City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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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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Academy New Church coach Kevin Givens enters this season, his 33rd, on the brink of a landmark he will no doubt achieve in December: 400 career coaching victories. He currently sits at 355. He also enters this season on a hunt. Givens has a team loaded with talent, possibly the area’s best—and not one senior has a college commitment.

To say it annoys him would be an understatement.

“It does bother me,” Givens said. “It’s frustrating, because my seniors are all capable of playing in college. High school seniors are being pushed back, and I had one of my players who had an offer pulled back. My issue is I have to call these schools that are recruiting my kids to see what is going on. I have a team that has the talent and capability of winning it all. We have size. We have talent. We can do it. We also have a determined team out to prove that they can play Division I college basketball.”

Givens returns a pair of 6-foot-7 senior forwards Cam Smith and Ryan Warren. Joining them will be 6-4 senior guard Dior Carter, 6-foot senior point guard Bryce Rollerson, 5-11 senior guards Ryan Torres and Jasin Custus-Dancy, and 6-7 junior forward Eric Tati, 5-9 sophomore guard Antonio Lozardo and 6-8 junior forward Jaylen Leak.

ANC is going for a Friends’ Schools League threepeat, after finishing 15-9 overall and 6-2 in the Friends’ Schools League regular season, beating traditional powerhouse Westtown, winners of eight-straight Friends’ Schools League titles (2014-20, 2022), in the semifinals and George School, the 2023 Friends’ Schools League champions, in the finals.

The Lions did lose a valuable piece, 6-foot-4 junior guard Marquis Newson, who transferred to reigning PIAA Class 5A state champion Neumann-Goretti, but have enough firepower back to threepeat at Friends’ Schools League champ. This is a team, however, that wants to close this season with a higher goal that has been denied: a Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PAISAA) state championship. The last time the Lions won the PAISAA state title came in 2009, as a repeat winner after winning the first PAISAA state championship in 2008.

Rollerson is a capable floor general, who has a great knack for always being around the ball, able to anticipate, able to blow by defenders with an explosive first step, and able to change direction when he drives to the basket. He has the ability to be in two places at once, covering one player and fast enough to run over and defend another. He can score driving, pulling up, and has a solid mid-range game.

Smith can play both a physical game and a finesse game, and is strong around the basket, not afraid to drive hard, or throw up precise floaters. He is a solid interior defender, with great instincts. He disrupts passes, using his athleticism to step out to the perimeter and defend. Carter can score in a variety of ways, nailing threes from distance, driving the lane, or scoring down low. Defensively, he can defend on the perimeter or down low. He plays with an old-school fundamental skill set that features boxing out for offensive and defensive rebounds, and a penchant to disrupt by using great anticipation in the passing lanes.

All three enter their senior year without a college destination.

Smith had an offer from Bucknell, then found out later in the summer that it had been pulled.

“I didn’t hear back from Bucknell, but that is the way college basketball is today, I heard nothing from them, after having me on campus, and offering me, and they didn’t follow up,” said Smith, who transferred into ANC from La Salle to reclass his sophomore year. “It is a little scary this late in recruiting that no one here knows where they are going. I realize high school seniors are an endangered species in college basketball. College coaches don’t look at high school seniors anymore. They have guys in their 20s available in the (transfer) portal. I understand it. I don’t like it.

“I’m confident in the way I play. I’m confident in the way my teammates play. The way I look at it, some college coaches will see what we have to offer. If we don’t play our game, to make each other look better, that hurts us. I think we can be the best team in the area. We can beat anyone. We work our tails off every day in practice.”

What concerns Carter, Rollerson and Smith are players looking to show off their skills aware college scouts are watching at the expense of the team.

Carter has an offer from Division II University of Charleston.

“It is crazy that none of us have D-I offers,” Carter admitted. “We need to stay together and play together. I like our chemistry. We have a lot of seniority. We don’t have the type of guy who can drop 30 every night. We need to share the ball. That has been the message. My mindset going into this season is knowing I can play, and the guys on this team can play in college. My concern is when guys don’t play together, knowing our situation with six or seven graduating seniors who do not have D-I looks right now. If they try and prove something to college scouts, we can’t have that. It’s why I hold everyone accountable at practice.”            

Rollerson was watching when ANC was knocked out of the PAISAA semifinals against eventual PAISAA state champion Phelps. He was out with a high ankle sprain and Warren was out with a back injury.  

Rollerson feels his senior year is the last chance to make up for lost championships.

“I’m not scared of my future, because I know I can earn a scholarship, and I know who I am,” Rollerson said. “Not having a college destination does give me a chip on my shoulders to play more determined. We’re going to have a whole team full of determined seniors. We’re all trying to earn a spot at the next level, and we are going to play like that.”

Making ANC a very scary team this season.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.