There are several ways that Bethlehem Catholic High School feels like a second home for freshman Kamryn Gallis.<\/p>\n
For one, she\u2019s heard the stories of her mom, Tiffany Bedics-Gallis, who graduated as the school\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 1,804 points before Kalista Walters, the daughter of current Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne, soared to the top of the list just over a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Now, a student trying to carry on her mother\u2019s legacy, Gallis sees that same gymnasium as a home primarily because there\u2019s an argument to be made that she spends more time there than she does at her actual house.<\/p>\n
Just ask her mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always the last car at the Bethlehem Catholic gym. I can\u2019t tell you how many hours I\u2019ve wasted sitting in the parking lot waiting for her to come out,\u201d Bedics-Gallis said. \u201cI literally bring my work with me because I know she\u2019s going to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think I hold her hostage in the gym. It\u2019s really the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
That work paid off in Gallis\u2019 debut season, and while injuries shortened her season and caused frustration, the young star with multiple Division I offers still managed to share the team lead in scoring (12.2 ppg) and help lead the charge to a 10th consecutive district championship for the Golden Hawks.<\/p>\n
Combined with infectious energy, two-way talent and a display of limitless untapped potential, Gallis earned her status as The Morning Call\u2019s 2025-26 girls basketball rookie of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely super grateful for the experience. I\u2019m really looking forward to next year,\u201d Gallis said. \u201cWith the injury, everything happens for a reason, but using that as motivation for next year and even trying to raise the goals like trying to get that EPC title, getting districts again, the state title even\u2026we\u2019re using it as motivation in the gym and wanting to work even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before that injury, it didn\u2019t take long for Gallis to introduce herself and break onto the scene.<\/p>\n
In the season opener against Liberty, a PIAA Tournament qualifier from the season prior, Gallis erupted with a game-high 25 points and a solid defensive effort against the eventual EPC MVP in Ava Kopetskie. Perhaps the most defining moment from that game, and the most evident sign of things to come, came with the game already in hand and the mercy rule already in effect in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Gallis picked up Kopetskie in the frontcourt, stayed attached to her hip and forced a five-second violation that can only come from persistent effort and energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole game, I\u2019m just keeping the mindset of being hungry and being a dog,\u201d Gallis said after that game. \u201cShe\u2019s a great player, so I\u2019m just trying my best to keep my hustle 100 percent and trying my best to shut her down.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the two people who dedicate the most time allowing it to happen, this is just the product of Gallis\u2019 constant pursuit of perfecting and advancing her craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s one of the hardest workers I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d Bedics-Gallis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kid loves the game of basketball, and she\u2019s relentless with the work that she puts in,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cWhen you have a kid that you don\u2019t have to push to go to the gym, I call them self starters. It\u2019s so much easier when you have someone that you don\u2019t have to push. The work ethic is there, the joy is there, and we have a good time training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alleyne, the third-year coach of the Golden Hawks, deserves credit for that dedication as well and the Gallis family was quick to provide it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Arnold will stay. He offers his time to every single player on that team, and whoever wants it, he\u2019s there for them,\u201d Bedics-Gallis said. \u201cThere\u2019s no one that I\u2019ve ever met that is willing to give any player that wants to get in the gym their time more than he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike my mom was talking about, especially with Coach Arnold, the amount of time that he gives all of our players and everything that he does, even off the court, has helped me in so many ways,\u201d Gallis said. \u201cI\u2019m just really grateful for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alleyne was one of the many reasons why the decision for Gallis to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps at Bethlehem Catholic was a \u201cno-brainer,\u201d and it\u2019s a decision that nobody is regretting following a successful start to what could be the next in a long line of incredible careers representing the Golden Hawks locally and nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a parent and former player at Bethlehem Catholic, [they] offered my entire family an amazing academic and athletic opportunity. Me going on to play at Lafayette and then I had two outstanding athlete brothers, John and Pat Bedics, who played at North Carolina State and were phenomenal in their own right,\u201d Bedics-Gallis said. \u201cMyself and her and her dad decided that Bethlehem Catholic was the best choice for her \u2026 I would give all my time back to the school because of the experience that I had there, so I wanted the same for my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
From sitting at the end of the bench in middle school to raising a championship trophy in her first season, Gallis is taking advantage of that same opportunity as she sets her sights on the state title her mom still regrets missing out on and, of course, a few of those \u201cattainable\u201d records that might get replaced along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I have lots of goals. Trying to get player of the year, obviously, we were talking about state titles, continuing the district streak, and overall just trying my best to be a great teammate,\u201d Gallis said on what the future holds. \u201cJust all the goals we were talking about and just getting better as a player, coming out and just doing what we do as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her coach handles plenty of calls from prospective collegiate suitors and when asked about the ceiling of his newest superstar, Alleyne was sure to be careful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even want to put a ceiling on it. She has such a will to win and a passion to get better that it continues to impress and improve as she puts the work in. I\u2019ve trained many kids, but she shoots the ball the best,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cAnd when you have a kid that\u2019s great academically and great athletically, the sky is the limit because she has a similar passion for both. When you have someone that does both, that means she could go to an Ivy League school, so that widens her recruitment by her academically being so strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to put a limit on it because only she\u2019s going to be able to control it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Derek Bast is a freelance reporter who can be found on Twitter\/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are several ways that Bethlehem Catholic High School feels like a second home for freshman Kamryn Gallis.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,29375,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-164043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}