City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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CHESTER — It could have been worse. Far worse. That’s the bright side of the situation Tristen Guillouette finds himself in. A few months ago, the imposing 6-foot-9, 235-pound forward appeared to have everything he wanted. He was finishing a solid high school career at budding Catholic League contender Saint Joseph’s Prep, and he had his college destination set in place at Fairfield University.

He was looking forward to leading the Hawks to a championship run at the Palestra when his life took a drastic spin within a blink, it seemed. First, Guillouette was denied a fifth year of eligibility by the PIAA, forcing him to either sit out, or play the 2023-24 season elsewhere. Then, a week before he was going to sign with Fairfield, Stags’ head coach Jay Young resigned on Oct. 17.

Guillouette was in limbo.

A few calls were made around by the St. Joe’s Prep coaching staff in trying to help Guillouette, who lives in South Jersey, find a new home where he can play and hit the reset button on his college recruiting process. In stepped Council Rock Hall of Famer Ben Luber, the three-year coach at George School to the rescue.

Over these last few weeks, Guillouette has made the transition from commuting to St. Joe’s Prep every day to moving in at George School, a high-end academic boarding school in Newtown, Bucks County. The landing gave Guillouette solace with another year of basketball in a similar academic, social culture as St. Joe’s Prep — and a chance to find a new college home.

“That’s the culture shock,” Guillouette said. “I wake up on my own, my mom isn’t cooking dinner for me anymore, not knowing where my next meal is coming from. I have to make sure I’m eating right. I have to manage my school work, there are practices and games, and I’m still trying to find time to be a kid. Mom did prep on washing clothes since I was a kid (laughs).”

Guillouette averaged 10.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 3.0 apg and 3.0 bpg last season at St. Joe’s Prep and earned second team All-Philadelphia Catholic League honors.

He seems to be adjusting quite well judging by his performance in the Cougars’ 71-55 victory over Life Center on Sunday in the final game of the Kobe Bryant Classic at Widener’s Schwartz Athletic Center. He dropped 19 points and was an imposing force in the middle.

This could have been a very traumatic time, assuaged by Luber and George School.

“It has been very difficult,” Guillouette admitted. “I’ve been fortunate to have very good people around me. I keep God always in my prayers. My family and God have helped me through this process. It’s been hard to navigate through these difficult times. There were not that many people that had this same story that I can reference for advice. I was expecting to play this season for Prep. This is a great fit at George School. I’m surrounded by good coaches, good players, I just had to get used to quick turnaround, because I moved into the dorms on Nov. 29.”

Guillouette said Colgate and Florida Gulf Coast and coach Pat Chambers have shown interest in him, among other schools. Guillouette announced an offer from FGCU on Wednesday. Fairfield, he said, is out of the picture.

“College recruitment is a grind, but I have to concentrate on me and focus on what I need to do to get better, and that’s what I have been doing,” he said. “I have a tattoo here on my right forearm that says, ‘God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.’ I live by that. I know I’m going to take my time with the (recruiting) process this time.”

He will have Luber to guide him. He played at Penn State and left among the school’s top-10 all-time assist leaders, before finding the coaching bug as an assistant at Rider until 2020.

“Tristen was going to go to school at St. Joe’s Prep without playing and when Fairfield’s coach left, he was stuck,” Luber said. “St. Joe’s reached out to me to see if I could help one of their guys, and we love playing two bigs at George School (paired with 6-10 junior forward Luke Bevilacqua). So, it was kind of like the perfect storm, not only for Tristen but for us. He was really thrown in there on Nov. 29, asked to do a lot of things learning our plays, going to a new school, moving into our dorms, where he is a boarder now. It is a whole new world.

“We couldn’t ask for a better person to come into our program. He’s a good person, he’s mature, he’s a leader. He is exactly who our team needed. Tristen learned how to win at St Joe’s Prep, where they have polished kids who are very similar to our culture. He learned how to win at Prep, they did a good job coaching him. Prep wanted him to stay, and he wanted to stay at Prep. The reality is Tristen is 6-foot-9, with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and a high-academic kid and the truth is a lot of college coaches would love someone like him. He is going to be fine.”

Luber was expecting a downtrodden young man when he arrived at George School and he has been anything but.

“He was kicked to the ground,” Luber said. “He has resilience in his blood. What I learned quickly is Tristen has great qualities and he stood right back up.”

Standing in the wings as the game wrapped up on Sunday was Annessa Ambrose, Guillouette’s mom. Guillouette did his homework and worked off a schedule at St. Joe’s Prep, she stressed, so being on his own will not be as large a shift. She and her son tried to get a waver for his senior year.

“Coming here at George School was really not much of a change,” she said. “It was a PIAA decision, not a St. Joe’s Prep decision. He wanted to stay there, the coaches and the school administration wanted him to stay. We were very happy with the Prep. We have no regrets being there. They really developed him. His character and athleticism grew there. We wanted to maintain Tristen’s high academics. This was supposed to be his season. It was difficult, but it’s ended well.”

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.