Williamsburg’s Bella Royer is swarmed over by a trio of Saint Joseph’s defenders during this past Tuesday’s semifinal victory. Mirror file photo by Patrick Waksmunski

If the Williamsburg girls basketball team’s schedule did not prepare the Lady Blue Pirates for Friday’s state championship game, coach Angela Detwiler wouldn’t have to look far to blame someone.

“Well, my husband (Jeff) is the (Williamsburg athletic director), and I was getting on him (about scheduling strong opponents),” Detwiler laughed, amid preparations for today’s noon PIAA Class 1A girls final against Delco Christian at Hershey’s Giant Center. “But he’s doing a good job.”

The Lady Pirates’ non-conference regular-season schedule was filled with several teams that helped push them to where they are today — playing for the program’s first state title in 29 years.

Williamsburg opened the 2025-26 season in the Forest Hills Tournament, where it knocked off the eventual District 6 4A runners-up Lady Rangers before falling to WPIAL Class 5A team Indiana in the championship game.

The Lady Pirates also defeated now two-time PIAA Class 2A champion Berlin Brothersvalley in an Inter-County Conference non-divisional game in December and also downed District 6 Class 3A finalist Cambria Heights in their holiday tournament.

Other non-conference regular-season opponents were Bellwood-Antis, Saint Joseph’s Academy, Mountain Ridge (Md.) and Northern Bedford.

“We’ve been trying to add teams to make our schedule tougher,” Detwiler said. “It’s nice going into a game like (the state championship) being battle-tested. When you play better teams, some of your weaknesses can be exposed that you can then improve on. It’s better if it happens during the regular season.”

The beefed-up non-conference schedule helped make up for a somewhat down year for several opponents in the ICC East. Williamsburg won 10 games this year by at least 50 points and worked to gain positives out of those blowouts.

“We did a lot of rotating during those games,” Detwiler said. “We did some five in and five out, and it gave us an opportunity to have our junior varsity players get varsity experience.”

The postseason brought bigger hurdles. But losing to Berlin in the ICC championship game, 62-57, Bishop Guilfoyle in the District 6 semifinals, 61-31, and Saint Joseph’s in the District 6 consolation, 75-73, didn’t deter the Lady Pirates.

“It was a challenge,” Detwiler said. “Those are some really good teams. But the girls showed perseverance and really came together and gelled at the right time.”

The Lady Pirates pushed aside those losses and have beaten some Class 1A annual powerhouses in the PIAA playoffs, including Bishop Carroll, and avenged two earlier losses to Saint Joseph’s in the PIAA semifinals on Tuesday to put them on the doorstep of achieving something that might not have seemed possible to outsiders just a few weeks ago.

“Even getting to this achievement takes so much commitment and dedication to prepare our entire team mentally and physically to win the game,” Williamsburg senior LeeAnna Royer said. “We as a team will do everything to bring the gold ball home to our town.”