City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue
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Max Moshinski has some roots at Father Judge. Both his father and grandfather graduated from the Northeast Philadelphia all-boys Catholic High School.

The Huntingdon Valley native didn’t expect to end up a Crusader until he caught the eye of Judge coach Chris Roantree at an AAU showcase and was eventually sold on a path to becoming a Division I player and helping build a program.

“I played really well, and Coach Chris reached out for me from there in eighth grade, and that’s when I made that decision I thought would be the best for me to improve and give me the best chances to go Division I,” Moshinski said.

Moshinski, a 6-foot-5 wing whose length and versatility have always made him an intriguing prospect, had to wait his time to shine at Judge. He played in 11 games as a sophomore before earning an important role off the bench for Judge’s Catholic League and PIAA championship squad this winter.

Finally, he got his chance to star for the Crusaders this spring summer and saw his prospect status finally take off as well. Moshinski’s patience and perseverance led to a number of schools interested in his talents before his commitment to Iona last week.

“In the world of instant gratification, he stuck it out,” Roantree said. “He got better every year, and now he’s going to be a Division I basketball player, so I’m super happy for him.”

Moshinski averaged 5.1 ppg and 2.9 rpg in 16 minutes per game for Judge as a junior, but Roantree said he could see the confidence start to grow as Moshinski made key plays in big games like the PCL championship against Roman Catholic and state semifinals against Imhotep.

He played well during the spring live periods with Team Iverson on the Hoop Group Showcase League circuit then saw the offers roll in during the Philly Live I and II sessions, while suiting up for the Crusaders — this time in a more featured role.

Drexel, Boston, Binghamton, Hofstra, NJIT, Merrimack, Penn, and Marist all offered during a 10-day period.

Iona offered a little later, but followed Moshinski through the summer. He visited Iona’s campus in mid-September and took about a week to weigh his options before coming to a decision. He made his commitment last Thursday before announcing it Friday, Sept. 26.

“Just the whole culture up there,” Moshinski said. “It’s really a basketball school. Their lifting program seemed legit, and that’s a big thing for me, just getting bigger and stronger, and also I think Coach Geriot is going to do a great job up there just coming from that kind of experience. Just their whole basketball program in general was kind of legit, and I thought I would fit into that style really well as well.”

Moshinski said the final decision came between Iona, Marist, and Merrimack.

Former teammate Kevair Kennedy will be a freshman at Merrimack this season. Moshinki’s AAU and high school teammate Rocco Westfield announced his commitment to Merrimack a week before Moshinki made his decision.

They’ll get a chance to face off in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

“That should be pretty cool,’ Moshinki said. “We’ll be playing them. We did talk about it. It’s pretty funny after playing together for so long now we’ll be going against each other.”

Iona head coach Dan Geriot is about to begin his first season at the helm of the Gaels, taking over a team that went 17-17 (12-8 MAAC) last season. He spent the last 10 seasons coaching in the NBA ranks.

Moshinki expects to fit stylistically with Geriot as a multi-talented player who can impact winning in a number of ways.

“Just guys who can do a little bit of everything,” Moshinski said of what the Gaels’ coaching staff was looking for. “Rebound, shoot, score, defend, and also just having a basketball IQ and a feel for the game is a really big thing too, things like setting screens, getting guys open, cutting off ball. All those kinds of things.”

Roantree and Moshinshki both pointed to his time in the weight room as a big reason he was able to break out this offseason.

Moshinki said his ability to shoot the ball is an area he’s focused on improving since arriving at Judge. He had some coaches make minor tweaks to his form and put time into getting in extra shots, whether it was one of the assistants on the Judge staff or teammates like Westfield.

“Tthey helped me work on (my shot) and it gave me that many more options of play style,” Moshinski said. “Instead of just being one-dimensional, it really opens everything up and makes everything you do so much easier. That for sure is something big that helped me make that leap.”

Moshinski is Geriot’s first 2026 high school commitment after he brought in three high schoolers in the 2025 class. The Gaels have plenty of program history, but it’s hard not to see the parallels between Moshinski’s commitment to Geriot and Iona and the one he made to Roantree and Judge four years ago.

“When he went up there, he really liked everything about it in terms of what they do, and what they’re preaching in terms of development and how they want to run their program,” Roantree said. “He compared it very similarly to our program when we first came in and he was that second class that came in, how it kind of got built from the ground up."