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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 Ryan Ansel has always been surrounded, it seems, by high basketball acumen wherever he went. During the 2011 NBA lockout, La Salle’s new coach once ran scout team when he played for Davidson with an interesting backcourt partner — future hall of famer Steph Curry. He played at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy under coach Bill Dooley in high school and the legendary Bob McKillop at Davidson, before latching on to a legend in waiting, Swarthmore’s Landry Kosmalski, once a Davidson assistant under McKillop.

Ansel, 32, is now counting on that wealth of knowledge he has accumulated under those coaches and being on the court with an all-time great to rub off on the Explorers, who finished 9-13 overall and 2-11 in the Catholic League last season.

The program is in the throes of a rebuilding process after having lost six seniors and five players that transferred out. Ansel is willing to be patient in his first year at La Salle, taking over for Mike McKee, the Explorers’ previous coach who went 69-42 over the last five years.

Ansel is still figuring out his rotation, with two players back in 6-5 senior forward Joe Shields and 6-3 junior guard Hayes Altomare. They will be joined by 6-3 junior guard Nick Parisi, 5-9 senior guard Liam Hawley, 5-11 senior guard Luke Hudock, 6-1 sophomore guard Prestin Washington and 6-4 sophomore forward Joey O’Brien — and a very intriguing player in 6-8 sophomore center Grayson McKeogh, a starting defensive end on the Explorers’ football team.

A gaping void will need to be filled with the graduation of Horace Simmons, now playing for Drexel after leading La Salle in scoring (15.8) and rebounding (6.2). La Salle was also stung by the departures of 6-2 sophomore guard Kasey Fleming (George School), 6-5 sophomore forward Cameron Smith (Academy of the New Church), 6-5 sophomore forward Ryan Warren (ANC), who started 17 games for the Explorers, and Michael McKee II, the son of coach McKee, who is at Germantown Academy.

“My focus is bringing a new culture to the program, that’s first and foremost and what I’ve been preaching to the guys, the culture comes before the wins,” said Ansel, who was previously a head coach at Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr in 2021-22. “I want everyone walking in lock step together, beating the same drum, and being willing to sacrifice for their teammates. 

“We need to get these guys to realize if they sacrifice for one another, if they care about each other on and off the court, we always would say at Davidson, ‘Help somebody to help yourself.’ That goes for setting a good screen to get your teammate open, and that gets you open for the next one. Cutting hard, so that means getting your teammate open for an open shot. All the little things. They translate.”

Ansel is well aware of how rugged the Philadelphia Catholic League is, with favorites like Archbishop Ryan and 6-10 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. Add on traditional powerhouses like Roman Catholic and Neumann-Goretti and there are hardly any breaks any night.

Ansel admitted the collective attitude has been good. The Explorers won the Competitive Edge Fall League, in which they beat two teams like Conestoga and Methacton, which beat them earlier in the league. Ansel feels that was a big confidence boost. It gave his group a tangible reward for the commitment they made.

The steps back to credibility for the program will be small at first. That was a nice first step. Ansel keeps a glass jar on his desk in his La Salle office to collect pennies from each player after practice to signify there are no expectations. Each penny goes towards a larger picture.

Ansel does not have a go-to player like Sorber or Bethea, though he does have a team, he feels, that is buying into his system and his message.

“We may not look special, but we can be special,” he said. “I have guys who are willing to play for each other, and at Davidson and Swarthmore, we always did more with less. The message is when we’re doing the little things to get each other open, sacrificing, that’s what can make us special.”

One great sign is athletic players like McKeogh showing up before school to make sure he gets some shots up.

Shields and Altomare will be counted on to be leaders. They knew a culture change that would have to take place. They feel that they can win games against teams that they are not expected to win. The Explorers plan on doing that by possibly running more and scoring in transition.

“We will look a little different and we will have to be patient, but we have worked all summer on what we’re doing and attack back,” Altomare said.

Shields feels the spacing on offense will be better.

“We have all been playing together for a couple of years now and have good camaraderie between us,” Shields said. “We know each other. Just knowing where our movement and everything that goes along with spacing helps us. Grayson is a big kid. He moves well. He’s someone who works hard and the way he works, he has been buying in. That helps us. This comes down to our mentality has changed. This is a hungry team and we saw what happened last year. We had that season. We want to protect the image of our school. We want to win, obviously, but have been working on how we can win.”

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.