City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Nike Global Challenge will bring the best players from the United States and around the globe to Chicago’s Whitney Young High School from Wednesday through Saturday for an eight-team tournament.

And included in that mix of cultures and flavors from around the world will be a taste of South Philly.

Archbishop Wood head coach John Mosco will be one of eight coaches--four high school, four AAU--from around the country who will be coaching the four United States teams taking place in the event.

Mosco, 50, a St. John Neumann grad who was an assistant at his alma mater (it became Neumann-Goretti in 2005) for 20 years, took over at Wood two years ago for his first head coaching job.

In two years as head coach of the Vikings, Mosco has lead the team to a 29-18 record, including a very solid 18-6 (8-5 PCL) record last year.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by the great people at Nike, who have been really good to myself when I was at Neumann and also here at Wood,” he told CoBL by phone on Monday. “It’s a privilege to be recognized like that.”

Mosco will head out to Chicago on Tuesday evening for the start of the camp on Wednesday, coinciding with the opening of the second July live recruiting period of the summer. One of three five-day periods this month where Division I coaches can watch high school prospects, the live period will open on Wednesday at 5 PM and closes Sunday at the same time.

The Nike Global Challenge will feature 40 of the best players from Nike’s EYBL, split onto four teams: USA West, Midwest, East and South. They’ll be joined by teams from Canada, the Dominican Republic, China and Pan Africa in the eight-team tournament, which features scrimmages on Wednesday night but gets underway at 10 AM on Thursday.

(The full schedule can be found here.)

While some younger coaches might look to use this exposure as an opportunity to move up in the coaching world, Mosco--who has a full-time job at PECO and a family to support--is not there to do anything but learn.

“This is more about getting the experience for myself and Wood, “Mosco said. “Being around a lot of great players and other coaches, just seeing how the people do things and try to learn from it, bring something back to Wood where we can utilize it.”

While at Neumann-Goretti, Mosco spent 16 years under Carl Arrigale, who won his 400th game as Saints head coach this past season. Arrigale turned the program into the most feared in the city, turning out high-major Division I prospects like Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson (Syracuse), Tony Chennault (Wake Forest/Villanova), Ja'Quan Newton (Miami) and more.

As such, Arrigale had the opportunity to coach in things like the Jordan Brand classic--but that was an opportunity Mosco wasn’t afforded: “they usually just pick the head coaches, I understand that.”

Now it’s his turn.

“To get chosen and be able to do that,” he said, “feels special.”