Lohmiller Making the Most of Her Time With Top-Ranked LuHi, Which Is Set To Make Run for National Title This Weekend

For nearly the entire season, the Long Island Lutheran Crusaders have been the top-ranked high school girls basketball team in the country, boasting a 21-1 record. They’re one of six teams that will play for a national title at the Chipotle National Championships, set for April 4-6 at Brownsburg High School near Indianapolis, Indiana.

Three of LuHi’s starters are McDonald’s All-Americans, making the Crusaders the first team ever to have that many All-Americans playing together at the same time, so head coach Christina Raiti does plenty of speaking to the media about her team. Yet when she’s asked about freshman Coco Lohmiller, a newcomer to the team who has seen limited minutes this season, she still lights up.

“She’s one of my easiest kids to speak about,” Raiti said at the end of last week, moments before an interview with ESPN, which will televise the national championship games. “She just gets it.”

Lohmiller, a Sag Harbor resident, made a big life decision last year when Raiti, her longtime AAU coach, invited her to join the LuHi team over the summer. Lohmiller said yes, even though it involved making some serious sacrifices. Not only would she have to embark on a two-hour commute to school every morning — most days with a predawn ride on the Long Island Rail Road from Bridgehampton — but Lohmiller would also go from being the undisputed star of the Pierson girls basketball team, which she led in scoring as an eighth-grader, to having to fight for minutes on a squad stacked with some of the top talent in the nation.

Lohmiller and her family chose to make those sacrifices in service of her long-held goal: to play college basketball.

Raiti was clear about what being on the team would entail, and what it would require of Lohmiller, and said that Lohmiller has admirably stepped up to the big challenge.

“I told her, ‘I can never promise anyone playing time, and you might not play until you’re older,’” Raiti said, recalling the conversation they had last summer. “‘But if you want to be in an atmosphere that will challenge you every day, I have a place for you at LuHi. But you have to be okay with getting your butt kicked every day.’”

While playing time has been limited for Lohmiller in her freshman season, Raiti said she has fully delivered on being the kind of “culture kid” she hoped she would be.

“She’s had good days and bad days,” Raiti said. “It’s hard. But we don’t have a kid who’s more all in than she is. She’s been the best teammate, and from a culture standpoint, one of the most valuable players on the team.

“I think her best basketball is still far ahead of her,” she added.

Raiti gave Lohmiller credit for battling every day in practice against her talented teammates, including 6-foot-5-inch star Kate Koval, committed to Notre Dame, and fellow All-Americans Syla Swords and Kayleigh Heckel.

“It takes courage,” Raiti continued. “I think a lot of people say they’re okay with that until you have to do it and there’s a 6-foot-5 kid kicking your butt every day. But she’s been tremendous. I don’t have enough good things to say about her.”

Lohmiller saw time on the court in a few games during the season, bringing good energy and grabbing some key rebounds, Raiti said.

“The team adores her as a teammate and as a friend,” she said. “She does a tremendous job in practice. Her time is coming. I think she has a great mindset toward it all, and understands that she’s investing in her future.”

Lohmiller said she’s tried to maintain that mentality throughout the year, but admitted it hasn’t always been easy.

“I think I’ve grown a lot from the beginning of the year,” she said earlier this week. “At first, it was definitely nerve wracking, and I was definitely a little bit scared. It was a very, very big jump to go from Pierson to LuHi. I’m more in shape physically now, but mentally I’ve definitely gotten stronger, too.”

Lohmiller said it was hard to spend so much time away from home, and her friend group back in Sag Harbor, but said it became easier over time, thanks to the way the team accepted her.

“I’ve built a family and a very good relationship with all my teammates,” she said.

As for her own family, Lohmiller’s mother, Jennifer Doud, gets emotional when she talks about her daughter and how dedicated she’s been throughout the year to chasing her basketball dreams.

“I’m proud of her,” she said, pointing out that Lohmiller has stayed on top of her schoolwork as well, making the honor roll every semester. “None of it has been easy, but she just handles it.”

Lohmiller said she spends the long morning train rides finishing up homework while sipping on her chai tea from Starbucks, a morning ritual. (Lohmiller and Doud laughed when they recounted how devastated they were to discover that the Bridgehampton Starbucks would be temporarily closed for renovations last week).

With or without the usual morning pick-me-up, Lohmiller had plenty to be excited about heading into the first week of April. The Crusaders were set to start their run for a national title later this week. They earned a first-round bye and will take the court in the national semifinals on Friday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m., which will be televised on ESPNU. The girls’ national title game is set for 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 6, and will be broadcast on ESPN.

“It’s crazy to think about it all when you take a step back and really soak it in,” Lohmiller said of being part of a team that could be playing for a national title on ESPN on Saturday. “But we try to stay as humble as we can. We’re just very honored to be in the position we’ve been in.”