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Chestnut Hill men, women both finding unexpected success

01/24/2022, 12:15am EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Jim Connolly and J.J. Butler’s offices are directly connected, one door separating Connolly’s from Butler’s, just off the gym floor at Chestnut Hill College’s cozy Sorgenti Arena. It’s a setup that makes sense for the Griffins’ two basketball coaches — women’s and men’s, respectively — as they navigate their first head coaching jobs together, two men not yet 32 yet tasked with leading a dozen or so young men and women through the trials and tribulations of the student-athlete experience.

Connolly and Butler take advantage of that doorway often, to the point that it doesn’t seem like two offices but one big one. Neither of them have a full-time staff, or even one full-time assistant, just a few part-timers and program alumni who can help out during practices and games, do a little recruiting. The day-to-day grind is all on the two of them.


J.J. Butler (above) is in his first year on the Chestnut Hill sidelines. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“Jim and I joke with each other that we are assistant coaches for one another,” said Butler, a line Connolly echoed. “That door stays open a lot.”

“We talk hoops with each other, all day every day,” Connolly said. “He’s always asking me for opinions on his team; I do the same, ask him, ‘what did you see in our game, what can I do better?’

“This is only my second season, this is his first,” the 31-year-old added, not counting last year’s COVID-canceled season, which was technically Connolly’s second and Butler’s first at CHC. “There’s not much experience between the two of us; we’re trying to help each other learn and figure it out as we go.”

Whatever they’re figuring out, they’ve done so quickly. Both the Chestnut Hill men’s and women’s squads are in the midst of unexpected breakthrough seasons, pushing one another towards potentially new heights.

