City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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BRYN MAWR — When Jay Chiles began his high school basketball career, the plan was to add onto a program’s legacy.

Instead, Chiles has helped build one.

The senior guard and Friends Select are looking to stay in the mix at the top of the Friends Schools League this season. They started the right way with a 59-51 league win over Shipley paced by Chiles’ 16 points.

“It’s been wonderful. I’ve always had in my mind I want to leave a legacy and a big impact to a program and it kind of set the bar for me to do better every day and keep working,” Chiles said. “Coming here, we wasn’t really known, but we kind of put a target on our back now. …. Now we gotta finish the job, keep going.”

Chiles began his high school career at Imhotep Charter. He ended up at Friends Select as a sophomore, playing for Percell Coles, a childhood friend of his father’s.

The 6-foot-1 guard earned a spot in the starting lineup halfway through his sophomore campaign in 2022-23. It was a big one for the Friends Select program as Christian Kirkland (Youngstown State) carried the team to a 17-5 record, a third place finish in the Friends Schools League and a spot in the league semifinals for the first time since 2000.

Last season wasn’t quite as pretty with a 10-14 overall mark, but Chiles and classmate Isaiah Marshall proved to be all-league talents, helping Friends Select follow up the historic 2022-23 run with a fourth place finish in the league and second straight semifinal appearance.

“It was huge for our program,” Coles said. “We’ve come a long way. “Me and the AD Bill Klose, we talk about it all the time. We just took one year at a time. Teams were coming into our building and not playing their best players. We’re losing by 20 and 30 points. And just to turn that around and have teams play against us and know they gotta play everybody, it’s going to be a tough game, it’s a great feeling.”

Friends Select graduated five seniors from last year’s team, but the Falcons bring back most of their production as they look to climb their way up the FSL ladder.

Chiles, Marshall (first team All-FSL in 2023-24) and junior forwards Owen Coughlin and Ahmeil McLaurin are the most productive returners, along with sophomore Reggie Moore, who is currently sidelined. 

McLaurin scored 12 and Marshall and Coughlin both added nine in Tuesday’s win. Junior Micah Waters Jr., a newcomer from West Catholic, chipped in eight. Stevie Maniatis scored 15 for Shipley, knocking down five triples in the game, and Danilo Linsalata had 12 for the Gators.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can score the ball, who can drive, good handles on the ball and stuff like that,” Coles said. “We just gotta play as a team with the ball and just take pride in defense, pay attention to detail.”

Friends Select jumped ahead 15-11 after a quarter of play Tuesday, led 27-20 at the break and expanded the advantage to 45-34 in third as Coughlin and McLaurin took over inside with a combined 10 points in the quarter.

Shipley trimmed that deficit down to six, 49-43, with 4:41 left in the game, but Chiles helped the Falcons respond right back with an and-one and then an assist to Coughlin for a three that quickly put FSS back up 12.

“You’ve got like a second coach on the floor where you don’t have to do too much,” Coles said of Chiles. “You’ve got a guy with high IQ that can organize the team when it gets chaotic and then he can also score. He can shoot the ball as well. It gives me great comfort as a head coach.”

“I’ve seen him develop in regards to his communication and just being a leader, knowing how to be a leader and communicate to guys to get guys organized,” he added.

As a senior, Chiles knows part of his job this year is making the right plays in the fourth like he did Tuesday night.

“Since I had experience coming in last year as a junior, this year, I’m way more prepared for bigger games,” Chiles said. “I take pride in being in big games and showing the underclassmen how it’s done, closing out games.”

Reigning champion Academy New Church and perennial power Westtown will be tough to overthrow in the FSL. Friends’ Central, George School and others will try to have their say as well as Friends Select attempts to get past the league semifinals.

That’s the goal though, which would be a great legacy to leave for seniors like Chiles and Marshall.

“The goal this year, I want to go far and win a championship this year,” Chiles said. “Get over that hump of getting to the Final Four and I want to go far in states as a team.”

Friends Select 59, Shipley 51

Friends Select 15 | 12 | 18 | 14 || 59
Shipley 11 | 9 | 14 | 17 || 51

Friends Select: Jay Chiles 16, Ahmeil Mclaurin 12, Isaiah Marshall 9, Owen Coughlin 9, Micah Waters Jr. 8, Jay Whitfield 2, Kenny Gatling Jr. 2, Zaire Reid 1

Shipley: Steve Maniatais 15, Danilo Linsalata 12, Jack Naegle 9, Deven Valhani 5, Drew Naegle 5, Venkat Bayireddi 3, Danny Braslow 2