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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Expectations are a tricky thing to define around Abington High School’s boys basketball program.

In the now seven years of head coach Charles Grasty’s reign, the former Ghost standout has set the same three goals:

“We want to win the league, we want to win the district, and we want to win the states,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what type of team we have, who comes in.”

It’s not a crazy trio of aspirations, considering the program has won the last four league championships, took home the 2015 District 1 AAAA title and made a run to the semifinals of the state bracket the year before that.

And while those teams certainly had plenty of talent, with current Division II stars Matt Penecale (West Chester) and Amir Hinton (Lock Haven) leading the charge as juniors in 2013-14 and seniors in 2014-15, the potential of this current group of Ghosts surpasses potentially any other that’s come through the school’s gymnasium, thanks in large part to two talented sophomores and a terrific supporting cast.

But to hear Grasty say it, nothing is any different.

“Not being cocky, but we feel like as a program, where we are right now, we feel like we should be able to compete,” he added. “And you’re not going to change that. It’s just the way we’re going to approach the season.”

Take a look at the opponents Grasty has put on the schedule, however, and you’ll get a better feel for where he believes his team belongs.

The Ghosts open with their tip-off tournament (Dec. 9-10) where they’ll play Haverford HS and then either Girard College or Perkiomen Valley. Then comes Catholic League powerhouses Archbishop Carroll and Archbishop Wood, on back-to-back nights. Then Pennsbury (Dec. 16) and Roman Catholic (Dec. 17); later in the month, they’re scheduled to play Chester and Neumann-Goretti on back-to-back nights (Dec. 29-30) at Widener University.

And that’s just the opening month.

“It shows that he has confidence in us,” sophomore guard Lucas Monroe said. “We think we can beat all these teams, they’re the big names on paper but you’ve still got to go out and play. We’re not really scared.”

Monroe is one half of a sophomore duo that already has Division I college coaches popping by and recruiting analysts buzzing due to their combination of potential and production.

At 6-foot-5 and 170 pounds, Monroe is a lanky, athletic combo guard with a rapidly developing offensive game. Intelligent and mature for his grade, he’s got a good pace to his game with excellent court vision, and is becoming a knockdown shooter when he gets loose on the arc.

Then there’s Eric Dixon, the left-handed big man with the wide body and a delicate touch, who made quite an impact in his first season of high school basketball, leading the team with 15.5 ppg. Playing his freshman year at 6-foot-6 and somewhere around 270 pounds, Dixon was plenty effective around the bucket but also has a terrific mid-range game and can even stretch the floor to the 3-point arc.

Now up to 6-7 and down to 250 pounds, he’s really rounding into a high-level prospect in his own right, earning an invitation to Colorado Springs in October to participate in a minicamp for the United States junior national team, an occasion Grasty called “one of our biggest feats that Abington’s had in a long time.”

As long as those two are around, there’s going to be an extra light shining on the program, and they’re certainly a big reason for those raised outside expectations. But so far, Grasty is happy with how the pair have handled the attention.

“They’ve been great...came to every open gym that they could make, if they weren’t playing somewhere else or away, and they’ve been ready to work,” he said. “(I) yell at them and scream at them just like anybody else, but they’ve responded extremely well, they’re team players.”

Though Dixon and Monroe certainly bring youth and excitement to the table, Grasty has plenty of upperclassmen to lean on for experience and leadership, as well as a fair bit of production.

Senior guard Rob Young (6-0) is a four-year varsity member, and senior wing Eric Dougherty (6-6) brings size and shooting ability to the perimeter. Junior Robbie Heath (6-2) is a third-year starter and borderline Division I prospect in his own right; his classmates, 6-3 twins Bryan and Brandon Coffman, will both be key reserves.

Joining Dixon up front is another senior, 6-9, 240-pound Joe O’Brien, a third-year varsity member and second-year starter with several Division II offers. The two combine to give Abington one of the most imposing front lines around.

“We have a big team,” Monroe said. “We have big guards and we can play either way, we can slow it down and pound it inside, but we also have athletic players so we can run a bit too.”

While they battle through that tough opening schedule and what should be a highly-competitive SOL-National league slate, the Ghosts are motivated by what happened in last year’s district playoffs.

After finishing the regular season 19-5 and earning the No. 7 seed in the District 1 AAAA tournament, Abington was upset by No. 26 seed Upper Dublin in the first round, with a late 3-pointer making the difference in a 41-40 upset on the Ghosts’ home court.

“I think we went into the game taking it for granted,” Dixon said. “Being young, excited, we took it for granted and it won’t happen again.”

“It was a learning game for us,” Grasty agreed. “Our young guys, it was their first playoff game, I felt like they kind of got out of character a little bit, a little rushed, the atmosphere maybe got to them the first year. It wasn’t like a regular-season game, so I felt like the younger guys just had to go through it.”

So, take a program with a track record of success. Mix in a heaping spoonful of leadership and experience, plus more than a healthy dose of size and talent. And on top of it all, the motivation to bounce back after a disappointing end to last season.

What does it add up to?

“You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself, but all of my teammates really feel like we can make a deep run in states,” Dixon said. “We feel like with the talent we have, the experience of last year, we just feel like it’s the right year to make a deep run.”