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West Catholic's Chamberlain makes college pick after Burrs' turnaround

06/22/2021, 2:00pm EDT
By Jerome Taylor

Jerome Taylor (@thatGUY_Rome)

Last year, while every team was battling COVID-19 to stay on the court in an attempt to win games and get their seniors scouted for the next level, West Catholic was having one of the more challenging times in the city avoiding the virus.

After their season was cut twice due to COVID-19 stoppages, they went into a city championship game against Math, Civics & Science without playing basketball together for a week. And as head coach Miguel Bocachica said, his team looked like it, too. 


West Catholic graduate Eric Chamberlain (above) is continuing his college hoops career at Albright. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Even though the Burrs lost the game, Bocachica hopes that one player, Eric Chamberlain, would be remembered as the turning point in the trajectory of the West Catholic program. Because even during a COVID-shortened season, the Burrs captured their first winning season since 2008-2009. 

“I just try to make sure that he's remembered as a winner,” Bocachica said. “We're not where we're at, we don't win the games that we've won, we don't compete in the games that we've competed in without Eric.”

In his only two years as a varsity basketball player, Chamberlain has garnered high praise from his coach and respect from other coaches around the Philadelphia Catholic League. He earned a third-team All-Catholic nod last year, after leading the team in scoring (11.7 ppg) and the disruptive defense he displayed (Chamberlain was third in the league in steals averaging 2.8 per game). 

Chamberlain’s basketball journey is a relatively young one. He didn’t start playing organized basketball until his sixth-grade summer with the Mount Pleasant AAU team because his Southwest Philadelphia elementary school, Cornerstone Christian Academy, didn't have a team. 

Once his family moved out to Delaware County, he chose where he wanted to play high school hoops. Chamberlain wasn’t looking for schools with recent success but a school where he would have the greatest chance to play early in his career, so he chose Cardinal O’Hara. The Lions were coming off of a disappointing 4-17 season in 2016-2017, and there were openings on the roster for him to get playing time theoretically. But that all changed when coach Jason Harrigan came. 

“When I went to O'Hara, that's when coach Jason Harrigan just came and he (brought) a whole (freshman) class,” Chamberlain said. “I was like, dang I thought I had the one. So my freshman year I played freshman ball, sophomore year came up, I played JV and sat varsity.”

While playing below the varsity level for those two years, Chamberlain was developing his skills but not at the rate he wanted. Chamberlain knew he was getting incrementally better practicing with the team, but he would need more playing time during games to see the improvement he was looking for. 

While Chamberlain was looking for an opportunity to find playing time, on the other side of Route 1 — where Township Line road is City Ave. — West Catholic was dealing with newfound uncertainty at the point guard position. After missing out on a prospect, the Burrs looked like they were heading into the 2019-2020 season without a starting on-ball guard. 

Luckily during that summer, through some connections with his AAU team, Chamberlain started practicing and playing with West Catholic during the live period. And as their needs for a point guard grew stronger, the Chamberlain and Burrs’ match became more evident.

“I went to live period two with them. Then we looked like a whole different team.” Chamberlain said, “They took me in as family, and ever since, it went up.”

Since he started playing at 45th and Chestnut, Chamberlain’s skills were evident as he led his team in points, assists, rebounds, and steals for both of his years with the Burrs. But Bocachica said he’s developed a lot as a playmaker and decision-maker in year two, specifically when playing in the lane. But most importantly, he grew as a vocal leader from his junior year to his senior year.

I just remember when he first came around and we were playing in spring leagues he didn't know what huddling a team was,” Bocachica said. “He's not the most vocal guy, but year two he’s [huddling the team]. He's vocal and he's yelling at people and telling people the right things, just holding these guys accountable. It was great to see leadership.”

When it comes to his leadership skills, Chamberlain agrees with his former head coach that they improved during his time at West. Still, he also says his jump shot, which Bocachica emphasizes in skill development, improved drastically. And even though Chamberlain was spending more time watching film and in the gym with the West Catholic team and staff, he credits playing in the Catholic League as a significant reason for his rapid development.

“It's no days off,” Chamberlain said, “It's a guard every night, no matter who you’re playing you have to be ready to play. Transforming into a guard in the Catholic League, I had to do it quick, they threw me in the deep end... I had to learn on the fly.”

Chamberlain will be bringing the competitive mentality that he developed while playing in the city to Albright next year.  Albright’s assistant coach Matt Chalupa led the recruiting, and the coaching staff liked Chamberlain’s toughness, playmaking, and defensive ability. The Lions reached out to Chamberlain in November of 2020. The Lions’ coaching staff headed by Rick Ferry has told Chamberlain that there are no guaranteed starting spots, so he’ll be looking to become an early contributor for the defending Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth champions.

“They say they don’t have a point guard, last year’s point guard was a two-guard transformed to a one,” Chamberlain said. “I'm going to go there and do whatever I can to take that starting position.” 

Unlike when he was choosing what high school to go to initially, Chamberlain was encouraged by the recent success of the Lions. They went into last year looking to build on their 16-12 (10-6) 2019-2020 season, where they lost in the conference semifinals. Last year they took home the title, finishing the 2020-2021 season 7-3. Albright competed with Widener, Arcadia, Lycoming and a litany of other D-3 schools.

When he gets to Albright, Bocachica says that Chamberlain’s demeanor and preparation will lead him and the Lions to success. 

He's just a good energy giver and as far as a player, you get a guy that's going to guard you from end to end, you're getting a guy that can get to any spot on the floor and he's increased his playmaking,”  Bocachica said. “They're getting a dog... with his maturity and his growth, I think he'll be fine.”

The 5-foot-11, 150-pound guard knows that once he gets to the next level, he's going to have to work on his body to absorb the physicality at the next level so that he can accomplish his ultimate goal of becoming a champion at some level. 

When I go to college, I want to win,” Chamberlain said. “Like I have no chips, no high school championship, I have nothing. So I'm going to win, to show people I'm a winner.”


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