City of Basketball Love

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 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Devon Prep coach Jason Fisher laughs at the absurdity of it: Devon Prep, the Philadelphia Catholic League’s “little engine that could,” has an abundance of riches this season. It is a rarity that Fisher, who will be entering his 12th season, is going to enjoy.

This year’s version of the Tide could possibly be the best in Fisher’s tenure and the best team the school has ever had.

Last season, Devon Prep won its second PIAA Class 3A state title in three years with a 60-56 win over Franklin Area. Yet, the Tide finished 5-8 in the rough Catholic League and 15-13 overall—and the only team in the state that entered the state tournament with a sub-.500 record (10-13 overall). And for winning Class 3A state championships in 2022 and 2024, the Tide were rewarded by the PIAA with moving up this season to Class 4A, where Class 4A state finalist Archbishop Carroll resides.

Still, Devon Prep should be very good again.

The Tide return their top seven players: 6-foot-5, all-state senior wing Zane Conlon, who is built like a football player and is coming off a season in which he averaged 17.6ppg and 9.4rpg; 6-2 senior shooting guard Shane Doyle, 6-6 senior forward Reece Craft, 6-1 senior point guard Mason Thear, 6-2 senior guard Calvin Smith, and 6-4 sophomore guard Cooper Fairlamb.

Depth will come from 5-10 senior guard Mike Pergolis, 5-10 junior guard Jayden Bates, 6-5 junior guard Braeden Fisher, 6-3 sophomore guard John Doogan, 5-10 sophomore guard Jaden Craft, and 6-1 sophomore guard Christian Antonini.

The Tide may not have the height and athleticism of the perennial elite teams in the Catholic League, but they do possess experience, and mostly that innate sense of where each other are on the court. It is something you can’t coach, something you can’t teach, and a facet of the Tide’s game that will make them difficult to defend.

Devon Prep aspires to repeat as state champions, although the Tide’s first goal, which they collectively feel is tangible, is finally reaching the Palestra for the Catholic League semifinals and championship in February. There are the mountains of Roman Catholic, Father Judge, West Catholic, Neumann-Goretti, Carroll, St. Joseph’s Prep, Archbishop Wood and Archbishop Ryan to climb, but they feel that they have been stepped over long enough by the Catholic League superpowers to do some stepping themselves their senior year.

“We are always trying to create new schemes of the personnel that we have, and we are experimenting with a bunch of things,” Fisher said. “We will not be changing anything as much as we will be evolving. When you have the number of experienced guys back as we do, you are able to build off of stuff that has just become inherit. We take what this team has ingrained and working off that. It was time for us to move up with new challenges. Class 4A will present that. The Catholic League is spectacular. Having guys with experience going through that will help.

Devon Prep never really had the depth that they will have this year. Finding someone like Fairlamb, who as a freshman came on to start late last year and through the state tournament, was a big help. Fisher has options with players who can go possibly six, eight minutes a game.

“In Zane, Shane, Reece, Mason, Calvin, Cooper, and Mike, we have our top seven players there, and we have some good young guys coming up that still have to prove it,” he said. “Moving to 4A, there are unknowns. Carroll will be very good this year. But we will focus on what we have to do. I know in all the time that I have been here, we never have had seven of the top nine players back from a year ago—and from a team that won a state title.”

Statistically, Fisher noted, the Tide have 90-percent of their points and rebounds back from last year. That changes the expectations, he said, placing the bar much higher than it has been in the past—because this senior class has set it so high. Fisher likes his team’s attitude, their drive towards getting to the Palestra. It is something they speak about frequently.

“We don’t know if we can duplicate what we did last year,” Fisher said. “But we will be ready to play meaningful games in the Catholic League. This could be the best team that we have ever had here and our season could be over in February if we don’t make the Catholic League playoffs. The Catholic League is that good—and always has been.”

As of the time of this story's publication, no one on the Tide received a college offer. In an interesting twist, Devon Prep is the only Catholic League team to have won a boys’ basketball state championship last year.

“It fuels us being thought of as the underdogs, we live off that. It’s our mindset that no one notices us,” said Conlon, a three-year starter who was on the Devon Prep state title team as a freshman, reached the state quarters as a sophomore, and won a state title again as a junior. “We embrace the underdog role. Let everyone keep thinking that. We will run more this year. Our workouts have been much more intense than prior years and it will lead to a better season for us.”

Craft, who transferred into Devon Prep his sophomore year from Malvern Prep, will be the inside enforcer. He stressed what the first goal for this year’s Tide will be: “Getting to the Palestra in the Catholic League playoffs,” he said. “We need to maintain those values. We are all getting Division III interest. None of us are getting D-I attention. We won a state championship and we feel get ignored. We are a team that other teams feel that they can pass over us. We will run. We will pressure the ball. We will be a more intense team. We are a Palestra team this year.”

Thear transferred into Devon Prep from Perkiomen Valley last year and was a big cog in the Tide’s state title run. He feels the state championship stage gives the Tide an edge over other 4A teams across the state.

“We will be facing a D-I player every night, and that will prepare us again for the state tournament,” Thear said. “We have six seniors and all five starters back. Our whole goal is to get to the Palestra. We have great coaches, we run a great system and we will have to win by running teams into the ground. We have been working on our trapping and pressing all summer long. Yeah, you can say the confidence of this team is high.”

Doyle and Conlon have been at Devon Prep since their freshmen year. They know the pounding of the Catholic League monsters.

“Our main motivation is getting to the Palestra, none of these seniors have ever played there,” Doyle said. “The underdog role will never change. We are close friends. We know each other and have insane chemistry. Those are good things to have going into a season.”

One thing Devon Prep may not have too often is anonymity. “The little engine that could” has earned the attention of a few Catholic League hammers.

Success tends to do that.

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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.