City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2022-23 preseason coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here)
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Springside Chestnut Hill Academy played a pivotal a role in determining last year’s Inter-Ac co-champions Penn Charter and Malvern Prep. 

In a league with no conference postseason, regular season performance is more relevant in the Inter-Ac than most other leagues in the area. And SCHA beat Malvern Prep late in the season last year to force a championship split between the Friars and the Quakers. 

For the Blue Devils, that’s not much of a consolation, considering what they wanted to accomplish during the 2021-2022 campaign. 

This season, like the last one, SCHA wants to have a say in who takes home the league title. The Blue Devils just hope their late-season wins secure their own championship instead of someone else’s.

All last year’s third-place finish proved was how competitive they can be and what this team’s potential is. 

“[Last year] gives us a lot of motivation because we know we can beat those teams,” junior Cam Burns said. “We know we can be every team in the Inter-Ac.”

Last year, SCHA won at least one time against everyone in the Inter-Ac. This year they want to do that again but avoid the hiccups that kept them from first place. 

“We gotta make sure we never beat ourselves this season,” senior Alassane Amadou said. “ I think that's my goal for the team this year, just never beat ourselves and just always be ready for the next opponent. Basically, never take anybody light.”

Following an adversarial year, one full of experiencing new things in a new environment, Amadou and fellow senior Jaren Morton are more accustomed to their surroundings after transferring from Bishop McDevitt. 

After a year of being on the SCHA campus, the additional level of familiarity should help the seniors hone their focus as they try to lead the Blue Devils to their first league championship since 2010.

“[Last year], the transition was a little hard cause I just didn't understand [the environment]… The [school] work was really hard,” Amadou said. “I had to mature really fast and understand I can't just be chilling. I gotta talk to my teachers if I need help. … And I think I finally got the message because my grades are way better this year.”

Burns was in a similar situation to his older teammates after spending his first two years of high school at Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School in Roxborough and playing for Martin Luther King.. 

Now, all three players are poised to play prominent roles for SCHA during the 2022-2023 season. Morton provides perimeter sharpshooting; Burns was first-team all-Inter-Ac last year in large part for his scoring prowess. And Amadou, the 6-9 big man who’s committed to Marquette, can fill up a stat sheet, evidenced by his 12 points, nine rebounds and four blocks per game last year. 

That’s just the top-end talent on an SCHA team with a lot of depth. Juniors Ron Brown, Ryan Kull and Caleb Alston-Nelson’s offseasons have them poised for big years. Freshman Patrese Feamster has impressed his coach and teammates over the summer and during workouts. And it seems the whole team is excited about what sophomore point guard Keni “Bird” Williams brings to this year’s squad. 

“That's my PG right there,” Amadou said enthusiastically about Williams. “He’s really tough, he knows what he’s doing like he knows when I'm cutting, when to throw it up. He knows how to move the ball. He takes control of the game, pace and all that.”

The talent is there for Julian McFadden’s in his sixth season, but the Blue Devils know they’ll need more than that to win the Inter-Ac. They’ll need the essential element in team-building, chemistry. 

“They're all benefiting from the maturity of another year, another year to play together,” McFadden said. “This was a fairly new team last year, them just being able to kind of figure out each other's spots [is important]. As a team, I think we're just better teammates to one another now, and we understand each other as people better now. So that's just helpful for us.”

They’re building that chemistry through their offseason conditioning program — the team runs to Lincoln Drive and back to SCHA’s campus with a 16-minute time limit — and their work in the weight room. 

“We're gonna be much stronger, faster than other teams,” Morton said about the importance of conditioning. “We're gonna be able to last longer, be able to turn 10-point leads into 20-point leads in like a blink of an eye, so I'm really loving that.”

Most players have developed their bodies through this regiment. But McFadden says that Burns’ physical development has him most excited because of what it can mean for the Devils on the court. 

“[Burns] was already kind of a strong kid,” McFadden said. “He's just kind of taking it all to the next level. … Cam Burns has been the most impressive in the weight room for sure. I think that that'll help him the most defensively. He can use his strength now on top of being a little quicker.” 

Burns’ development on the defensive end bodes well for the Blue Devils, considering they already have Amadou, one of the most prolific shot blockers in the area. 

“Cam will be able to put more pressure on guys on the outside. … And then with Al being in the paint, he's one of the most dominant shop blockers in the tri-state,” McFadden said. “So, that one-two punch, that'll be really effective for us.” 

“With some teams, they have specific guys who can defend, and there's not a lot of people on other teams that can play defense,” Burns said. “[On this team], there's not one guy you can attack, one guy you specifically go after. We got a whole team that can defend, and I think that definitely helps us.”

In addition to their defensive development, Burns has been working on his playmaking ability, and Amadou has focused on improving as a leader. Meanwhile, Morton wants to be more aggressive offensively this season. 

If this trio takes significant steps toward improvement in their respective focuses, this year’s SCHA squad may be more dangerous than last year’s. They have the defensive potential, scoring talent, depth and experience necessary to compete for the Inter-Ac title.

But to achieve that goal, they’ll have to showcase those things consistently once league play starts. 

“It is really gonna come down to how serious do we take the practice floor, how serious do we take every little piece of film that we watch, how much do we believe that every single rep matters,” McFadden said. “The little things aren't little. So as long as we make sure that we're doing all those little things consistently, I think that's what it'll take to make the next jump.”

“We have the talent. It's just about understanding how important every single possession is and treating every single possession like it's the most important thing there is.”