City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin
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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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John Mosco has established a high standard in his 13 years at Archbishop Wood. 

Last year, quite simply, wasn’t up to snuff. 

In his first 12 seasons as the Vikings’ boss, Mosco has turned Wood into a powerhouse, winning a pair of Catholic League titles and a 2017 PIAA Class 5A championship, with a number of other high finishes in the PCL standings. So it’s safe to say that a 11-13 overall finish last year, including a 5-8 mark in the PCL, won’t cut it. 

Injuries and inexperience were the main culprits, but the Vikings aren’t going to lean on excuses.

“We’re taking that personally this year,” junior guard Caleb Lundy said. “We’re not going to finish low like that again.”

Lundy’s words are hardly an empty promise — it’s not hard to see Wood taking a big leap up the Catholic League standings this year. 

The talent starts in the backcourt. Senior Brady MacAdams, a 6-foot-3 guard and First Team All-Catholic League selection, averaged 17.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 2.5 apg while hitting 46.8% of his 3-pointers. Lundy, a 6-2 left-hander from Jersey with all sorts of mid-to-high-major Division I offers, averaged 12.1 ppg and 6.2 apg in his first year in the Catholic League. 

Last year, the pair were both in new situations as featured players in the Catholic League, both talented but still figuring things out against a league that’s always full of both talent and experience. 

“Brady’s really motivated, I think he was out to prove something last year and I think he proved it,”  Mosco said. “Same with Caleb, he was trying to make a name for himself coming over from Jersey, and I think he’s done that. It’ll be easier for these guys to play basketball instead of playing for those reasons.”

In the middle, the Vikings boast one of the area’s highest-ceiling prospects in Jaydn Jenkins. A 6-11 center, Jankins averaged 8.0 ppg and 6.2 rpg as a sophomore in his first season of varsity action, and has taken major strides in the months since as he’s established himself as one of the top frontcourt prospects in his class. 

That progress was clear during the Philly Live weekends in June, which saw the slender rim protector run the floor like a deer, knock down 3-pointers, and dominate the glass against all sorts of high-level frontcourt talent. 

College coaches are catching on. Jenkins is up to 13 offers, including recent ones from West Virginia and Penn State. Stanford, Duke, North Carolina and other blue-bloods are involved as well.

“He was always a defensive presence, I think he was coming along more on the offensive end, taking his time,” Mosco said. “We’re able to throw the ball in to him to score, [he’s] not just [scoring] on put-backs. For bigs, it takes a little longer, and he’s catching up to his body.”

Along with that top three, senior wing Brian Donahue (4.4 ppg) and junior wing Malachi Warren (3.7 ppg) return to the rotation. An expected leap from sophomore guards Dylan Powell and Kyiien Strong should mean Mosco has a quality top seven to work with at minimum.

Powell, an athletic 6-2 guard who saw spare minutes in 20 games as a freshman, has been strong this offseason. Often in the Vikings’ starting lineup in summer and fall events, Powell has shown to be a quality ball-handler and shooter who can make some nifty finishes around the rim.

“He’s coming along, he’s coming really really good,” Lundy said. “You see he’s really athletic, but another piece that’s come along is his shooting, he can really shoot the ball.”

There are also a few promising freshmen who joined the program this year, including 6-6 wing/forward A.J. Griffin, 6-5 wing/forward Mason McGuire and 6-4 wing Gavin Tumelty. Any of them could find themselves chipping into the rotation if they can defend at the level necessary to get minutes in the PCL. 

The biggest key for the underclassmen, according to Jenkins, is just to find a place to chip in where they can. 

“We all have one goal in common, and that’s just to win the game,” he said. “If that means you have to come in and guard 94 feet, grab some rebounds, get some assists, at any cost to win the game, that’s all that matters.”

Like the rest of the Catholic League, Wood’s schedule is loaded with high-quality opponents. The Vikings open up at SCH Academy on Dec. 1 and then play a high-profile matchup against Imhotep Charter at the Sixth Man Center on Dec. 5 before three days down at Gonzaga (D.C.) for a tournament; they also play Plymouth Whitemarsh in the Diane Mosco Classic and two games at the Governor’s Challenge before PCL play starts Jan. 2 at Father Judge. 

Judge, Roman and Neumann-Goretti figure to be the biggest challenges in the PCL, but everybody in the league will be competitive. To make things even more difficult, the Vikings have to play six of their first seven league games away from home, including at Judge, Roman (Jan. 14) and Neumann (Jan. 18), before finishing with four of their last six at home.

A top-six finish puts them in the quarterfinals, one win from making it back to the Palestra after missing out the last two seasons. They’re confident they can do it. 

“With me, Caleb and Brady, we have these bigger names and we’re going to be playing a lot of bigger schools, and better teams,” Jenkins said, “and seeing that we could compete with them [at Philly Live], it feels like we could compete with anybody in the country.”