City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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Danett Candelaria couldn’t miss the moment. She knew it was coming. She just had to make sure she wore the right face for the occasion. Her son, 6-foot-4 point guard Jacob Beccles, was talking to the Cornell University coaches outside in the Newman Arena, where the Big Red play. Candelaria was in the restroom trying to maintain her composure, because she knew once her tears went flowing her son’s drops would soon follow.

Candelaria had a feeling something was going to happen. “Maintain, maintain,” she kept telling herself under her breath.

She didn’t miss it.

Beccles darted his mom a look as if to say, ‘I have this,’ then turned to Cornell coach Brian Earl on Tuesday, November 22, and made a terse, life-changing statement, “I think I’m going to commit today.”

With that, Beccles, formerly at Constitution High School now in a postgraduate year at Lawrenceville School, became the first Philadelphia Public League player to commit to an Ivy League school since 1980 when Willie Oliphant committed to Penn and coach Bob Weinhauer out of Northeast High School.

“I swear, remembering the moment, my eyes got so watery, because I wanted him to own the moment, because it was his moment,” said Candelaria, 49, who worked two and three jobs to receive her undergrad degree from Chestnut Hill and graduate degree from Penn in social work. “This was a testament to all his hard work and the commitment he made to himself to make himself better. He used to have doubts, so it was a really big deal for me to see Jacob going to college, and then to be going to this prestigious university where he can get an elite education and play at a high level.

“I just couldn’t let him see me get emotional. Jacob doesn’t give himself enough credit. Jacob is the youngest of my five boys and regardless of how old he is, he’s always going to be my baby. Jacob is a shining example of everyone around here. He’s a kid from West Philly going to an Ivy League school and he’s known kids who have been murdered or are in jail. He’s made it and made it big and I’m proud of him for it.”

What’s crazy is Beccles didn’t envision any of this coming. He was a spaghetti strand at Constitution who received tepid Division I attention. As a senior, he averaged 24.1 points a game in leading Constitution to the PIAA Class 2A finals.

“At first, I never saw myself as an Ivy League player,” admitted Beccles, who plans on majoring in sports management, social work, or global development at Cornell. “As a sophomore, I had this idea I might get a high-major offer and things didn’t go the way I wanted. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I wasn’t getting the kind of attention I thought I should get. I was going to college anyway. I have my mother to thank for that. I would see her work constantly to make things possible for me and my brothers.

“What makes me angry is my mother saw these things happening for me when I didn’t. She believed in me on and off the court when I didn’t. She’s the strongest person I know. I needed that strength. I saw myself being a good D-II player, though once I began evolving, I started to see I could be a D-I player.”

In eighth grade, Beccles was 5-9. By his freshman year, he was 6-1. By the time he was a junior, he was 6-3 and playing as a three-year starter under Constitution head coach Rob Moore. Beccles caught some eyes from Temple and Georgetown, though nothing substantial. By the time he was a senior, his stock began growing. That came through playing for Wayne Pratt, Kevin Durant’s father, for Team Durant on the AAU circuit.

Beccles is projected to be a 6-4, 180-pound point guard at Cornell. He chose Cornell over Penn and strong interest from Princeton.

When he comes back home, he sees many young people he grew up with going a different route.

“It’s what I really appreciate about my mother, because she’s the one who set the path for me,” he said. “I have best friends locked up right now for murder. People I grew up around it. I used to walk home from school with them and then you hear they’re locked up, and something happened to them. Oh, I know what it’s like. I underrated myself for a long time. I needed to wake up. When I was younger, I didn’t always get it. Once I started believing in myself, things took off. But I’m not where I am without my mother.”

When Candelaria looks back over the last month, she shakes her head. Everyone around Beccles believed in Beccles.

“I would get on Jacob about being down on himself, and I kept telling him he knew he could do it,” she said. “He needed to hear it. He needed that extra motivation. It’s something everyone needs to hear. I knew I couldn’t cry in front of him. But I couldn’t be happier for him. I knew he was going to commit and I’m just happy I didn’t miss the moment.”

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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.