Moorestown Friends' Runyan A McDonald's All-American Candidate

MOORESTOWN, NJ — This week may be the week that Bella Runyan is introduced to the nation. The Moorestown Friends School senior is one of 900 high school girls basketball players, including 20 from New Jersey, nominated for a spot to play in the 2020 McDonald’s All-American Game.

Nominations are made by high school coaches, athletic directors and principals, as well as McDonald’s All American Games Selection Committee Members.

From the list of nominees, 23 girls nationally will be selected by members of the committee to play in the game. Final selections will be announced on Thursday, with the game to be played on April 1 at the Toyota Center in Houston. The announcement of the selections will air live on ESPN, 3 p.m.

Runyan will be on her way to a game at that time, so if she wants to know if she is selected, she’ll have to check Twitter. She says it won’t be a distraction for her, though.

“I don’t let things get in my head,” Runyan said. “When I was getting close to 1,000 points, people were asking me if it was freaking me out. It didn’t freak me out.”

When the moment finally came for her, she said it felt like another layup. Except this time, the game stopped, the balloons came down and there were a lot of people in attendance to support the Villanova-commit. The game quickly moved on, and Moorestown Friends went on to beat Friends Select, 57-21.

It was among a number of accolades Runyan has collected in her career. She is the No. 2 scorer among girls basketball players in school history, and she’s closing in on the No. 2 spot overall among both boys and girls.

She owns the records for assists and steals both in a career and in a single season. The daughter of former Philadelphia Eagles football player and Congressman Jon Runyan reached all those milestones her junior year.

But her priorities are team priorities. Her objectives are to stay healthy and to help her team win. Her team has been doing just that lately, reeling off five straight wins on its way to a 7-2 record so far this season.

“I believe we can win the Friends League title this year,” Runyan said. “We haven’t done that yet. We made it the final my sophomore year and lost.”

She also believes the team can make it deep in the NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B playoffs, and that it is a contender to win the South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament. The Foxes already won their first round game, and will play in the quarterfinals at Eastern Regional High School this weekend.

After the season and her career come to an end, she will enter the nursing program at Villanova University. She would like to work in pediatrics or the NICU section of a hospital. She said she loves being around children.

First, a trip to Houston might be in store for a girls basketball player the nation would be sure to remember.