At the beginning of the high school sports season, you often hear about a new school opening and how its athletes are ready to start something big. It’s not often you think, in September, about the end of something big.

With the closing of Towson Catholic, however, it is the end of something big -- especially in basketball. At times throughout its 86-year history, Towson Catholic had girls and boys programs that ranked among the best in the country.

The girls were a national power in the 1980s and most recently ranked among Baltimore’s top teams between 2005 and 2007, with stellar guard Marah Strickland on the roster.

Michael Dukes, the Owls' most recent girls basketball coach, had hoped to boost his team back into the upper echelon of the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference before he heard the school would not open its doors this fall.

Dukes said he heard about the school’s closing at a basketball tournament this summer. He tried to keep the news from his daughter, Chelsea, the team’s top returning player, but she started getting text messages, so he had to tell her sooner than he would have liked.

Chelsea Dukes, a senior, has enrolled at Seton Keough, where she should contribute for the perennially competitive Gators.

Michael Dukes said other players have enrolled all around the area: Aiva Parhan, Chaun Crocket and Blair Harding at Poly, Taylor Carter at Mercy, Brittany Lanahan and McKenzie Reese at Lutheran, Courtney Stephens at Gerstell Academy, Lakia Huff at Fallston and Quay Malloy at St. Frances. Gerstell also picked up four of the Owls' incoming freshmen: Mykeria Lewis, Jalen Porter, Sierra Naylor and Jada Scarbough, while Alexis Harrison is at Digital Harbor.