City of Basketball Love

By David Comer
—

On March 1, as his players and a smattering of fans looked on, Bryn Athyn College men’s basketball coach Sean Westerlund climbed a metal ladder under one of the baskets in Asplundh Field House to finish cutting down the net to celebrate his team’s first-ever United East Conference championship and its inaugural trip to the NCAA Division III tournament that would come the following week.

Little did Westerlund know as he stood on the ladder that day with the net raised in his right hand and a smile cemented on his face that in less than one month there would no longer be a Bryn Athyn men’s basketball team.

Bryn Athyn president Sean Connelly announced on Wednesday, March 26, that at the end of the current academic year the school would be discontinuing its 11 NCAA Division III programs — including men’s and women’s basketball — as well as its club ice hockey team.

“This decision is a necessary step for our survival,” Connelly wrote in a letter addressed to students, faculty, coaches, staff and administration. “To ensure this institution, rooted in a distinctive vision almost 150 years old, can thrive for the next 150 years.”

The announcement was a complete surprise to Westerlund.

“I had no inkling,” he said. “It was a shock.”

Bryn Athyn's men's basketball celebrates its first and only United East championship. (Photo: David Comer/CoBL)

Westerlund was hired at Bryn Athyn in April of 2020. What would have been his first season as coach, the 2020-21 campaign, was cancelled due to COVID-19. In the three years thereafter, the Lions went from 7 to 11 to 17 wins, setting the stage for this historic season that concluded earlier this month with a 20-7 record and an appearance in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament where they fell to perennial power Hampden-Sydney College.

“There’s no words to describe what kind of blow this is to the program and the people involved,” Westerlund said. “I am fortunate to have led it for four years. We had a helluva run. I’m just trying to help my guys pick up the pieces.”

For Westerlund, the program’s all-time leader in wins and the back-to-back UEC coach of the year, the memory of March 1 remains a vivid one.

“That’s the last memory I’m going to have in the Asplundh Field House for a game,” he said. “I get chills thinking back to that March 1 day — the buzz in and around campus, the love our community poured out. We built this from the ground up. It’s something I will cherish. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.” 

Sophomore guard K’Mari Smith, a graduate of West Chester Henderson who spent his freshman season at Albright College, said he was walking to class on Wednesday when he received the text that Westerlund sent to the team letting them know what was happening.

“It was definitely heartbreaking,” Smith said. “Really, it was just a shock to everyone. My college career at Bryn Athyn is over. We just created history. It’s just a shock to me.”

Smith said that there were several athletes in his class — approximately 53% of Bryn Athyn’s students played a sport — and that his professor ended class early.

“Everyone is stressed,” he said.

Smith said that after he gathered his thoughts he called his mom to tell her.

“She didn’t even know what to say,” Smith said. “She told me to keep my head up and that we would figure something out.”

Smith said that the team got together later in the day to discuss the unexpected news.

“You could definitely feel their pain,” he said.

Smith said that he will enter the transfer portal and look for a school where he can continue his academic and athletic careers.

For senior guard Jakir Hampton, who was a first-team All-UEC selection and the UEC tournament MVP this season, the situation is slightly different. He said he only needs to complete his senior seminar to graduate and plans to return to campus in the fall to earn his degree. 

“I was just surprised and a little hurt,” Hampton said. “It was really surprising. It just hurts that they won’t be able to run it back and defend their title. A lot of people are sad and angry.”

Hampton said that he has nothing but positive memories from the season.

“It was my favorite team I’ve been part of and not just because we won a championship; it was just the vibes,” Hampton said. “It feels great to be part of something special and historic. They can’t take that away from us.”

Bryn Athyn women’s coach Travis Ponton, who just completed his sixth season at the school, had also built a winner. His team’s win total improved each year, culminating with a 21-7 record and trip to the UEC semifinals this season.

“My first emotion is just gratitude,” Ponton said. “I am grateful for my six years here and the people who were part of it. We’ve had outstanding young women in our program that have helped transform it. There was only one way to go when I got here - and that was up. I just put my heart and soul into it. … I’m super grateful for the opportunity Bryn Athyn gave me to lead a program.”

Ponton, who was an assistant at several Division I schools before coming to Bryn Athyn, said that his plan is to continue to coach women’s basketball at the collegiate level — be that as a Division I assistant or a Division III head coach or somewhere in between.

“You always reach out to your friends when something like this happens,” Ponton said. “The opportunities are going to come. You always take the interview and do the research and see if it can be a fit.”

Ponton said that he will take many positive memories from Bryn Athyn to his next coaching job.

“You don’t remember the scores of every game, but you remember the people and how they made you feel,” he said. “The kids you help get through it — that’s the real success story of coaching college basketball. That’s the best feeling.”

Westerlund said that when he learned the news, he had two immediate thoughts — how does he help his players and, as a single father, how does he provide for his 3-year-old daughter, Gåva.

“My goal is to stay at the college level,” he said. “I’m leaning on my network.”

Westerlund, 33, lives in Roxborough and said that he would prefer to stay in the Philadelphia area. Wherever he ends up, Westerlund will always have the 2024-25 season at Bryn Athyn to reminisce about.

“I am so proud of my team,” he said. “Nobody can take away what they accomplished. I love them very much.”

Westerlund said that when he met with his players following Bryn Athyn’s announcement last week that there was a wide range of emotions.

“They’re angry. They’re upset,” he said. “They have a lot of questions. I don’t have a lot of answers.”

He does have a lot of memories. 

He said he will always have the UEC championship game to think about, but he will also have his team’s come-from-behind win at Penn State-Harrisburg that came a few weeks earlier. Bryn Athyn trailed in that game by seven with less than four minutes to play and came back to win, 65-63, to secure the program’s first league championship.

“For us to do it there, it was just so validating,” Westerlund said. “That is when I knew we would run through the league playoffs.”

And they did — culminating with his ascent up the ladder to cut down the net on March 1.

“I’ve given my heart and soul to the program, and my guys have given their heart and soul,” Westerlund said. “They were phenomenal representatives of Bryn Athyn College.”