City of Basketball Love

Graham Foley (@Graham_Foley3)
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Ask Cheltenham’s Zahree Harrison about his roots and you’ll get two different answers.

Ask him where he’s from and he’ll say he’s a “West Philly kid.” Harrison grew up primarily on 56th and Pine streets and lived in his younger years by 53rd and Peach.

Harrison said he learned how to play basketball on courts near his house, like the ones at Andrew Hamilton School. He said he still remembers the “Tweety Bird” basketball that he and his father took to the nearby parks in the summer when he was six years old.

But ask him about his home, and it’s a different response.

“That’s hard,” said Harrison. “When people ask me, I say I’m from West Philly. But Cheltenham, that’s home man. That’s always home.”

Harrison moved to Cheltenham in sixth grade and started at Cedarbrook Middle School. He began playing for the Cheltenham travel team, practicing at the high school’s open gyms and attending Cheltenham games.

Cheltenham coach John Timms said he saw Harrison play for the first time when Timms was coaching his son’s fourth grade travel team and saw Harrison playing for a sixth grade team.

“His work ethic jumped off the chart,” Timms said. “I saw this kid working and so I wanted to get involved.”

After eighth grade, Harrison narrowed his high school choice down to Cheltenham High School and Archbishop Wood, which was on the rise in the powerful Philadelphia Catholic League under head coach John Mosco.

“When you look at it, people would think it’s a no-brainer [to go to Wood],” Harrison said. “But it was really hard because I have a lot of friends at Cheltenham and I knew the team was going to be good last year. And it was very hard having been here since I was a kid.”

But Harrison ending up choosing Wood and spent his freshman splitting time between the JV team and sitting on the bench for varsity. While his playing time with the varsity squad was limited, Harrison said he learned plenty by being part of a team that finished 28-3 and went onto win the Philadelphia Catholic League and the PIAA 5A state titles for the first time in program history.

Harrison said that the Wood seniors went out of their way to show he and his fellow freshmen the ropes. For Harrison in particular, then-senior point guard and current Villanova freshman Collin Gillespie served as a great mentor.

“We had a strong relationship from the minute I visited to the minute that he graduated,” Harrison said. “We talked and we still talk to this day. And he’s been encouraging and making sure I work hard every day.”

In what was described as a “last-minute decision”, Harrison said he decided in July of 2017 to transfer to Cheltenham, preferring the public school atmosphere and the friends that he’d made in middle school over the rigors of Catholic school.

On top of that, the opportunity to play in a featured role with players he grew up playing travel basketball with like like senior guards Ahmad Bickley and Jack Clark was too good to pass up.

“It’s most definitely special to be here because I get to play with Ahmad and Jack in their last years,” Harrison said. “And I think it’s special because I’m back home and we have the support behind us.”

He’s joining a team with high expectations. The only sophomore starter in a lineup that otherwise features only seniors, Harrison is part of a Cheltenham program that went 19-7 in 2016-17, getting to the District 1 6A semi-finals and qualifying for the PIAA 6A state tournament.

At first, Timms said he wanted Harrison to come off the bench behind Bickley but changed his mind when he realized how that could limit the minutes his developing underclassman sorely needed. He decided to pair him with Bickley and play the two 5-9 point guards together.

“He’s a welcome addition,” Timms said. “He balances our floor, he relieves some pressure on Ahmad which allows us to move Ahmad off the ball and put him in the scorer’s position. We weren’t able to do that last year.”

Harrison said the transition to Cheltenham was seamless due to his familiarity with his new teammates. Clark, a 6-6 guard and La Salle commit, and Bickley, a 5-9 point guard and Division II recruit, were more than happy to welcome back their old friend.

“I knew these guys for a while,” Harrison said. “I knew Jack when he was a 6-foot person who nobody wanted. So I feel like it was easy because even with the sophomores on the team...sixth grade, we played Cheltenham travel and we played middle school [basketball] together.”

Bickley, a four-year varsity senior, said he has enjoyed having another talented point guard on the floor with him.

“Last year I didn’t have another ball handler to be out there with me,” Bickley said. “So this year, since I have a lot of confidence in him to handle the ball, we switch bringing the ball up, and it’s definitely better.”

“It takes off a lot of pressure,” he added. “We get some off ball plays for me, get some off ball plays for him. It’s definitely different and I like it.”

In Cheltenham’s gritty 62-58 victory over 2017 PIAA 6A state semifinalist Archbishop Ryan on Dec. 23, which improved the Panthers to 5-2 on the season, Harrison finished with eight points and six rebounds.

Timms said that while Harrison’s stats may not be flashy in every game this season, his role as a sophomore is to “just fit in” and learn to play with Bickley. And it’s Harrison’s intangibles that give him reason to be highly optimistic going forward.

“He’s getting better,” Timms said. “He’s trying to find his way and I think the fact that he was able to find his way into the starting lineup says a lot. As a starting junior point guard next year, I think he will be arguably one of the best high school point guards on both sides of the ball.”