City of Basketball Love

Daniel Newhart (@danny_newhart)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's "Prepping for Preps," our series of articles previewing area high school teams for the 2015-16 season. For the complete list of schools previewed so far, click here)

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In its history, St. Joseph’s Prep has had its share of marquee players. The school, located at 17th and Girard had had eleven 1,000-point scorers, six Catholic League Players of the Year, four City Players of the Year and one Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year.

Recent Hawks graduate Chris Clover, now a freshman on St. Joseph’s University’s squad most recently earned Catholic League MVP honors in 2014-2015 after averaging 20 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per contest. Clover was preceded by now-Notre Dame junior Steve Vasturia who took home the award twice in his tenure at SJP before he headed off to college in 2013.

Things are a bit different heading into 2015-2016.

Head coach William “Speedy” Morris, the winningest coach in Philadelphia Catholic League history, is entering his 15th season at the helm. He brings back just two players who saw significant minutes last season – rising seniors Pete Gayhardt and Chris Montie.

Morris acknowledged that without a clear-cut star player returning as in past years, the team will be focusing on hard work and discipline defensively this season.

“You just have to go with what you have,” Morris said. “Every year is a new year, you can’t control that. It would be nice having a stud back but we know we have good kids that work hard. Needless to say, we need to be on the same page. We need to work hard and play great defense.”

The Hawks finished last season 17-5 overall, including a 10-4 mark in the Philadelphia Catholic League. SJP’s season ended when it fell 37-33 to archrival La Salle College HS in the second round of the PCL playoffs.

Gayhardt, a 6-foot-6 220 pound rising senior and Notre Dame lacrosse commit and Montie, also a senior who comes in at 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds will look to shoulder the load down low and in the rebounding department for an undersized Hawks team this season.

Both saw action last season, with Gayhardt playing in 17 games and Montie in 20. Gayhardt averaged 6.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per contest, while Montie posted 1.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game.

“Chris Montie is probably one of the more athletic, long guys in our league,” Gayhardt said. “He’s a great shot blocker and a great rebounder."

Temi Aiyegbusi, a 6-foot-4 rising senior, hopes to make an impact offensively this season. Aiyegbusi is among the team's more athletic players and can shoot the ball from mid-range as well as behind the arc.  

The wing, who referred to Clover as a “big brother” figure for him last season will look to use the insight he gained to his advantage this season. Aiyegbusi stressed that with Clover gone and a relatively inexperienced team, the Hawks are looking for scoring as well as leadership.

“Personally I think I can lead us pretty well,” Aiyegbusi said. “Chris taught me a lot last year and I think I can play a big part in the scoring. I really have confidence in my abilities, and I have no worries. I think we can shock the city this year.”

Rising sophomore Kyle Thompson--an athletic, 6-0 170-pound point guard--will be looked on to provide backcourt solidarity. Thompson can knock down spot-up three pointers as well as shoot off the dribble. He admitted he is relatively new to the point guard position and will do his best to replace James McGovern.

McGovern was a pleasant surprise for Morris and St. Joe’s Prep last season. After not seeing much court action his first few years on the team, the guard averaged 10.3 points, 3.0 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game his senior season in 2014-2015 and was named to the Third Team All-Catholic League squad.

“I’m just focusing on facilitating, getting my teammates involved as well as scoring,” Thompson said. “With Chris we lost a big scoring option, so we’re focusing mainly on defense. We’re a lot smaller than the other teams in the league, so we’ve got to hustle and work on our conditioning a little bit more.”

“He’s getting better,” Morris added about Thompson. “He’s doing a better job with the ball, not forcing things as much as he was. He just can’t turn it over; that’s something we stress very much here. Hopefully he can continue to get better.”

Although the Hawks do not have any big-name players returning to the team this season, with a Division I athlete in Gayhardt as well as a speedy potential backcourt in Aiyegbusi and Thompson the team may look to run the break as much as possible. 

“I think buying into the system is big, and not trying to do too much,” Gayhardt said. We have to play as a unit; we can’t have one guy try to do too much. A third thing is we’ve got to defend. We have a lot of great players in our league and a lot of great offenses so we’ve got to be able to defend really well.”