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Prepping for Preps '22-23: Cheltenham (Boys)

10/21/2022, 9:00am EDT
By Joseph Santoliquito

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

(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 2022-23 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Pat Fleury likes using terms like “us” and “we.” For example, when it’s brought up that Fleury in his fourth season as head coach of Cheltenham was named the 2022 PIAA Class 6A Coach of the Year, shared with Roman Catholic’s Chris McNesby, he prefers to say “we, our coaching staff, won that honor, not me.”

When Fleury looks down at his young roster for this upcoming season, he continues to use “we” and “us,” because it’s going to take a collective effort for the Panthers to duplicate what they did last season, when they finished 30-2 overall and 22-0 in the Suburban One Freedom Division, the only undefeated team in the Suburban One League. The Panthers only two losses came in the District 1 Class 6A semifinals to eventual district champion Lower Merion and in the PIAA 6A state quarterfinals to eventual state champion Roman Catholic.


Justin Savage (above) is one of three all-league players who graduated from Cheltenham. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Fleury, in his fifth season, likes going back to the basics with a homegrown team that he’s counting on to do a lot of growing up this season. Many familiar faces are gone for the Panthers, like all-state guard Rasheem Dearry (Delaware Valley) and all-league players Justin Savage and Brandon Bush.

Much will be placed on the slender shoulders of sophomore point guard Josiah Hutson, an underrated special talent in a slim 5-foot-9, 160-pound package who returns as the lone starter from a historic season.

“The offense will come, I can care less about that, because we’re a defensive school,” Fleury said. “The pressure is not on repeating, it’s to make sure our community and our fans are proud of us. We understand that last year was last year. We’re going to approach this season like we did last year. No one talked about us last year. We can’t live off last year, nor do we want to, nor will we. That group was special. This is a new group. Our pressure comes from producing a high product for our fans and our community that they can be proud of.

“We’ll continue to push forward and get better day by day. We have to send our seniors out the right way. It’s for us as a coaching staff to get back to work.”

Fleury showed great trust last season in Hutson, a first-team all-Suburban One choice as a freshman, to turn over the keys of the team to him. He made great strides in a short period of time and will be relied on to make ever greater steps in his maturation this season. He’s poised, he has a great sense of where everyone is on the court and where they like the ball.


Sophomore guard Josiah Hutson (above) is one of the best underclassmen in all of District 1. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Hutson broke the Cheltenham freshman scoring record and is the only freshman Fleury ever saw make first-team all-Suburban One Freedom in his history at Cheltenham.

“Josiah is as good as gold, but a big reason why is that his teammates work hard for him,” Fleury said. “You can talk about the best player, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have 11 or 12 people who believe that you’re able to lead. It’s not an individual thing for Josiah. He’s most certainly capable of making individual plays, but the only way we’re going to be successful is if those plays are made in conjunction with getting his teammates the ball. We’re very big on team culture and winning together, and losing together, no matter what. The more Josiah embodies that, and understands his role, often the quietest person in the room is the strongest.

“Like I tell him, he doesn’t need to make every play. He needs to be involved in every play. That means sacrificing his body for his team and for his teammates to galvanize the group. Josiah made first-team last year, benefitting from the seniors he had around him. He understands that. They sacrificed. They made the right plays, not the right plays for themselves. This year he has to return that favor to our other guys.”

Surrounding Hutson will be 6-5 junior guard Kevin Addison, 6-4 junior guard Kamani Healey, 6-2 senior guard Yakeen Respes and 6-4 senior forward Xavier Thompson, along with 6-4 junior forward Nile Tinsley and 5-10 junior guard Aidan Wilson-Worley. Two new additions could be making an impact in freshmen Malik Hughes, a 6-6 guard, and Zion Robinson, a 5-9 guard.

“This is a big year. Our team is younger than last year; it’s a new team that will play a lot faster,” Hutson said. “I’m not really worried about anything this year. We’re going to get the ball out faster on the breaks, which is going to be trouble for other teams. We’ll rely more on transition. I tell our guys to go out and play hard. My expectations are to win.”

Healey knows the Panthers will get the heat from last year’s success and feels they’ll be able to handle it.

“We had a great season last year and starting undefeated (going into the district playoffs) was crazy,” he said. “I want to light that back up the same way we did last year. It’s going to be a challenge (after going 22-0 in Suburban One Freedom last year). We can’t have mental lapses, like people overpassing, or not passing enough, or people being too selfish. We need to keep it going like we did last year. We worked for the open shots last year.

“Josiah’s experience helps us. To be his age and so skilled, he can see things on the court a lot of people don’t see. He can get his own shots, he can create, he’s a very good passer. Playing with him is good because he is a leader. He knows where to get us the ball and where we should be on the court.”

Just like Fleury stresses, a lot of “us” and “we” may go a long way.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here .


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