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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Steve Maloney has perhaps the most under-the-radar consistently steady program in the Philadelphia area. 

Over the last eight years of his 12-year reign at Sun Valley, Maloney has guided his alma mater to six seasons with 15-or-more wins, making the district playoffs in every year except the 2021 COVID season and getting to the PIAA Tournament in three of those seasons. 

Last year was one of the Vanguards’ best as they went 18-4 (9-1), the top regular-season record in boys’ program history. The postseason didn’t go as well, as they lost by two points to Bishop Shanahan in the Ches-Mont semifinals and then to one by Chichester in the opening round of the district playoffs.

Despite the losses of two starting guards who were the team’s leaders last year, Maloney and the Vanguards have expectations to be near the top of the Ches-Mont American and in the postseason once again. 

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have leaders and captains that have been able to pass the torch, you could say,” he told CoBL. “The freshmen see the energy we bring every day from the coaching staff as well as the upperclassmen, they’ve done a good job the last few years of feeding into that, seeing that there’s a certain way to build things and the expectations and goals don’t change no matter who graduates.”

The Vanguards have had a run of successful lead guards, whether that was 2019 graduate Vinny DeAngelo (Swarthmore), 2024 grad Blaize Eldridge (Alvernia) or 2025 graduate Kaiden Robinson, now at Elizabethtown after averaging 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game as a senior.

This year, it’s Aden Bamgbose’s turn. 

A muscular 6-foot-2 wing and a strong perimeter threat as well as the team’s only senior in the rotation, Bamgbose had several big outings during his junior season, usually playing off the ball alongside Robinson on the perimeter. Most notable was his 26-point outburst, which included five 3-pointers, during Sun Valley’s win over Rustin which capped off the Ches-Mont American title. 

He’ll need to be playing at that level consistently if Sun Valley is to defend its Ches-Mont American title and maintain its run of postseason appearances. 

“The way he’s handled the offseason, from a leadership perspective, and I think him learning and seeing how Aaron and Kaiden handled things last year, I think that’s helped,” Maloney said. “He’s really the lone guy coming back to be the guy; from a coach’s perspective, that’s who I’m looking at to be our leader.”

“Expectations remain the same but I’ve just got to take a good role in leadership this year and really just buy into what we’re doing,” Bamgbose added. “(Maloney) knows I’m ready and that I’m ready to work hard and just do whatever the team needs and be a leader.”

Alongside Bamgbose returns 6-4 junior forward Jahmil Smith, who started 21 games a year ago. Smith leads a 10-man junior class that will mostly move up from the junior varsity level, though athletic 6-3 wing Zion Cauthorn was also on the varsity roster a year ago. 

Junior guards Ryan Messick (6-1) and Landon Hickman (5-10) as well as sophomore guard Phillip Musosock (6-2) have impressed Maloney in fall workouts, but he wasn’t going to commit to a starting lineup or a rotation until he saw the lights go on in December. 

“We have a group that we have in mind,” Maloney said, “but we really have stressed this summer about separating themselves in the pack. The other years we’ve had four or five guys we knew were going to be legit minutes guys, and this year we’ve stressed to them the importance of [how] everybody here has to earn it.”

All of that group will have to help replace the production left behind not only by Robinson, but two-year starter Aaron Freeman and six other 2025 graduates who chipped in up and down the rotation. 

Maloney’s relying on his program’s insistence on high-energy practices and a 1-3-1 zone defense that’s been a calling card of his program the last few years. He said his directive to all the kids new to significant varsity minutes will be to “fill their roles and do what we’ve been doing — play hard and take some pride in what we’re doing, every day at practice. As long as our practices are championship practices like they’ve been, we should have a good year.”

There’s no clear preseason favorite in the Ches-Mont American. Great Valley, led by standout senior guard Chris Woodard, has high hopes for the season ahead, but the Patriots also graduated a big 2025 class. Rustin and Unionville are usually in the mix; Kennett and Oxford finished in the bottom slots a year ago. District 1 5A is deep and tough this year, but the Vanguards are confident their program’s work ethic will have them in the mix once again. 

“I think we can definitely make a run at winning the league again this year,” Bamgbose said. “We’re successful because we work hard, we just play harder than other teams, and that’s all I ask of my junior class and the other classes below me.”