City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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(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 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Fran O’Hanlon had the intention of helping out. That’s all. 

O’Hanlon did his time, 40 years in fact coaching basketball throughout the world, at the high school level and the last 27 as the highly respected head coach at Lafayette, leading the Leopards to three NCAA tournament appearances. He’s in two hall of fames, Villanova and the Big 5, and will no doubt enter a third very soon as Lafayette and the Patriot League’s all-time winningest coach. So, in July, after Mike Richards stepped down before ever coaching at O’Hara, O’Hanlon found himself in a usual spot — coaching again — fielding, however, unusual questions.

He stood there arms folded looking over a group of kids during an open gym when one of the players walked up and innocently asked if O’Hanlon, 74, had ever played basketball before. The former Villanova star humbly shook his head and said, “Yes,” the query was followed with another, “Did you play, or sit the bench?”

You sense O’Hanlon is enjoying this. It is not a position he saw himself in when he retired from Lafayette in 2022. He just wanted to give Richards, named as the initial replacement for Ryan Nementz as Lions’ head coach, a hand. He did not even know if he wanted to be a full-time assistant. A Newtown Square resident, O’Hanlon lives close to O’Hara. It was somewhere he could show up, dispense some wisdom, and still be connected to the game. That’s it. 

When Richard resigned this summer, O’Hanlon was asked if he would take on the role as the head coach this summer. It was late. Plus, there was no line of A-list candidates circling the school for the position.

O’Hara lucked out in getting an A-lister. O’Hanlon is noncommittal as to what he will do moving forward. He knows what he is presently doing — coaching O’Hara.

O’Hanlon inherits a team that finished 18-9 overall last season, and 8-5 in the Philadelphia Catholic League. The Lions lost a major piece to graduation in shooting guard Izaiah Pasha (17.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg), though O’Hanlon will have a nice one-two punch in returning starters 6-7 senior forward Pearce McGuinn (Stonehill) and 6-2 senior guard Aasim “Flash” Burton (Rider). 

Burton (13.2 ppg, 5.0 apg) and McGuinn (12.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg) combined to score 25 points a game last season, and they will get help from 6-2 senior forward Miles Johnson, 5-10 senior guard Anthony Hobbs and 6-2 senior wing Ethan Schultz. Depth will come from 6-3 senior forward Noah McIntosh, 5-10 sophomore guard Jack Quinn and 6-foot sophomore guard John Welde — along with a Grand Canyon full of wisdom from O’Hanlon, who his players are getting to know, and who is getting to know his players.

O’Hanlon directed Monsignor Bonner to its last Catholic League championship in basketball — back in 1988. He guided Lafayette to 361 victories and three NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999, 2000 and 2015. He has seen the changing dynamics of players in his time, and the high school kid he once coached is far different than the one in front of him today.

“It is a different type of kid, yes, so you work on relating to them and reaching them in a different way,” said O’Hanlon, who likes to say he is in his 70s, though looks like he is in his 50s. “I’m still finding that out. I haven’t been a high school coach for a long time, yes, actually far longer than any of these kids have been alive. The high school kids I coached are in their 50s now (laughs). The Catholic League is crazy good. The biggest key for me is reaching these guys and I hope they listen to me. This is a different kid today. It comes down to catching up. Other programs are way ahead of us."

“I want to see improvement and change the culture here. I want to see a team that plays together and works well together. … It will come down to how much they care about learning.”

Burton and McGuinn realize what they have in O’Hanlon. They also know what the rest of the Catholic League thinks of them. They do not care.

Archbishop Ryan, with 6-9 Georgetown-bound Thomas Sorber, and Archbishop Wood, with the reigning Catholic League MVP, Miami-bound 6-foot-4 senior guard Jalil Bethea, arguably the best player in the city, as the teams to beat, O’Hara may need the claw its way from the bottom.

“We think we can sneak up on people,” Burton said. “There will be a real difference from this year and last year. We have a top-level coach, and we have a team that is more together. We had no leaders last year. For me, there is no pressure. I’m signed with Rider. I’m going D-I, I know now I can make a mistake, and it won’t be on my mind.”

Burton said he listens to O’Hanlon’s details. Though, he also said, there is still a learning process going on.

McGuinn feels the Lions, with O’Hanlon leading the way, can surprise the Catholic League. 

“With coach O’Hanlon, who I’ve heard nothing but good things about, leading us, we’re ready to listen,” McGuinn said. “When he first got here, we questioned whether or not his plays would work. A few weeks later, we found out they did. We trust that coach O’Hanlon knows what he is talking about.”

Forty years says so.

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, 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.