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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Replacing talent is nothing new for Germantown Academy head coach Jim Fenerty.

In his 28 years as the Patriots’ head coach, Fenerty has coached future college stars and NBA professionals, churning out scholarship-worthy players on a yearly basis and still remaining one of the most competitive programs in the six-team Inter-Academic League.

Look at recent history, for example: four years ago (2012-13), GA went 10-0 to capture the Inter-Ac title for the first time in four seasons -- then graduated a group of seven seniors that included Nick Lindner (Lafayette) and Julian Moore (Penn State). Despite starting two freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors the following season, the Patriots still went 9-1 in league play to go back-to-back. Those same five starters made it three straight with another one-loss league run in 2014-15, but then had to deal with the graduation of leading scorers Tim Guers (St. Anselm) and Sam Lindgren (Colgate).

No matter -- led by senior Devon Goodman (19.8 ppg), a 5-foot-11 jet engine of a point guard, Germantown Academy made it a four-peat this past season, beating out Episcopal Academy by one game for the second consecutive year.

“We would get rebounds and give to Devon and then everybody would try to catch Devon up the floor,” Fenerty quipped.

So sure, Goodman is off to Penn, one of three college-bound players along with Gabe Alter (Colgate walk-on) and Joe Stinson (NYU) out of a six-man senior class that also included key contributor Bailey Whitman. And yet again, several underclassmen with little-to-no varsity experience are going to be in the starting lineup for the Patriots, who once again have a giant target on their backs heading into the season.

But perhaps not surprisingly, they’re not that worried.

“One guy called me last week and said ‘we’re picking you fourth,’ and I said ‘well, okay,’” Fenerty said. “Let somebody else go into the season with the pressure.”

“I think Fenerty does a great job of getting us ready regardless of when we lose a lot of key players,” senior guard Evan-Eric Longino added. “It gives us as well as Fenerty a lot of confidence in knowing what he needs to do in how to get these guys who haven’t played as much, get them ready for the varsity in level.”

Longino was one of those two freshmen who started on that second championship squad back in 2013-14, along with Kyle McCloskey. A 6-foot-5, 220-pound wing guard, Longino enters his senior season with 972 career points; McCloskey (6-4, 200), committed to play quarterback at Villanova, is slightly behind him at 827.

Now both in their fourth year as starters, they’ve played as much high school basketball as any duo around, and it’ll be their task to lead the Patriots not only in numerous statistical columns but in every other sense of the word.

“I think Kyle and I are very prepared…(to) help the younger guys, the juniors and the sophomores and the freshmen that are just starting to get some varsity experience,” Longino said. “I think that we can be looked at as mentors to them and helping them understand the game because we played every year with the fast pace and at the highest level of high school basketball.”

While Longino has spent most of his career playing off the ball thanks to the presence of Goodman, he’ll be taking on a different offensive role this year. Along with fellow senior Cole Storm, who came up through the program as more of a natural point guard, Longino will be taking over some of the ball-handling duties and shifting Cole to the off-guard role at times.

It’s unconventional, but that’s never bothered Fenerty before.

“I think the very first time, probably that anybody comes to watch us play, they’re going to think that Fenerty has probably lost his mind, he’s got Evan-Eric running the point,” Fenerty said. “But actually Evan-Eric is my best point guard right now, and Cole has worked so hard on his shot that we’re basically going to go with a two point-guard system.”

Longino and McCloskey are less than half of a senior group that also includes Storm (6-1, 175), the team’s sixth man a year ago, plus 5-11 guard Andrew Towne, who saw only limited minutes as a junior. Josh Brownstein, a 6-5 solid-bodied forward who can stretch the floor, scored 32 points a year ago but will also see a much bigger role in his final go-around.

Providing some height in addition to Brownstein will be a pair of 6-5 sophomores, Brian Basile and Khalil Ashely-Diarrah, neither of whom saw much varsity action at all last year.

“They’re really athletic, both of them, and they’re really raw, they’re getting better in practice every day,” Longino said. “If we can get a lot out of them this year, we should be really successful.”

Rounding out the Patriots’ top seven is junior guard Ben Garcia (6-1), a lacrosse standout who’s already committed to Hartford. Several other youngsters could see minutes depending on opportunity, as Fenerty looks to groom the next generation of players.

“In the past year or two I pretty much had five guys and then Cole came off the bench as the sixth man,” Fenerty said. “And this year I think we actually probably will go eight or nine deep, and each time it gives us a different look.

“Devon and Gabe and those guys all had played JV together but then also dressed varsity because I wanted to give them a taste […] I look at our program right now and I see similarities to this, that we have some pretty good freshmen who will play a lot of JV and probably by the time we get to the Inter-Ac will be dressing varsity, and they’re going to go against Evan-Eric and Kyle and Cole every day in practice.”

Though the Inter-Ac is as wide-open as it has been the last few years, Germantown Academy is still the defending champions. And though the on-court faces of the program has changed over the years, the rest of the league knows who needs to be dethroned before anyone else can take over that title.

As confident as many of those teams are about their own hopes this year, there’s no denying they’re aiming for the Patriots.

“I’m really good friends with [Episcopal senior] Conner Delaney, he’s one of my best friends from AAU, and he’s always saying ‘can’t wait to play you guys this year,’ ‘can’t wait to dethrone you guys,’” Storm said. “It’s friendly banter, but…”

He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to.

That friendly banter was as serious as it gets.