City of Basketball Love

Joey Morozin +
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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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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After finally climbing over that Friends’ School League championship hurdle, Kevin Givens feels as if he has one of his most talented squads yet.

The veteran head coach, entering his 32nd season at powerhouse Academy New Church, broke a 15-year drought in the FSL last year with his first championship since 2009, courtesy of a 64-50 win over Friends’ Central in the title game. He had gotten as close as you can get, reaching the title game each of the previous four seasons, so this championship felt just a little extra special. 

“That championship last year was long overdue,” Givens told CoBL in a fall interview. “I really enjoyed that because we were down there five years in a row [...] we’ve been right there knocking on the door and some of those years, we had no talent. Some of the years we just had guys who we developed and got to play hard. 

“We have that talent this year.”

The Lions are usually near the top of the FSL standings year in and year out, but this might just be Givens’ most impressive squad yet — and that includes teams which included Elmarko Jackson (Kansas), Anthony McCall (Rider) and more. 

It starts with an impressive frontcourt.

A pair of 6-foot-7 juniors, Cam Smith and Ryan Warren, who both transferred in from La Salle College HS a year ago, and are a major two-way focal point. The two are both versatile forces; Smith with the ability to create from the perimeter, Warren more of a slashing big who finishes at the rim. They can play either end of a high-low perimeter connection, often looking for one another when they share the court, their interchangeability a big part of their problem-making for opposing defenses.

“Ryan and Cam’s chemistry is great and they feed off each other,” Givens said. “Their spacing and on-court communication is great.”

Joining them as a force around the hoop is 6-5 junior Dior Carter. A hyper-athletic wing who can play with the ball in his hands and stretch the floor to the 3-point arc, Carter can slash to the hoop and throw down an authoritative dunk with only a step. 

Throw in senior Caleb Alston-Nelson (6-6), sophomore Eric Tati (6-7) and a few other deep reserves over 6-5, and it’s a group of forwards that few around can even try to match up with. 

“We’re athletic, we’re long,” Givens said. “We should be able to out rebound everybody. We’re gonna go inside and I think we should be able to beat some people up and we will see what happens.”

The backcourt has plenty of talent as well, though it’ll look different from last year. 

They did graduate two starters in Bahsil Laster (Harcum), Nolan Waldon (Washington College) and lost junior guard Toby Nwobu (College Achieve Prep), but two newcomers will immediately shore up the perimeter attack: Marquis Newson and Bryce Rollerson. 

Newson is a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard who transferred out of the Sanford School (Del.). Newson has already obtained high Division I offers from Virginia Tech and Arizona State while displaying his talents across the AAU circuit with Team Final. Rollerson is a 5-11 sharpshooting guard who transferred out of Germantown Academy, averaging 25 points per game last season and achieving first-team all state honors. 

On top of those two, senior guard Jasin Custus-Dancy, sophomore Ibraheem Smith and freshman Antonio Lozada have all been getting quality minutes in the backcourt this offseason. The addition of all this talent combined with the amount of returning pieces may create some minutes problems for Givens and his staff. 

“It’s a challenge,” Givens said. “Getting everybody to play is something we gotta go back and figure out who’s gonna be varsity and who’s gonna be JV. We have a lot of events coming up, we are coming to your tournament and a couple other ones so we are trying to figure everything out. I probably got five guys that are upset at me right now so I’d rather start bringing them along and separating them from others, but we got a long bench right now.”

Altogether, it’s a group that has depth, size, talent, and upside, with the ability to play tenacious defense at the level that Givens and his coaching staff require. The top of the FSL will likely shape up to be a battle between ANC, George School and Westtown, though Friends’ Central and Friends’ Select both want to have a say in the matter.

However, despite winning a Friends’ League championship and reaching the semifinals of the PAISAA tournament just a year ago, Givens knows his team needs to improve on one certain aspect on the court. 

“Shooting, we need shooters," he said. “What happened to us last year was everyone played Zone against us. If you play us man to man, we got a shot. We had three pretty good shooters in Basile, Toby, and Nolan who were pretty good out on the perimeter but we still shot a low percentage, that’s why everyone was playing zone. 

“We are excited for Bryce, though, because we know he can shoot,” he added.

As of the time of this interview, Givens and his staff had yet to sit down and discuss certain goals for the season, but it is pretty obvious that winning and winning a lot is on their agendas. While Givens and his staff are optimistic about this season and what they could accomplish, they know there is still work to be done both on and off the court.

“The program’s in a good spot right now," Givens said. “One thing I tell my coaches is we gotta get kids in, good academic kids in. They have to be successful in the classroom. We have to develop kids, we aren’t always gonna get the All-American so we have to develop.”