City of Basketball Love

By Terry Toohey (@TerryToohey)
—

(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.)

~~~

ASTON – Telling senior guard Kaiden Robinson that it’s time to go home after practice has been a routine for Sun Valley coach Steve Maloney.

“Kaiden loves being in the gym,” Maloney said. “He’s a gym rat. I have to drag him out at the end of practice, which is a good problem for a coach to have.”

Maloney isn’t the only one who has to tell Robinson on a regular basis that it’s time to leave.

“The janitors have to kick me out sometimes, too,” Robinson said with a smile. “They’ll come out and say, ‘It’s 10:30, you have to go.’ I don’t complain because they’re the ones who let me in. They love me around here.”

If it wasn’t for Maloney and the janitors, there’s no telling what time Robinson would leave.

“If I could stay here, I’d stay until 2 a.m.,” Robinson said. “When I come here to work out, I get here about 7 or 8 o’clock and stay until 10:30, and that’s just doing station-to-station shooting. If I had coach in here, I’d do drills and stuff, but for the most part I’m just shooting.”

Until he’s told to leave that is. Interestingly, Robinson developed his love for the game during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was the only sport I could get to,” said Robinson, who also plays soccer and runs track. “There were no soccer nets around and the tracks were closed. I was 13 and just biking around, looking for something to do. I always brought a ball with me and always found a hoop to hoop on. I’ve been playing basketball since the sixth grade but I never took it serious until COVID. I thank COVID because it changed everything for me.”

The 6-2 Robinson and fellow senior Aaron Freeman are two of the key returnees for a Vanguards team that went 17-12 last season and is coming off its third trip to the PIAA Class 5A tournament since 2018 and first since 2019, a run that was a little unexpected.

Sun Valley lost its first three games and started the season 1-4 before turning things around. The Vanguards went 13-3 the rest of the regular season to finish second in the Ches-Mont American Division. They then stunned reigning league champ Downingtown West to reach the league semifinals. The Vanguards overcame a 21-0 deficit in that game to win, 62-58.  SV finished fourth in the District 1 tournament to qualify for the state playoffs.

“The best part of last year is that we started slow and still got to the 16-win mark and these younger guys got to experience the playoffs,” Maloney said. “You can see it. The practices are a little different now. They got a feel for that and I’m hoping that plays a role in their growth this year being thrown to the fire a little bit like that.”

Robinson and Freeman both believe that the experience of making the PIAA tournament for the first time in their careers will pay dividends for the Vanguards this season.

“It helps with nerves,” Robinson said. “We know we are a team that’s capable of making states. We know what we have to do to get back there and hopefully win a game or have a home state playoff game. We know we can compete at that level.”

“We come into this season with a lot of confidence,” Freeman added. “Last season (making the state playoffs) did seem to be a little bit out of our reach, even though it was one of our goals. We got the job done and this year we want to go farther in the state tournament. We are expecting to be back this year. We want to do better than last year.”

Equaling or bettering that run won’t be easy. Gone are 6-3 forward Blaise Eldridge and guard Noah Griffin. Eldridge, a first-team All-Ches Mont American selection, is now playing basketball at Alvernia. Griffin earned honorable mention all-league honors last season after receiving first-team laurels in football.

The return of Robinson, Freeman and fellow seniors Dino Dimidio, Josh Yannonis and Melvin Hackett and junior Aden Bambgose are expected to help make up for those key losses. Sophomores Jhamil Smith and Zion Cauthon are being counted on to add depth. Yannonis, Smith and Cauthon all play football.

Robinson averaged 12.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game last season and is receiving interest from Division III schools Alvernia, Albright, York and King’s College. Maloney likened Robinson to another Sun Valley alum who went on to have a distinguished Division III career.

“He’s very similar to Vinny DeAngelo from a leadership perspective,” Maloney said. “He’s got some things to improve from a basketball standpoint, but as a leader he’s up there with the best.”

That’s mighty high praise. DeAngelo, a 2019 Sun Valley grad, went on to become the leading scorer in Swarthmore College history and a two-time Division III All-American. He led the Garnet to a pair of Centennial Conference titles, four trips to the NCAA tournament including a berth in the Final Four for the second time in program history.

“He’s been in the playoffs three years so the big stage doesn’t affect him,” Maloney said of Robinson. “I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Freeman averaged 10.5 points and four assists per game in his first full season on the varsity. He played JV and a freshman and sophomore.

“He got his opportunity and ran with it,” Maloney said of Freeman. “He was one of our best players on both ends of the court all year long. He came up big for us. He hit the game-winner against Marple (43-41 in the opening round of the District 1 playoffs).”

Maloney called this team one of the more athletic groups he’s ever had. However, he also said the team was a little lacking in the varsity experience department even though there are eight seniors on the roster.

Still, Maloney has high hopes heading into the season.  

“We’ll be a little deeper than we have been,” Maloney said. “I’m excited about this group.”