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Prepping for Preps: Cheltenham (Pa.)

10/03/2015, 9:00am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Khalil White (above) is one of six seniors on Cheltenham's roster this year. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's "Prepping for Preps," our series of articles previewing area high school teams for the 2015-16 season. For the complete list of schools previewed so far, click here)

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Cheltenham seniors Anthony White and Justin Sutton have been friends since first grade, at Cheltenham Elementary.

The other four seniors in the Panthers’ rotation--Khalil White, Blair Brown, Maurice Valentine and Aiden Corrigan--joined them by sixth grade, at Elkins Park Middle School.

This upcoming season will be their seventh playing together, including a few AAU summers in middle school. And not surprisingly for a group that’s played together for so long, they’ve formed tight bonds.

But that wasn’t apparent to John Timms when he took over the program just a month or two before the 2013-14 season. Friends off the court ended up hurting each other on the court, with selfish play and bad attitudes.

“A lot of these guys had been playing together since they were little, but haven’t been coached to play together,” he said. “So it’s like having two best friends who have opposite likes.”

“We’ve always had a little problem with everybody trying to be the man,” said Khalil White, the team’s leading returning scorer and its captain for the upcoming season. “Off the court, we were cool, but on the court it was just too many egos at one time.”

So Timms set out the slow process of getting his pupils to feel the same way between the baselines and sidelines that they did when they weren’t in the gym, knowing full well that was crucial to getting his program to play at its full potential.

Why does the coach feel so strongly about having a team full of friends? Simple chemistry.

“If you’re friends, and he’s wide open, you’re going to trust that he’s going to make the shot,” Timms said. “If he misses and that’s your friend, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t like him, and you give him a wide-open shot, you’re pissed when he misses.

“So it was trying to get them to understand if you like (your teammate), you’re going to be okay with his mistakes.”

All six seniors and their coach are confident that this is the year they’ve finally turned the corner, and have their sights set on making a serious run in the Suburban One League's American Division.

Timms has set a different goal for his team in each of his three seasons.

Year One (2013-14) was making it to .500, and indeed, they went 11-10 to accomplish that task. Last year it was make the district playoffs--and they did that, making it as the No. 29 seed before getting blown out at the hands of eventual district runner-up Plymouth-Whitemarsh.

The Panthers’ seniors might have their sights set on sticking around in districts and making an appearance in the state tournament this time around. But after the last two years, Timms isn’t making a big leap in terms of his expectations.

“Players have their goals, and as a coach you have a goal for the program,” he said. “The goal for the program is to step forward. Now once you’re in the playoffs, all bets are off.”

While all six seniors will make sure the Panthers aren’t at a loss for experience and leadership, there’s no doubt that it’s Khalil White who is their heart and soul.

Timms is putting a lot of responsibility on the 6-foot-tall, 165-pound guard to set a good example for the freshman and sophomores on the junior-less team, and White is aware of how constantly he needs to be acting the right way and saying the right things.

“I’ve got to think about it all the time because I see mistakes and I’ve got to remind myself that it’s the way that you say it to them,” he said. “It’s just little stuff, but I’ve got to remind myself that I can never fall into the background because it’s my role to make sure the offense is moving, defense is pressuring the ball and stuff like that. It’s constantly a thought in my head, I’m the engine this year, so if I fall back and stop, the whole team’s going to be like that.”

Joining White in the backcourt are White, the team's 3-point gunner; up front are Sutton, an athletic 6-4 forward who's in the best shape of his career and has high personal expectations for the year ahead, and Brown, a 6-3 power forward.

With White--who's being recruited by several area Division II and Division III programs-- leading the way, the Panthers have looked good this summer, using an athletic, uptempo attack and selfless play to run their way through some talent opponents.

So if White can leave the future of the Cheltenham basketball program with any message, it's to not just be teammates--be friends.

"Based on the summer leagues and the spring league we played in," he said, "I think that problem is pretty much fixed.”


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