City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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In some ways, the Harcum College men’s basketball program was like Drew Kelly’s child.

Kelly was hired a season before the Bears ever took the floor. For 17 years, he helped turn Harcum from a newborn program to a national junior college powerhouse.

Like all kids, the time finally came for Kelly to let Harcum go on its own.

Kelly announced on Wednesday that he took an assistant coaching position at Northern Illinois under new head coach Rashon Burno. 

Stepping into his place as the head man in Harcum is John Ball, who's spent the last five seasons as an assistant for Kelly in Bryn Mawr.

“This is his baby,” Ball said. “It’s 17 years old and he grew it from nothing. There’s definitely some pressure I’m putting on myself not to let him down because he’s trusting me with the reins and he’s trusting me with the program.

“It’s really hard to get opportunities in this business at any level and he was able to make an incredible move for himself and his family and that gave me the opportunity to slide into the big chair and take the reins of this program over.”

Kelly started the program from scratch 17 years ago. He was previously the head coach at Bucks County Community College and spent time as an assistant at both The College of New Jersey and Haverford College after serving as a student assistant while attending Villanova.

Harcum hired Kelly a season before the start of the program, and his first year on the job was spent recruiting players to a program that did not exist. He finished his time with the Bears with a 429-102 record.

“You’re having kids on visits and there’s no team, no history, no tradition. There’s no banners in the gym,” Kelly said. “There’s no, ‘This guy transferred here. This is what we did.’ I had to sell everybody on a vision in my head. I was confident where we could take the program, but in a million years I never would have thought that it would become what it became and I would be there for 17 years.”

“Obviously over 17 years, from time to time things come up, but I’ve always been so focused on doing my job at Harcum,” he added. “I’ve never really seriously entertained leaving. I guess it’s hard to explain. It was just kind of time. After 17 years, I was just kind of looking for a new challenge and it had to be the right challenge too. Coach Bruno at Northern Illinois I think is a really impressive young and upcoming coach. I just really believed in what I saw out of him and where that program is going and thought it was a great opportunity and decided to make the change.”

Harcum finished in the top five twice nationally and top ten five times under Kelly, including the 2013-14 squad that advanced to the NJCAA Division I Final Four. 

This past season the Bears matched that group’s record for wins and posted the best season winning percentage in school history with a 32-3 mark and Elite Eight trip.

Kelly’s program also has a long track record of helping his players find homes at the next level. Mohamed Wague (West Virginia), Louis Bleechmore (St. Joe’s), Yazid Powell (Buffalo), Tre Dinkins (Canisius), Derrius Ward (UT-Rio Grande Valley) and Abdul Shanunu (Delaware State) from last year’s squad are headed to the D1 level this upcoming season.

It was important he left the program in the hands of someone he could trust.

”John is just an incredible young coach,” Kelly said. “One, he’s got an amazing work ethic and just an amazing passion for coaching and Harcum. I couldn’t have asked for a better assistant coach over the last five years. 

“It was really important to me to see him get the opportunity to keep everything in house and kind of keep the program and tradition that we built there, the culture that we built there flowing in the right direction.”

Ball’s foray into coaching began as a manager at Penn State under Pat Chambers back in 2011, working as the head manager during his final two seasons in State College. He then spent a year at West Chester with Damien Blair before he was the video coordinator under John Giannini at La Salle for two seasons.

With Kelly ingrained in the head coaching position at Harcum, Ball didn’t have any thoughts of taking over the program until a conversation in mid-June. However, Harcum’s new head man is realizing a dream many years in the making as he becomes a head college basketball coach for the first time.

”My first day as a manager (at Penn State), I remember walking into the gym and thinking, ‘This is what I want to do,” Ball said.’” It’s been every day since then, trying to get to this point and being able to run my own program and be able to be the head guy in charge, make all the decisions and see what happens from there.”

The Harcum men's basketball team poses together after its Sweet 16 win last season. (Photo: Drew Simcox/Harcum)

Over five seasons at Harcum, Ball said the list of his duties as an assistant could go on and on. He noted the bond he and Kelly built developed a lot of trust during their time together and therefore a lot of responsibility.

Ball said recruiting, scouting, academics, on-campus relationships and travel were among just a few of things he was at least partially responsible for and that won’t change much in his new position as head coach.

“The big thing is even though I’m the head coach, I still have to have my hand in everything,” Ball said. “I can’t just sit back now and kind of let things play out. I still gotta be involved in a lot of the administration stuff on campus and strengthen those relationships. I have to have really strong relationships with my players.

“At the Division I level, they have a million guys, plus a million GAs, plus a million managers and it kind of allows them to focus singularly on one thing. For us at this level, you’ve gotta do a little bit of everything, every single day to make sure the program keeps turning over.”

Kelly said he is trying not to reflect too much on his time at Harcum right now — firstly because he always likes to look ahead to what is in front of him and secondly because he knows he will get emotional.

“I’ve had amazing players and it’s been a real privilege to coach at Harcum and coach all the young men that I’ve coached there,” Kelly said. “It’s really hard to step away from. It’s been my entire identity for almost two decades, but I owe a lot to those young men who played for me. That’s kind of who I’m thinking of as I make the transition.”

When asked what he will uniquely bring to the table as head coach, Ball said he hasn’t had much time to think about things like that. He’s totally focused on the players as well, putting together their summer academic schedules along with their practice and workout programs.

He said one of his favorite parts about coaching at the junior college level is not only do you get to compete at a high level, but you also get to help open new doors for your players when they leave.

With the confidence and approval of the man who grew the program from the ground up, Ball now has the chance to leave his own touch at Harcum as its second men's basketball coach.

“I just feel really lucky. This is an unbelievable opportunity for me and it’s an unbelievable opportunity for our players,” Ball said. “We get to leave OUR stamp on this program and its storied history. We’re still a young program in the eyes of the NJCAA. Some of these programs have been around 50, 60, 70 years, 80 years competing at this level and we’ve been able to really build something special here. Now it’s our turn to put our own unique stamp on it, which is really, really exciting.”