According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Dr. Rachel Laws Myers, a 2002 graduate of Cheltenham High School, still holds the PIAA state record for most team wins by a starting female athlete.

Myers, who was a four-year starter, accumulated 125 team victories from 1999 to 2002 as the Lady Panthers went 31-2 in 1999, 32-1 in 2000, 31-2 in 2001, and 31-2 in 2002. She scored over 1,000 career points and grabbed over 1,000 career rebounds during her career and helped Cheltenham to a state title and three District One crowns.

The 2000 state title team, courtesy of Cheltenham School District

She continued her basketball career at Binghamton University, where she was inducted into the athletic Hall of Fame and a member of the National College Athlete Honor Society during her tenure. 

She went on to earn her Ph.D at Michigan State University before accepting her accepting roles as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion and Instructor in English at The Hotchkiss School, a boarding school for roughly 600 students in grades 9-12 in Lakeville, Connecticut. Today Dr. Myers serves the same roles at Choate Rosemary Hall, also based in Connecticut.

In 2021, Myers published Race and Sports: A Reference Handbook, which “provides a breadth and depth of discussion about minority athletes, coaches, sports journalists, and others in U.S. sport.”

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Photos courtesy of Binghamton University