City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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EAST FALLS — Cristo Rey High School purchased an empty trophy case at the end of last school year without much hardware to put in it. The school is just a decade old and its sports programs are even younger.

Eight months later, athletic director and boys basketball coach Kyle Sample said the case is starting to fill up.

After several other sports contributed, Sample’s Blue Pride boys hoops squad added three more pieces of hardware this winter, including the program’s first Penn-Jersey Athletic Association trophy with a 73-42 victory over Solebury on Thursday at Jefferson.

The Cristo Rey boys basketball team poses for pictures following Thursday's Penn-Jersey championship win over Solebury. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

“It’s already halfway full,” Sample said. “This year boys basketball pulled off three. Softball is dominating, soccer and track & field, but I think we got a little more room for more basketball hardware coming up. Hopefully we get a new trophy case coming up.”

Sample said Cristo Rey filled up two buses for its trip to Jefferson with its student body, administration, cheerleaders and other fans. They could be heard throughout the game giving the Blue Pride a home-away-from-home advantage. 

Cristo Rey reciprocated by giving its fans a chance to continue cheering all the way through the game into the championship trophy presentation. The Blue Pride started the game with a 10-0 run that included a slam by sophomore Devin Booker, who added a few more slams as part of a team-high 25 points.

“My coach said every time I put my hands on the time, we have a lot of energy,” Booker said. “By me putting my hands on the rim, the energy just fed off from me and we just kept playing hard.”

Booker scored nine apiece in the first and second quarters as Cristo Rey held leads of 19-4 and 45-16 after each period. Junior Amir Nelson had 17 points, senior Josh Wyche had 14 and Saige Henderson had 10 in a win that was neve in doubt after the game’s first few minutes.

“Preparation everyday,” Wyche said of what led to the dominant championship performance. “It wasn’t just preparation for this day, it was preparation everyday, every practice, every workout, every mile run. It built up.”

Sample took over as head coach this season and raised the bar as the Blue Pride felt like they could do something special back in the fall. Last season ended with a semifinal loss to Solebury in the Penn-Jersey semifinals. With a few additions like Booker, Cristo Rey had the firepower to shoot for a league title in 2022-23.

They lost to Life Center the first time though the league, but avenged that loss twice, including a division championship victory over LC. Cristo Rey qualified for the PAISAA tournament in its first year as a member. With Thursday’s victory, the Blue Pride checked off two more goals, reaching 25 victories and bringing home the first league title in program history.

“The main goals were getting 25 wins, getting first in our league and getting here, getting the chip,” Booker said. “That was our main goal of the whole thing since October.”

“It feels good to bring it back to Norf. This is our first in history too. We made history. Got my man Joshua Wyche his first chip. It feels amazing.”

Wyche and Sample have been working toward a title together for five years, starting with two seasons at Harriton when Sample was the head coach there then heading to Cristo Rey together when Sample was named AD in 2020.

Wyche was program changer for Cristo Rey, becoming the school’s first Division I recruit when he committed to Lafayette before the season. He finished his third season in North Philly with a strong outing to help deliver the program its first championship.

“It’s great, the journey and the opportunity, being able to to play for a great group of guys, the coaching staff,” Wyche said. “It’s a great opportunity. The school, everybody coming out.”

“Starting at Harriton with this guy right here, and getting a chance to be a part of his last year, we’ve been talking about it the last couple weeks, but it’s really special,” Sample said. “I’ve won a lot of games, a lot of championships before, but this one is by far my favorite because it helped this guy get one.”

Wyche is excited to see what his “lil’ bros” have in store for the future as they try to build on what he helped start. If things go to plan, Booker thinks Sample will definitely have to order that new trophy case.

“(We have a chance) to stack up some championships,” Booker said. “It feels really good to be a big part of this.”

“They didn’t even have a basketball team for a long time. For us to come here and win the chip, we’re just building a new culture at Cristo Rey.”

Looking around at the friends, family and other fans on the court celebrating Thursday’s championship win on the court at Jefferson, it was hard for Sample not to envision the same thing.

“Look around this is our whole school community,” Sample said. “Class of 2016 is our first graduating senior class all the way to Class of 2026. Administration, teachers, students. We filled up two buses. The cheerleaders. Everyone’s here, everybody supports each other. We’re a family. We’re the new up and coming school, building a brand, building a culture, and I think today it was on full display.”

By Quarter

Solebury 4 | 12 | 14 | 12 || 42

Cristo Rey 19 | 26 | 17 | 11 || 73

Scoring

Solebury: Haze Puttlitz 18, Joell Idrovo 9, Messiah Barton 6, Tyler Simpson 6, Ari Johnson 2, Christian Dominguez 1

Cirsto Rey: Devin Booker 25, Amir Nelson 17, Josh Wyche 14, Saige Henderson 10, Lamar Lovett 3, Aldo Rodriguez 2, Tyler Tolbert 2