City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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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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After losing the team’s three most productive scorers from last season, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy coach Jamie Chadwin knows there is no quick fix for his team entering 2015-16.

Chadwin and his SCH Academy players know that if they are going to compete in the Inter-Ac this season, it’s going to be because they’re playing team basketball, not relying on one player.

“As far as youth and guys who haven’t played varsity minutes, we have a lot of that,” Chadwin said. “And with that comes unknown. It’s exciting, it’s interesting, but it’s also unknown.”

SCH Academy went 7-20 overall last season and tied for last place in the last place in the league along with Penn Charter -- both teams went 1-9 and split their meetings.

The Blue Devils were led by talented freshman guard Justin Anderson, who scored 388 points in the team’s 27 games (14.4 ppg), according to Ted Silary. Unfortunately for SCH Academy, Anderson transferred to Academy New Church.

“Justin had his hands on the ball a lot, and the byproduct of that was him getting to the basket,” Chadwin said. “These guys all understand roles and want to make other players better. They’ll have to step into roles of scoring the ball and facilitating offense, and it’s going to be by committee.”

SCH Academy will also be without Dylan Parsons and Paul Dooley, both seniors on last year’s team and both players who averaged 8.5 ppg last season.

So who do the Blue Devils return? It starts with Sean Simon, the sophomore who averaged 8.0 ppg last season and hit double-figures in scoring five times in league play.

Chadwin noted that Simon, whose brother Matt Simon was Roman Catholic's 3-point specialist from 2009-13, had a strong offseason and worked on building multiple aspects of his game. Simon won’t replace Anderson, Parsons and Dooley by himself, but he will have a larger role when the Blue Devils have the ball.

“It’s set up for him to be a key offensive weapon for us,” Chadwin said. “Sean has really worked hard on diversifying his game, and he’s continuing to do that. He also realizes that you need help from teammates to do that – you need to come off screens, read pace and space and use that to create for himself and teammates.”

Simon is part of a sophomore class that also features C.J. Sweitzer, who Chadwin expects to collect some varsity minutes this year. The Blue Devils will also have junior contributors in Zuri Peyton, Daniel Shubert and Conor McAdoo.

The team's senior class features just one member in Xavier Bell. But he might be the most important member of the team in Chadwin's eyes.

Bell averaged just more than three points per game last season, but it’s the smaller things and leadership Chadwin likes in him. The coach even gave Bell a nickname.

“I nicknamed him my CEO: my Chief Energy Officer,” Chadwin said. “That’s what he is. He kind of drives the bus for us, as far as backing up his words, communicating with guys and clarifying expectations. He’s what every team wants in a senior.”

So with a young team and a lot of new pieces, Chadwin is keeping his expectations for the season relatively simple. And he knows how his team is going to get there.

“We want to be competitive in every game,” he said. “I think it’s something that is often said, but not followed through on. The strength with us is in our pack, and that’s really where we are. It’s not going to be hopping on one guy’s back.”