Baldwin’s Dryburgh ready to continue basketball career in college

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, August 1, 2021 | 9:08 AM

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Meghan Dryburgh enjoys a good challenge.

It’s one of the reasons the 2021 Baldwin graduate plans to continue her accomplished basketball career at Washington & Jefferson.

Dryburgh committed June 2 to the Presidents following a four-year varsity career in high school. She graduated with a stellar 4.3 GPA and plans to major in biology in college.

“Meghan is the type of player that will stand out no matter where she goes. I am absolutely confident she will stand out a W&J,” Baldwin coach Jamal Woodson said. “Meghan‘s senior year was absolutely phenomenal.”

W&J is a member of the NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference. Coached by Jina DeRubbo, the Presidents racked up a 6-0 conference record during an abbreviated 2020-21 season, advanced to the PAC championship game and finished 8-1 overall.

Dryburgh also was recruited by other schools such as Mansfield, Millersville, John Carroll, Saint Vincent, Waynesburg, Baldwin-Wallace and Carlow.

“I had a number of schools interested and even a couple of D-II offers, but ultimately W&J felt like the best fit for me both academically and athletically,” Dryburgh said. “I considered six or seven schools with the OAC, PSAC and PAC but chose W&J because they wanted to challenge me.

“The faculty there were very enthusiastic about their curriculum. They know how to point biology majors in the right direction and I really liked that.”

A 5-foot-11 guard/forward, Dryburgh will be one of seven freshmen on the W&J squad. She will be joined by guards Bryn Bezjak (Albert Gallatin), Nautica Burwell (Allderdice) and Adalynn Cherry (Altoona), and guard/forwards Samantha Maurer (Washington), Syler Bibbee (Chantilly, Va.) and Sydney Snyder (Loudonville, Ohio).

“Coach DeRubbo attended a number of our games (at Baldwin) and was very passionate about my skills,” Dryburgh said.

DeRubbo is looking forward to coaching the former Highlander and has high hopes for her at W&J.

“Our staff just worked at camp with Meghan and several of her new teammates this past week,” DeRubba said. “She fit right in immediately and it was easy to see she will be a good teammate. We are pretty excited about this freshman class as a whole and she will play a big part in that group’s success.

“We think Meghan has the potential to be a big impact player for us early in her career. How early will depend on how quickly she learns our system and adjusts to the college game, but the expectations are high for her.”

Off the court, Dryburgh was a National Honor Society treasurer at Baldwin, and also participated the Special Olympics and mini-thon clubs, activities council and math league.

Dryburgh missed most of her sophomore season because of an ankle injury, which proved to be another challenge for her to overcome.

And she did.

Dryburgh scored 18 points and pulled down 20 rebounds to lead the Highlanders to a 46-43 win at Penn-Trafford in a WPIAL Class 6A first-round playoff game in her senior season.

“She was the best player in the WPIAL tonight,” Woodson was quoted as saying following brilliant performance. “No one else has done that in the playoffs thus far. When a player has the hot hand, you get her the ball. That performance was something players dream about.”

DeRubbo, much like Woodson, was impressed by Dryburgh’s all-around athleticism and versatility.

“One of Meghan’s biggest assets is her ability to play multiple positions,” said the Presidents’ floor boss. “We see her being a player with great versatility who can score at multiple levels. She can shoot the 3 and can post up with a strong post game as well. She will create big matchup problems for a lot of teams.

“One of the things that caught my attention early was her great floor vision and ability to pass the ball. She was more of a post presence in high school, so her ability to pass will make her unique as a 3/4-type player in the college game.”

Another top performance in Dryburgh’s career was her double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds) against McKeesport last season.

“My basketball career at Baldwin was very exciting,” Dryburgh said. “My coach my sophomore and junior years, Kyle DeGregorio, believed in my abilities and taught me lessons both on and off the court. He pushed and worked our team as if we were already in college.

“This year was so different, especially with covid and a new coaching staff, but I think our team adjusted really well. Our performance was really good. We came up short in a couple games, but we played with great intensity as a team every time. I feel I’ve made a great impact at Baldwin, and I really think our connection as a team helped us become successful.”

After attending Seton LaSalle as a freshman, Dryburgh transferred to Baldwin, where she became an impact player in her junior and senior seasons.

The Highlanders ended up 13-11 and played in the PIAA second round in 2019-20, then went 9-8 with a 1-1 record in the WPIAL playoffs this season. Baldwin hadn’t won a WPIAL playoff game since 2015.

“There were many highlights throughout my career,” Dryburgh said, “but the one that stands out the most is the win against Central Dauphin in the first round of the state playoffs in 2019-20. We came in as a huge underdog, seeded at 11th in the state. All my teammates played with a high level of intensity and there were very little mistakes on our part. It was a great team win.”

Dryburgh’s signing with W&J brought the number of basketball recruits this year at Baldwin to six.

Guard Lexi Bernotas, forward Kayla Radomsky and G/F Abby Marzina will remain teammates at Chatham, while guards Anna Lucarelli and Sydney Carr will continue their careers at West Liberty and Carlow, respectively.

Taylor Walker, another backcourt player who fought through an injury plagued career with the Highlanders, anticipates studying forensic psychology at West Virginia.

Dryburgh’s older sister, Morgan, was a standout in basketball and volleyball at Brentwood. As a 5-11 senior forward in 2017-18, she led the Spartans to an 18-8 record and into the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA second round.

She currently is majoring in mechanical engineering at Pitt.

Tags: Baldwin