“Both coaches are just very in tune,” said Amir Warrick, a junior forward from Washington, D.C., and first-year full-time starter on the men’s squad. “Coach JJ and coach Jimmy are close as friends; as far as the (men’s) team and the (women’s) team, we’re close with each other as well.”

~~~

Winning at Chestnut Hill College is about as easy as finding the gym within the labyrinthine halls of the charming, small private college located in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood for which it’s named. (Down one long hallway, through another one, make a left — no, not that left — through a doorway, another hallway, down the stairs, and you’re there). 

Founded in 1924, though only a co-educational institution since the early part of the 21st century, the school of less than 1,200 undergraduates isn’t known as much of an athletic powerhouse. Chestnut Hill doesn’t have the budget of many of the other regional Division II schools, leaving them with fewer scholarships and financial flexibility when it comes to recruiting.

Playing in the same conference as the likes of Jefferson and Holy Family, along with out-of-state schools like Dominican (N.Y.) and Caldwell (N.J.), the Griffins have had their seasons and runs in various sports, but the basketball programs have spent more time looking up in the standings than looking down.


Jim Connolly (above) played for Herb Magee and coached under Tom Shirley at Philly U/Jefferson before coming to Chestnut Hill. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The men’s squad, which began play in 2003 as a Division III squad and began the transition to D-II a year later, went 18-12 (11-6 CACC) in 2011-12, but that’s been the only season they finished above .500. For the first 17 years, the men’s program was under the direction of Jesse Balcer, who became the school’s athletic director in 2018 and relinquished his coaching duties two years later to focus on that role full-time.

The women’s team, which also has its share of single-digit win totals, went 16-11 (11-8) in 2016-17 and 19-10 (15-4) the following year unders head coach Mike West, with North Penn’s Vicky Tumasz leading four double-digit scorers to the program’s high-water mark thus far. 

West left after the 2018-19 season for a job on the staff at D-I Hofstra, and Balcer brought on Connolly to lead the Griffins’ women. Like West, Connolly had previously been an assistant under Tom Shirley at Jefferson, after playing for Shirley’s counterpart, Hall-of-Famer Herb Magee, when the school was still Philadelphia University. 

“There’s probably not a better coaching duo to learn from, as a player and then an assistant coach,” Connolly said of the duo, who’ve won more than 1,900 games in their combined careers. “I’ve learned a lot from both of them, and they’ve both really helped me get to where I am today.”

Butler, who played one year at Chestnut Hill (2016-17) as a graduate transfer and then spent another under Balcer as an assistant coach, had been a full-time assistant at D-III Susquehanna for two seasons when he became one of the youngest coaches in Division II when he took the CHC job as a 26-year-old in May 2020. 

“Shoutout to [Susquehanna head coach] Frank Marcinek, who told me the biggest difference is when you’re head coach, nothing you do is ever a suggestion, it’s always a decision,” Butler said. “So that weight has been heavy, to say the least, but I’ve enjoyed the responsibility and I appreciate my staff and our roster for how they respond to the decisions I make.”

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Connolly’s first Chestnut Hill squad (2019-20) went 11-18 overall but 10-9 in the CACC South, going 8-3 over one stretch from January into February; they qualified for the CACC tournament, where they lost to CACC North champion Post 51-37 in the first round. 

Butler, meanwhile, inherited a team that had gone just 6-22 in Balcer’s final season, though all six of those wins came during league play (6-13). 


Cassie Sebold (above) returned for a fifth year to help lead the Griffins' women. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Chestnut Hill, along with the rest of the CACC South, took the 2020-21 season off, so both the men’s and women’s squads had rosters with a mix of key holdovers from pre-pandemic and a healthy group of both new faces and departures.

Expectations for the Griffins’ basketball programs were fairly low coming into the 2021-22 season. The men were picked next-to-last in the seven-team CACC South in the league’s preseason poll; the women picked to finish in a tie for fifth.

It didn’t take long for it to become clear those expectations were woefully low.

The women lost their season opener to Molloy College (N.Y.) but bounced back to win six of their next seven, including their first two CACC games against Holy Family and Goldey-Beacom. They then suffered a major setback, as leading scorer Leah Miller, a senior forward from Punxsutawney (Pa.), went down with a season-ending knee injury, leaving a 16.4-point, 10.1-rebound per game hole in the Griffins’ lineup.

“I’m sure everyone panicked at first,” senior guard Cassie Sebold said, “but we came together and we’re like, we’re still a really good team without Leah — obviously she helps, but we can still do this.”

The Griffins’ first game without Miller was a 60-55 overtime loss at Kutztown on Dec. 8. 

They haven’t lost since.

A 55-50 win over Post on Saturday was Chestnut Hill’s eighth in a row, putting them at 14-3 (8-0 CACC), sitting alone atop the division, the only unbeaten team in the whole conference. A defensive-minded group, they’re holding teams to 54.6 points per game, second-best in the league, out-scoring opponents by about 7.6 ppg. 

“We’re all just so excited, not just for the program but for each other,” said Sebold, an Archbishop Wood product. “We really play every single game for each other, we love to win for each other, we love just, I don’t know, the team camaraderie is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever played on. We just want to win for each other — and especially for Leah.”

They’ve already scored wins over Jefferson and USciences, holding USci — the No. 2 team in the region at that point — to just 41 points on Thursday.

“This has kind of been a defensive-minded team,” Connolly said. “This group, they just want to win and they’re giving us everything they have every night and just finding ways. It’s not always the prettiest but they’re finding ways.”


Freshman Emily Chmiel (above, left) has been a major part of Chestnut Hill's success this season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Sebold, a 5-foot-5 guard, took advantage of the extra year of COVID eligibility to return for a final season of college hoops. She’s currently third on the team in scoring (10.9 ppg) and its assists leader (5.5/game), the only active member of the 10-12 woman rotation who plays more than 30 minutes.

Senior Abbey Spratt (Central Bucks West) and juniors Lauren Crim (Lansdale Catholic) and Lindsey Lane (Haverford High) have all started all 17 games for the Griffins, while senior Bri Hewlett (North Penn), and sophomore Kaitlyn Carter (Penn Charter) have also been key members of the rotation, whether starting or coming off the bench.

The most impressive newcomer by far has been Central Bucks East product Emily Chmiel. A 6-2 post, Chmiel has come off the bench in all 17 of the Griffins’ games, but that hasn’t stopped her from being the team’s leading active scorer (12.9 ppg) and rebounder (8.8 rpg), including a 23-point, 12-rebound performance in a win over Post on Saturday.

“She’s not intimidated by the stage,” Connolly said. “She’s been playing great, especially as a freshman [...] we rely on her to bring some offense off the bench.”

~~~

Players and coaches alike had a feeling coming into the season that the men’s season would go better than before, though that’s easy enough to say in October and easier enough to say when it’s coming true. 

Even though the Griffins opened the season 1-4, losing by 28 at Lock Haven and 17 at West Chester, there were decent signs, too. The first two games of the season, Chestnut Hill went up to Pace University, where even though it lost to a couple strong NE-10 programs in Adelphi (78-74) and Pace (66-61), Butler was encouraged by what he saw.


Amir Warrick (above) is one of several veterans who form the core of the Griffins' leadership. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“There are no moral victories,” Butler said, “but [...] when we stepped out on the floor and were able to compete against two really good teams, I kind of had a feeling that we were going to be pretty solid.”

