City of Basketball Love

By 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 2025-26 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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In just four years, Chris Roantree has turned Father Judge from a solid Catholic League program to one of the best high school teams in the region. 

Coming off the best year in program history, winning the program’s fourth-ever Catholic League title and its first PIAA 6A championship, the Crusaders are primed to do it all over again. 

“Everybody says ‘you have a chance to repeat,’ and we don’t use that word in our gym because our seniors need to create their own legacy going out,” Roantree said. “One of the things we’ve talked about is [that] there’s guys that have won championships at Judge — there’s nobody who’s won multiple championships at Judge.”

Last year’s senior class of Kevair Kennedy (Merrimack), Everett Barnes (Loyola Md.) and Kevin Beck (Montclair State) set the new standard at Solly Ave. The trio led a group that won 24 games and the PCL title, then made it all the way to Hershey, coming away victorious in the program’s first-ever state playoff appearance. It was Judge’s first PCL title since 1998, the Crusaders beating Roman Catholic in both the league and PIAA championship games. 

There’s no doubt the Crusaders will feel the loss of all three. Kennedy, a whirling dervish of a 6-1 point guard, was the PIAA 6A Player of the Year. Barnes, a 6-10 post, improved his game by leaps and bounds in his two years at Judge; the 6-3 Beck was a valuable member of the rotation, chipping in quality defense, rebounding and shot-making. 

The cupboard, however, is still fully stocked. Judge has looked like a powerhouse all summer, playing in some of the most high-level contests in whatever event it’s played in. The Crusaders are a high-flying, lockdown-defending, take-no-prisoners group who draw eyes wherever they go, Roantree turning them into a name known beyond Delaware Valley.

The Crusaders celebrate the 2025 PIAA Class 6A state championship. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

“Shoutout to coach Chris,” senior guard Rocco Westfield said, “because he brought all of us to the next level.

“We really had a togetherness last year, but we really worked hard. A group of guys that really worked hard — we were in the gym before practice, we stayed after, and we just kept working.” 

The 2026 class boasts three Division I commits in guards Derrick Morton-Rivera (Temple), Max Moshinski (Iona) and Westfield (Merrimack), all of whom were in the team’s top six a year ago. So was junior guard Nazir Tyler, a physical 6-1 combo guard with college scholarships in his future; another junior, point guard Rahkiy Mason, is back in the mix as well. 

Morton-Rivera, a 6-foot-4 guard who averaged a team-high 17.2 ppg game last year while hitting 40.1% of his 3-pointers, will be in a similar role to a year ago, albeit with more leadership responsibility. Ditto for the 6-1 Tyler, who averaged 9.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg, and the 6-0 Westfield, who averaged 9.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg and 2.9 apg while hitting 43% of his 3-pointers. 

If any of the returners are in for a big leap in production, it’s Moshinski; the 6-5 wing averaged 5.1 ppg and 2.9 rpg last year but played well all summer, piling up Division I offers thanks to a big-time June and July in front of the Division I coaches. 

“I have high expectations [for myself],” Moshinski said. “I think I should really fit well into what we have. There’s a ton of different places for me to succeed, so I’m definitely looking to make a big leap with all aspects of my game I’d say.”

The rest of the rotation? Well, Roantree has size to work with in the form of 7-0 junior Jamal Hamidu, who comes to Judge after spending last year at Lawrence Woodmere (N.Y.), along with 6-7 junior Jeremiah Adedeji, who spent last year mostly getting minutes on the JV team. There’s also some exciting youth in the form of 6-6 sophomore Rezon Harris, an Imhotep transfer, plus a pair of high-ceiling freshmen in Khory Copeland (6-3) and Ahmir Brown (6-5). 

“We’re deep,” Roantree said, “and we’ve got to figure out if we want to play seven, eight, nine guys and how that rotation all clicks. We love our young guys and our two young bigs, Jeremiah has a chance to keep getting better and Jamal coming over has a chance to contribute for us as well.”

That depth also comes with versatility. If all pans out, Roantree could plan Hamidu and Adedeji together in the frontcourt, giving them the size to match up with anybody around; or he could go with someone like Harris or Brown as a small-ball ‘5,’ forcing other teams to match up with the Crusaders’ cadre of talented ball-handlers and shot-creators.

“I think it’s just feel,” Roantree said. “We’ve got to get in a rhythm, I think it’s hard to play nine guys and be in a consistent rhythm. We’ve got to figure that out quick because we go down to DC and open with Paul VI [from Virginia], so we’ve got to figure out how we want to play and what our rotation looks like pretty quick.”

There’s no doubt Judge has the talent, length, size, athleticism, you name it, to accomplish everything it wants to this season and then some. They’re far from alone in the PCL in that regard: Roman and Neumann-Goretti look like true contenders as well, with quality teams in the likes of Wood, Ryan, Bonner, West and more. 

The one thing last year’s group didn’t win was the District 12 championship, losing to Imhotep in the city title game. Roantree said it was a game that the staff didn’t highlight much before last year, focusing on league and state titles, but he was sure to mention it more often as a goal left unfulfilled a year ago. 

“The goals are the same for us,” he said. “Our expectation is to win.”