City of Basketball Love

By Mike Gross
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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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When you’re trying to ascend to the middle class of the powerful Philadelphia Catholic League, even the small positives matter.

Sean Tait can remember all of them, from his first season as the coach at Conwell-Egan.

“Last game of the year, we beat Carroll at Caroll, which kind of knocked them out of contention for the playoffs,’’ he said. “We were tied with a minute to go against Devon, which won our classification (4A) state championship. We’re tied with Ryan with a minute to go and lost that game. 

“We were up five against Archbishop Wood with six minutes to go, lost that game. O’Hara, it was tied with about four minutes left and we lost by seven.’’

The Eagles were young, with a lineup loaded with sophomores and first-year varsity players. They did finish strong, losing four PCL games by a combined 19 points before winning the finale at Carroll. And they did win seven of nine non-league games. 

Still, the bottom line reads 9-13 overall, 2-11 in the league, even if it’s one of the best and deepest high school leagues in the country.

“It was nice to be in those games and be competitive, which Egan hadn't been for a while,’’ Tait said. “But at the end of the day, people don’t understand how hard our league is, and you don't get credit for close losses. So yeah, I'm hoping to change that a little bit this year.’’

Seems like a plausible goal.

Conwell-Egan loses Antwone George, a swingman now at Penn State-Harrisburg who put together a fine, box-score stuffing senior year: 13 points, five assists, three steals and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Most everyone, plus two transfers, is back. That includes Myles Moore, a 6-4 junior who was second on the team to George in points and rebounds last year, 5-9 junior Jared Valez, 6-7 senior Justin Bobb, 6-0 junior Matt Tollerson-Irby, 5-10 sophomore Tristan Laster and 6-3 junior Cole Zalewski, who missed most of last season with an ACL tear.

The transfers will add to Tait’s deep group of small-but-tough guards; Dom Dorsey, from Father Judge, and Jasir Ross, who was all-conference last year at Pennsauken (N.J.).

Zalewski is a shooter who had been among the Eagles’ scoring leaders when he was injured last year; he has only recently been cleared to play. Bobb is a back-to-the-basket big who can also venture outside and face the hoop. Tait said he’s getting some recruiting interest.

Egan has the athletes to play fast, but that can be a mixed blessing in the ultra-athletic PCL. Tait says he plans to mix things up, in terms of scheme, on both ends of the floor.

“I was always of the idea that when you have an opportunity to play fast in transition, you take it,’’ he said. “But we have to know when it’s not a good look, pull it down and execute in the halfcourt. It’s a fine line - we’re not going to hold the ball, but we have to be efficient.’’

Tait mentioned Devon Prep, which went 11-2 in the PCL and won the state 4A championship, as a role model.

“They don’t have the horses to go up and down, but they make you guard them for 30 seconds,’’ he said.

The Eagles will also mix it up on the other end of the floor.

“You have to get stops playing man-to-man, but we can disguise that with matchup zones, or even a straight 2-3 (zone),’’ he said.

“We like to change defenses, slip things in here and there, keep teams from getting comfortable. Whatever we do defensively, we just like to switch it up and keep teams off balance that way.’’

Tait has upgraded the non-league schedule in year two, including matchups with Friends Central, Dobbins Tech, Audenried and a holiday trip to the Capital City Classic in Richmond, Va.

Although Tait is in his second year at Egan he’s a veteran of the PCL. He played at Father Judge and coached there for 12 years, ending in 2021. Before that he had one season at the helm at Archbishop Wood, and after that he spent three years as an assistant at D-III Delaware Valley.

“I think the parity of the Catholic League has gotten greater from top to bottom, from the last time I coached in it,’’ he said. “You have teams with top 100, top 20 kids (nationally) in their class. But you also have teams like Devon Prep, primarily with Division II, Division III-caliber kids. You can win a lot of games with kids like that, if you play a certain way.’’

It’s a goal for a program that won a state Class 2A championship in 2015, but hasn’t made the PCL playoffs since.

“Who are we?’’ Tait asked. “What are we? Are we 2-and-11, or are we a team, with everybody back, that, if things go our way, we win five or six games and we’re in the playoffs? For now, our main goal is just to qualify.’’