Since beating Holy Family 67-58 on Dec. 1 to open CACC play, Chestnut Hill has won eight of 11 games, moving to 9-7 overall and 6-2 in the CACC. That’s good enough for second place in the South division, a half-game ahead of Goldey-Beacom. Those two and Jefferson (11-4, 7-1) are the two contenders in the division so far; USciences, Holy Family, Wilmington and Georgian Court are a combined 6-28 in league play.

“We’re very confident,” said Warrick, who’s third on the team in scoring at 11.7 ppg. “Right now we’re just trying to put everything together, play a perfect game, be a 40-minute team. But we’re very confident in the playstyle that coach JJ has us playing.”

Leading the way for the Griffins are a pair of “sophomores” playing their first season of college hoops, Nigel Haughton (13.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and MJ Iraldi (12.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg). 

Haughton, a 6-0 guard from Bel Air, Md. (John Carrol), has already gone for 20+ four times this season, including 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a win over Jefferson on Thursday. Iraldi, a 6-6 wing from West Deptford, N.J. (West Deptford HS), just picked up his first career double-double, with 11 points and 11 rebounds in a close loss to Post on Saturday.

“[The COVID season] allowed them to come into this year really confident and they had an idea of how we wanted to play,” Butler said, “and they’re still getting better, and they’re still learning, but I definitely think that COVID year gave them some confidence.”

Warrick and Cheltenham grad Trevonn Pitts (9.5 ppg) are also steady contributors, as are James Rider IV (8.7 ppg), Conor Regan (8.4 ppg), David Erebor (7.2 ppg) and Noah Charles (3.9 ppg), the group that plays the majority of the minutes.


Nigel Haughton (above) is one of two newcomers on the men's team who've jumped right into big roles. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Though Butler’s clearly worked hard to bolster the Chestnut Hill roster, he’s also quick to credit Balcer for leaving him with a core group of veterans to build around. Pitts, Regan, Rider and Warrick were all on the roster when Butler took the job, and that group has been a stabilizing presence in the locker room and on the floor.

“I didn’t come into a job where the cupboard was bare, by any means,” Butler said.

In addition to having a roster half-built for him, Butler said he’s constantly consulting his predecessor, a built-in reference and the only guy who truly knows exactly what Butler’s dealing with.

“[Balcer] helps me analyze games, he helps me stay steadfast, mentally, after wins and losses and just putting things in perspective,” Butler said, “I definitely appreciate being able to lean on him after every game, win or loss.”

~~~

It’s no coincidence that both the Chestnut Hill men and women are playing with similar energy.

Like their coaches, the two teams are close, cheering on one another during league play, when most of their contests are doubleheaders. The men don’t always get to see the entire women’s game, having to head in for pre-game around halftime, but they’re always checking in, seeing how things are going. Once the women are done with their post-game, they head out to watch the men take care of business. 

Neither group watches silently.

“I think we really obviously like to support the men’s team; the men’s team is really good at supporting us,” Sebold said. “It’s really nice to see them up in the stands cheering for us, they’re a really good support system.

“Everything’s coming together, we’re both winning, so I think that’s even more exciting — we don’t just get along with our team, we get along with the boys’ team too.”

“It’s like a friendly competition,” Warrick said. “Honestly, I feel like they’re pushing us right now, they’re 8-0 (in conference play), so we’re playing catch-up. It’s cool. We’re going to get there for sure.”

The Butler and Connolly regimes are both off to good starts, that much is for certain. But there’s still a long road ahead — starting with the 10-or-so games left in the 2021-22 season, before this year’s playoffs even become a reality. And that’s just the start; this season isn’t the end-all, be-all for the two coaches. 

After March, it’s back to the reality of fundraising for scholarships, hitting the recruiting trail, trying to find those rare players who fit right into Chestnut Hill’s narrow window. Even with USciences merging with St. Joe’s at the end of the academic year, sadly taking one rival out of the picture, Chestnut Hill is still going to be an underdog in the CACC, going up against programs and schools with significant built-in advantages. 

But it’s hard not to feel like there’s something changing in the water in Chestnut Hill, some magic in that doorway between two Butler and Connolly’s spaces, on the whiteboards on the walls, in the huddles and the hallways. It’s going to take some time to see if it’s a lasting success, or just another solid season.

The players certainly aren’t satisfied with only a good start.

“Seeing us in second, it’s definitely a huge change from my prior years,” Warrick said, “but I’m not satisfied with being second, I hate being second. I’d rather be first.”

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