City of Basketball Love

Jared Leveson (@jared_leveson)
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BRYN ATHYN — Deywilk Tavarez was on fire.

He had buried his third trey in a row in the first quarter against Friends School League rival Abington Friends in a game last January.  

Ten games into his junior season at Academy of the New Church after tearing his right meniscus the summer prior, the 6-foot-2 guard was expecting another great night in a comeback season.

But nothing in life is guaranteed. 

Tavarez’s left knee buckled on a routine fast break and he collapsed to the floor, tears billowing in his eyes. 

“I knew it was something serious,” Tavarez recalled. “I was on the athletic trainers table crying. That's how my coaches knew it was serious because I try with every injury, with anything, to preserve.”

Tavarez's season was done. He had surgery on his left knee in February and physical therapy followed a couple weeks later in March. Four months of hard work led him to the summer live period in June. His first time on the hardwood since his January, but he wasn’t his old self, yet.

“I wasn’t completely healthy,” Tavarez said. “So, I took another break from basketball until I got back to school here.” 

“Preseason was really when I began playing again at 100%.” 

The Pennsauken (N.J.) native has kept his head high and worked his way back to the Asplundh Field House, using memories of watching losses from the bench as fuel for his second attempt at a comeback. Now fully healthy, Tavarez has found a new appreciation for basketball and has started his senior campaign on fire. 

“I can't take anything for granted,” Tavarez said about overcoming two meniscus tears. “I had a lot of jitters coming into the season like not knowing when my last tip off is gonna be, not knowing when my last shot will be.” 

He’s leaving it all out on the floor this season. Tavarez is averaging 24.6 points, eight rebounds, four assists and steals per game. The senior leads ANC in points, rebounds, assists, and steals.

“We got him doing just about everything for us and that’s what we need,” head coach Kevin Givens said about Tavarez’s dominant start.

Givens could not be more proud and appreciative of his stalwart senior. 

“He’s come a long way from his injury from last year,” he said. “He’s been in the weight room, he's done his strength and conditioning, he’s lost the weight. He’s doing everything that a coach could ask of a kid to do.”  

Tavarez’s effort this season is owed to his arduous journey back to the hardwood. It was dark for Tavarez early on. He had to sit and watch his ANC teammates lose twice to bitter rival Westtown in the FSL Final and State Tournament. 

“The first four, five months were definitely hard,” Tavarez said. “That was the time I was completely shut down. I wasn't able to do anything and it really hurt me.” 

“It definitely hurt me seeing them hurt,” Tavarez said about his inability to contribute during ANC’s postseason push last year. “And knowing that if I was out there, we definitely had a high chance to win.”  

But he had already come back once before. He tore his right meniscus in the summer before his junior season at ANC. It took Tavarez four-and-a-half months of physical therapy to recover his right knee and he returned in October of 2021. 

When Tavarez injured himself again in January of his junior season, the point guard was upset. But Tavarez knew he could come back. 

“I was doing (physical therapy) three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” Tavarez said. 

The therapy work paired with an eagerness to get back to playing can grow frustrating and his  teammates, friends, and family all helped along the way. But Tavarez owes his physical recovery and game readiness to strength and conditioning coach Chris Wilson, known by Tavarez and his trainees as “the Chris Effect.”  

“He definitely helped me through the process a lot,” Tavarez said. “He put me and the guys he works out with first.” 

“He pushed me through to stay on top of my weightlifting and strength and conditioning stuff.” 

Tavarez always believed that he would play basketball again, even after the second meniscus tear. But his work with Wilson and ANC’s athletic training staff has paid off big-time, as he’s feeling healthy and playing significant minutes to start the season. 

“I feel like right now I'm at 100 percent and I know I can keep improving,” Tavarez said. “I feel better right now than I had the past two years.

“I knew I had a chance to play basketball, but I didn't know I was gonna be able to play again at such a high level against schools like St. Benedict’s.” 

Tavarez totaled 20 points, five steals, four rebounds, and one assist in a 66-52 loss to New Jersey powerhouse St. Benedict’s Prep (8-0). The point guard's performance Wednesday night was one of several stellar games that Tavarez has had to start the season. 

The senior captain totaled 26 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in a triple-OT win over the Haverford School. Prior to that, he totaled 25 points and eight rebounds against McDonogh (Md.) and 23 points and nine steals against Springside-Chestnut Hill.

“We need more of that kind of effort from everybody else.” Givens said. “When you gotta guy doing all those things, he’s gonna eventually need some help or we’re gonna wear him out this season.”

Worrying about a potential burnout has been on Givens’ mind since the beginning of the summer at Philly Live and other pre-season events. Tavarez was playing summer games like they were an FSL final. 

“He was just starting to come back and he was starting to do too much,” Givens said. “We had to bring him in and really had to say ‘listen we know you missed a whole (lot of) basketball, but you can't get it all back in one time. So, you have to come back, be a captain of the team, show team leadership, and we need you to be a point guard out here.”

Rarely does a coach have to tell a player to slow down, but how could one blame Tavarez for playing with so much intensity. He hadn’t played a full season since his sophomore year at Highland (N.J.), prior to transferring to ANC. 

Tavarez’s missed time has dented his recruiting profile, but his excellent play when healthy has drawn interest from Division I programs. The recruiting process is a slog, especially when a player misses so much time due to injury. Givens and his staff are actively calling teams and streaming ANC’s games on YouTube and Hudl to get exposure for their senior star. 

“It's a tough one because he's playing at a Division I level,” said Givens, who’s produced a number of D-I players in his years at ANC, including his son, former Drexel standout Samme Givens. 

“He’s come back and has done everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s starting to put everything together. He’s shooting the ball well, passing the ball well, rebounding well from the point guard position and when you’re the leading rebounder you're out there working. We’re happy he's getting it done and doing it the right way, getting his teammates involved and everything else.” 

Tavarez knows that all he can control is his attitude, work ethic, and play. His support system is strong, but those three things have gotten him back from two knee injuries, one surgery, and physical therapy. 

“I gotta keep doing what I do at 100%,” Tavarez said. “Do whatever I gotta do to get my teammates and myself involved in the game and to persevere through everything and always have my head high.”