitka, who attacked the basket for two more.
Another pair of Makitka steals eventually led to another Alyssa Stanford basket, as the Pride capped off a 13-0 run to jump out to a 22-11 lead at the half.
“Salem has a very good defense: they’re aggressive in their zone, they trap man-to-man well,” Cook said. “All week we talked about how we might not get the same reads that we typically do, but that doesn’t mean that stuff isn’t open. We worked on ways to share the ball even in those moments when the defense is something different than what we’ve seen before.”
Trailing by double-digits coming out of the intermission, the Spartans quickly got to work, cleaning up the offensive boards, cutting the lead to 25-18 midway through the third quarter. Heritage, however, continued to put pressure on the Spartans, forcing six turnovers in the third quarter.
“The matchups in this game allowed us to play our style of defense. Our defense leads to our offense—it gives us momentum, it gives us open shots—and tonight, we were really able to blitz and execute the scout really well,” Alyssa Stanford said. “Even when we went on stretches where we didn’t score, it was our defense that kept stopping them on what could have been runs.”
A key piece to the Pride’s defensive game plan was to limit junior point guard Gabby Crawley, who they knew played an integral role in Salem’s offense.
“We were trying to deny their best ball handler in the press and force other people to do things outside of their comfort zone,” Cook said.
Keira Stanford was up for the challenge as she held Crawley to just 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 0 assists on 2-of-6 shooting in the state championship game.
“It was all about our communication and knowing our scout,” Puzenski said. “We wanted to focus on limiting [Crawley] because she sets up all of their offenses; Keira did an amazing job at limiting her, so they weren’t able to really start their offenses, which led them astray.”
Salem did start to find some offensive rhythm late, cutting the lead to 39-32 midway through the fourth quarter, but Alyssa Stanford added 9 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth as the Pride created enough cushion to outlast the Spartans, 46-37, claiming their first VHSL Class 4 State title.
While Heritage’s starting five of Makitka, Puzenski, Stewart, and the Stanford sisters along with junior shooting guard Julia Ehrmantraut carried a bulk of the workload for the Pride, Cook credits the intangible qualities of her seniors for a lot of their success throughout the season.
“It’s hard to put the role of the seniors into words. KP and Rachel have been fantastic leaders on and off the floor. They do whatever I ask them to, whenever I ask them to, and that’s been a huge part of our success,” Cook said. “Addy Padgett never missed a practice, she never didn’t help the team in whatever way she could. Anna, Myah, and Amaeya’s roles looked different this year, but they really bought into team success and just handled all of that without batting an eye. As a coach, that’s invaluable to a team.”
Just a year removed from an 11-11 season and a first-round exit in the Dulles District playoffs, the Pride (8-0, 25-3) regrouped and inked their names into Heritage history, bringing back a state title to Leesburg.
“We’ve put in a lot of work, and, now, we’ve finally seen the outcome we’ve been working towards,” Alyssa Stanford said. “We’ve really become a family, so it means alot. We’ve always been friends off the court, so winning this is just extra fun because of how much we love each other.”
Maya Lopez captured 100+ photos at the game!
Heritage Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Alyssa Stanford | 21 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4-for-5 |
| Kaitlyn Puzenski | 9 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Rachel Stewart | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1-for-2 |
| Riley Makitka | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Keira Stanford | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Julia Ehrmantraut | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 46 | 43 | 13 | 15 | 2 | 9-for-15 |
Salem Stats
| Player Name | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FT |
| Emerson Custer | 15 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1-for-5 |
| Katherine Rider | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4-for-6 |
| Charli Wynn | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2-for-4 |
| Gabby Crawley | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-for-1 |
| Elizabeth Smith | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Kourtney Goens | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-for-2 |
| Shaniya Robinson | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-2 |
| Ashlyn Adkins | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-for-0 |
| Totals | 37 | 27 | 5 | 12 | 0 | 8-for-20 |
