Ironically, small towns come in all shapes and sizes. Likewise, small town basketball teams can come from the suburbs, nestled between other cities in a large metro area, or they can be found in rural areas isolated from neighboring towns.
We set out to recognize the best of the best when it comes to small town high school girls basketball teams, which we defined as schools with less than 1,000 students in a town with a population of under 10,000 people.
At the top of the list is
New Hope Academy (Landover Hills, Md.). The Tigers, ranked No. 12 in the most recent MaxPreps Top 25, won GEICO Nationals in 2019 and participated in the event again this year.
Landover Hills is a small town near Washington, D.C. with a population of just under 2,000 people. The town does not have a public school and New Hope Academy is the only school in the town that has high school sports.
Similarly, No. 2
Pinewood (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) is the only high school in town, which is located south of San Francisco and is only a few miles from Santa Clara, the home of the San Francisco 49ers. Los Altos Hills has a population of about 9,000 people.
Then you have a team like
Roy/Winifred (Winifred, Mont.), which is a co-op for the small towns of Roy and Winifred. Located 44 miles apart (about 200 miles north of Bozeman), both towns have a population of about 200 people. Winifred has also gained some acclaim for a $40 million state-of-the-art addition to the school (including a new gym) funded by Winifred alumnus Norm Asbjornson, according to the Billings Gazette.
Roy/Winifred is ranked No. 7 in the small town rankings after going 22-0 and winning the Montana Division C championship.
The small town rankings are based on the MaxPreps computer ratings. Schools are listed with their season record and computer rating.
Head coach Jeremy Durham and his Bearettes of Brownsboro celebrate a win in the Texas Class 4A state championship game.
Photo by Robbie Rakestraw
1.
New Hope Academy (Landover Hills, Md.), 28-3, 39.2
2.
Pinewood (Los Altos Hills, Calif.), 22-3, 37.9
3.
Saddle River Day (Saddle River, N.J.), 25-2, 36.8
4.
Averill Park (N.Y.), 25-1, 34.9
5.
Neshoba Central (Philadelphia, Miss.), 33-0, 32.7
6.
Brownsboro (Texas), 40-2, 32.4
7.
Roy/Winifred (Winifred, Mont.), 22-0, 32.3
8.
Tuttle (Okla.), 25-2, 32.2
9.
Melbourne (Ark.), 26-0, 32.0
10.
Canadian (Texas), 35-2, 31.4
11.
Havre (Mont.), 21-2, 31.4
12.
Gruver (Texas), 25-0, 31.3
13.
Sugar-Salem (Sugar City, Idaho), 22-2, 31.1
14.
Fairfield (Texas), 40-1, 30.4
15.
Idalou (Texas), 24-4, 30.4
16.
Marin Catholic (Kentfield, Calif.), 27-5, 30.3
17.
Portland (Mich.), 23.2, 30.0
18.
Manasquan (N.J.), 31-5, 29.2
19.
Elbert County (Elberton, Ga.), 28-4, 29.1
20.
Silver Creek (Sellersburg, Ind.), 25-3, 29.0
21.
Farmington (Ark.), 36-2, 28.7
22.
Kindred (N.D.), 25-0, 28.6
23.
Stamford (Texas), 26-3, 28.2
24.
Ketchikan (Alaska), 24-3, 28.0
24.
Jim Ned (Tuscola, Texas), 33-2, 28.0
24.
Amite (La.), 34-2, 28.0
