City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2016-17 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed so far can be found here.)

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Don’t call Jim Donofrio a chef, but he does like to cook.

And like anybody skilled enough in the culinary arts, he doesn’t tend to rely on recipes.

Though he’s not just a breakfast cook -- “I’m a chicken florentine guy, different kinds of chicken," he said, it’s with his omelettes that he likes to mix-and-match: “I’ll go pick up the hot sausage, throw it in with that kind of cheese, see what happens, throw some hot sauce in and go with this or that, and say ‘oh, that was really terrible,’ or that wasn’t too bad, we’ve got to try that again.”

“I try not to be that risky in the season,” he added with a smile.

On an October weekday, Donofrio was in his other kitchen, the gymnasium at Colonial Elementary School, just behind Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School. There, the Colonials’ head coach gazed out upon the 30 (or more) high schoolers warming up on the eight nets within.

It’s an organized type of chaos, run by the players themselves -- first warm-ups, then shooting around, which evolved into games of 3-on-3 and finally 4-on-4.

There’s beauty in the ugliness of it all, as many of those participating won’t sniff the varsity roster for the Colonials, this year or any year. But it’s clear that mixed into the group are a few talented athletes that somewhere down the line will form a team.

Donofrio is hoping that line isn’t too long.

“I’m staring at all the ingredients right now saying this omelette better taste real good, real quick,” he said. “We don’t have time to be like the first six games, you’re off.”

That’s the expectation at P-W, fresh off a District 1 AAAA title and just six years removed from a PIAA Class AAAA state championship run.

Donofrio is certainly unique in his approach, willing to zig when others zag -- his refusal to compete in the two-year-old Suburban One League playoffs in order to rest his players for the district and state tournaments the most notable example -- but there’s no denying it’s an approach that has worked for the 19th-year head coach.

This season, the biggest challenge will be overcoming the loss of Xzavier Malone, a rangy 6-foot-4 left-handed guard who’s about to begin his freshman season at Rider. Malone wasn’t the only key senior last year -- Mike Lotito (6-6), Oakley Spencer (6-3), Kevin Ashenfelter (6-4) and Grady Minick (6-4) all had terrific seasons in various roles -- but he was their clutch performer and big-time scorer, something the current roster doesn’t have.

A transfer from Martin Luther King after his sophomore year, Malone went from a high-upside scoring guard as a junior to an offensive force as a senior, a smooth attacker who became a reliable 3-point shooter as well. He rose to the occasion on the big stage as well as anybody around, scoring 29 in the district championship win over Chester and averaging an even 20 ppg for the year.

“When you score 600 points or more in a season like (Malone) did, that covers up a lot of mistakes, that masks a lot of dumb shot selection or we’re having an off night defensively,” Donofrio said. “I don’t know who for us, I don’t think we have that guy, so if it works great to our end, it’s going to be multiple guys being some of that.”

So instead of being an offensive juggernaut, the Colonials are going to have to clamp down on the other end of the court.

“We have a lot of guys who are intense at defense,” said senior guard Cheo Houston, one of only a few returning rotation members. “I feel like we’re going to pressure a lot of people and get a lot of steals this year.”

Certainly helping to set that tone are junior twins, Ahmad and Ahmin Williams. As sophomores last year, the Cardinal O’Hara transfers were used by Donofrio in a key reserve role, coming on to change the tempo of the game with their aggressive, in-your-face attitude on the defensive end.

Now, they -- along with Houston -- have become the leaders of the program. Donofrio said the pair are “relentlessly playing the game,” often hitting him up to use P-W’s gym late on a Friday and then early on a Saturday.

“They brought a mentality to our team that made us tough, they pushed a lot of guys on our team,” Houston said. “This year, I think they’re taking more of a leadership role, they’re learning how to score more and I think they’re going to be really good this season.”

What ultimately will determine the ceiling of this particular squad isn’t who’s out on the perimeter, however, but the play of the man in the middle.

Sophomore Naeem McLeod is easy to pick out at the P-W open gyms, as the 6-foot-10 post player towers above his teammates. Lanky and athletic, McLeod wasn’t ready for varsity minutes last year, getting a spare appearance here and there, but the team will need to count on him for big minutes over the next three years.

“In May and in June, in our summer leagues, he was a lot of question marks for me,” Donofrio admitted. “But in the last two months, he has shown probably a 25-percent increase (in shot-blocking and defending), which all of a sudden has me feeling much more comfortable.

“The last thing he’s ever given himself credit for, and is still trying to figure out, is to believe he’s an offensive threat,” he added. “We’re pounding that into his head right now. If he buys into that, and is looking for the ball, that’s going to accelerate what I thought was possible for our team.”

If McLeod can turn into a top-level rim protector like Donofrio hasn’t had since C.J. Aiken patrolled the paint, and the guards can keep up their intensity all season long, it’s a team that has a chance to certainly make some noise in the District 1 6A tournament and beyond.

The ingredients are there.

Now all Donofrio has to do is concoct the recipe, and put it all together.