These Philly-area girls are Division I basketball recruits — and they’re only in eighth grade

The college recruiting landscape is not what it was 10 years ago. Youth programs have become more competitive, and athletes are being scouted by colleges at a younger age.

And thanks to social media and streaming services, finding those athletes has become easier for college coaches.

“There’s always a race to be the first offer,” said Katie Kuester, St. Joseph’s University assistant women’s basketball coach and recruiting coordinator. “I know, locally, we have some unbelievable Division I programs in a very short mile radius, so we’re always competing against each other, recruiting-wise.

“It’s also important to be an early offer with these local kids to try to keep them home.”

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Philly has some of the top AAU and high school programs in the East. And four local eighth-grade girls basketball standouts have taken advantage of that. (They also happen to be best friends.)

Ryan Carter (Penn Charter), Jessie Moses (Westtown), and Taylor Brown and Jezelle Banks (both from Ursuline Academy), bonded by being the best. They play in an older age bracket on their AAU teams and on the varsity basketball team at each of their private schools.

They also have received college interest and scholarship offers from schools like St. Joe’s and Ohio State, which was ranked No. 14 in the final Associated Press poll last season.

All of this at age 14 and under. There’s a level of commitment that goes into making it at the collegiate level, one that may lead to pressure on the court and forgetting about the social balance of being a kid.

“Girls struggle with that,” said Thomas Davis, Carter’s Exodus AAU coach. “A lot of girls struggle with that mentality, just the pressure itself. We make it aware [to them]. Pressure is one of those elephants in a room. We try to get them used to the pressure, so that it is not overwhelming. It’s something that you accept.”

Each of the girls has found her own way of navigating that reality while still figuring it out. But a crucial factor in finding that balance at a young age starts with the parents.

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Carter was always by her mother’s side, and, since she was born, basketball was what she knew best.

An early-morning basketball session at West Catholic Preparatory High School consisted of coach Andrea Carter running through drills with the girls’ team. And over on benches, there was a car seat holding less-than-a-month-old Ryan.

“[Ryan] never wanted to be a part of it,” Andrea said. “But she always watched, like soaked in everything, and I think that’s why she has such a high basketball IQ.”

She found a love for the game on her own, but being around it at a young age didn’t hurt. Carter, Penn Charter’s 5-foot-10 guard, has received college offers from Columbia, George Washington, Ohio State, Penn State, and St. Joe’s so far.

When her basketball journey paused in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan had to improvise as gyms were forced to shut down and seasons were canceled.

Her mother, a girls’ basketball coach at Cristo Rey High School, found a court that was five minutes away from their home in Glenside. She told Ryan this would be the time to take advantage of her training. Almost every day, the two of them, along with Carter’s younger sister, would drive to the court.

“We would just work up a lot of shooting and ballhandling,” Carter said. “There were stairs. We would climb the stairs and sprint and do defensive drills. We would do as much as we could until it got dark outside.”

Carter felt like her hard work paid off when she made the Philly Belles AAU team in sixth grade. After competing two seasons with them in the 16U age group, she made the switch to Exodus in Brooklyn, where she also played on the 16U team, and received more attention from scouts and coaches.

“You see a lot of those talented seventh- and eighth-graders playing with the ninth-grade and 10th-grade team,” Kuester said. “For instance, when we were recruiting this summer, we were looking at [class] 2023 and 2024, but when you see 2025 and 2026 kids playing with them, it catches your eye.”

Exodus had future WNBA players such as Connecticut Sun guard Bria Hartley and Dallas Wings guard Marina Mabrey come through its program. Competing on the team came with a new level of commitment. Not just from Carter, but also her mother, who drove her daughter two hours there and back each weekend for games or practices.

“We’re driving back and forth from Philly and New York,” Andrea said. “Tolls are expensive, gas is expensive, but all of this is a part of the sacrifice. This is Ryan’s dream. She told me she wanted this. ... I’m just doing everything I can on and off the court to help her.”

Carter and the rest of the girls know they have to keep improving to maintain their college scholarship offers and get recognized by more programs, but keeping up that motivation can be challenging.

“They’re able to see what offers their friends are getting, they’re able to see what offers kids that are younger than them are getting, so everything’s just so in front of their face,” Kuester said of recruits. “Until you sign, you know nothing’s really sealed. ... They have a long way to go.”

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Moses, who’s from Lower Merion, has scholarship offers from St. Joe’s and Florida. She also has received interest from top programs, including UConn, South Carolina, and Louisville.

When the 5-foot-9 point guard finds herself getting stressed out about her basketball future, she thinks back on why she plays the game in the first place.

“Basketball, it’s given me so many opportunities already,” Moses said. “I want to go to the WNBA. I feel like just working at my craft will only get me there. ... I’ve also created many bonds through it.”

The girls have a schedule centered on basketball, from training with their varsity teams after school for two hours to working out on their own five days a week.

Brown believes it’s important to have the balance of being a kid and working out. She knows being overworked would drive her away from the game. That’s why she steps away from the court to hang out with friends or go to her brother’s football games for most of the weekend.

“It’s really hard because sometimes I want to hang out with my friends,” said Brown, who has offers from Penn State and Columbia and interest from Baylor and Villanova. “But, at the same time, I also want to make sure I work out that day. Once I got my first offer, I felt like I needed to work out every day. That’s how I felt because once I got that offer, it motivated me to get more, so I just wanted to keep working out.”

Working as hard as they do is about not being satisfied with the player rankings, the college offers, and, ultimately, the kind of player they are. But it can come with a price, one they hope will pay off when they make it to the collegiate level.

“I’ve worked so hard right now,” Carter said. “If I get to go to whatever college for free, I think all that money and all the time my parents spent on me will pay off because they won’t have to pay for college tuition. … I would have all my dreams come true just from how hard I worked when I was little.”