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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Kevin McCormick finds himself a victim of success. The long-time, legendary Springfield (Delco) coach produces a competitive team every year, and this season will be no different. What he will juggle is the success around him.

Springfield, like many Central League teams, have to rely on multi-sport athletes to furnish a team. The sophomore, junior and senior classes of Springfield have had monumental sports seasons this past spring in lacrosse (PIAA Class 3A state champions), and this recent fall, the Cougars’ football team won the PIAA District 1 Class 5A championship and reached the PIAA Class 5A state semifinals for the first time in school history.

Many of McCormick’s players are on those teams, making it difficult to run practices with a complete team and no chance to install anything during the summer, with a skeleton crew and players finishing their respective sports seasons.

Since the end of last season, the Cougars’ top six players have not been together once this offseason because of their commitment to other sports.

Springfield finished 17-10 overall last season and 10-6 in the Central League, arguably the second-best league in Southeastern Pennsylvania, behind the Philadelphia Catholic League, with state-championship caliber teams like Lower Merion, Garnet Valley, Penncrest and Conestoga. The Cougars had victories over Penncrest and defending District 1 Class 6A champion Conestoga.

Springfield reached the Central League semifinals, losing to eventual Central League tournament champion Lower Merion. The Cougars ended their season knocked out of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs by Penncrest in the playback round.

As McCormick does every season, Springfield will be competitive again—although far more viable in mid-January when a cohesiveness builds.

The good: McCormick’s players bring a high IQ (four of his players are on the National Honor Society) and a winning culture.

The bad: It will take time to get there.

“My kids have great focus and we will be competitive,” said McCormick, who is in his 32nd season at Springfield. “We have district playoff aspirations and we’ll see what happens from there. We haven’t worked together as a full team yet. We have guys who are very important pieces of our team just coming back.”

Like 6-foot-1 left-handed junior wing guard T.J. Valletti, a stalwart on the football and baseball teams, who led the Cougars in every basketball stat last season. He is the eye of the Cougars, bringing a high court awareness, leadership, ballhandling and scoring.

“T.J. is our leader across the board and when you add him into the lineup, it is pretty good,” said McCormick, who guided the Cougars to the District 1 Class 3A championship in 2007 under the Class 4A system. “It is a matter of cohesion. We held off opening our first game because we want to get everyone together. This league, in terms of depth, rivals how deep the league was in 2006, ’07,’08 era. You had great rivalries then, and this league, with its current coaches and talent, reminds me a lot of that time.

“There is a winning culture here. These kids bring a winning attitude everywhere they go. Every coach here benefits from it. We have four guys who know so much of our offense it’s second nature to them.”

Returning for the Cougars are three players who received starting minutes behind Valletti, beginning with 6-foot-2 senior guard Peter Altes, 6-3 senior guard Logan Kobb, who started some games as a junior, and 6-3 senior guard Tommy Toomey (committed to High Point for lacrosse).

Toomey, McCormick said, has made great strides in his game since last season.

“What I really like about this team from past years is we’re going to be really fast, and we have good guards, good big men, and we are getting T.J. back,” said Toomey, a two-year starter. “What we will do on defense will keep us in games. With the winning cultures we have developed, we will do anything to win. We hold ourselves to higher standards. Because of that, we will never be outworked on the court.”

The core group will be joined by 6-foot junior guard Danny Meakim, 6-2 sophomore guard Mason Ellis, and promising 6-6 sophomore forward Will Carr, the son of Billy Carr, the former Bonner-Prendie and Cabrini star, and the cousin of former Radnor star and current Princeton Tiger Jackson Hicke. Jimmy Carr, Billy’s older brother, is his uncle, who played for St. Joe’s and is 6-9.

“I think we have a lot of returning guys with a lot of experience, and we haven’t been together much, but we have strong chemistry outside of basketball,” said Kobb, who also plays lacrosse. “That will be displayed on the court, even though we haven’t practiced and played together a ton. A key thing this year will be pushing the ball. We are bigger and longer this year, so our defense should be good.

“I believe in a winning culture. We have guys on this team that have won and that will help a lot. It brings a grit in pressure situations from other sports.”

Valletti admits it will take a little time to find his basketball legs. The Cougars had to juggle various lineups when Patrick Flaherty, a first-team all-Central League selection, was out with an injury last year, forcing McCormick to shuffle his lineups.

Valletti has only had sporadic workouts with the basketball team this fall around football practice. He wants to bring a level of stability when he returns fulltime to basketball.

“Patience will be a big factor, and I’m taking it on myself to bring everyone together,” Valletti said. “We are a great group and from what little I have been involved with in practice, I see everyone understands their roles. We’re going to be really fast this year. Everyone can handle the ball. That will allow us to push the ball more.

“We have a team full of guys who know to win. I believe in a winning culture. That starts with our athletic director, our coaches, and our whole community. People around here expect to win. We have guys who have grown up with that mentality. It’s going to take time, but we’re going to be okay. We have high expectations for ourselves. We know what we’re capable of doing.

“We may be right under Garnet Valley, Lower Merion, Penncrest, Conestoga, but we don’t think that way. We all have confidence in every game we go into.”

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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.