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Prepping for Preps '17-18: Phelps School

11/29/2017, 10:15am EST
By Owen McCue

Temple commit Arashma Parks (above) joins a Phelps squad that returns quite a bit more than they're used to. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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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 2017-18 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed so far can be found here.)

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Phelps School coach Brian Shanahan has something different this season: a returning to core to build on.

In year’s past, Shanahan has had to replace most of his rotation, trying to get an almost completely new group to learn how to play together.

This season the Phelps School brings back seven players, including three of five starters. It’s the most players Shanahan has ever returned in his seven years as head coach.

With some experience to build off, the Lions hope to improve on a the second-round finish in last year’s Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PAISAA) playoffs.

“I’ve got a lot of guys who have played here two, three, four years,” Shanahan said. “Because of that, they have a lot more pride in the program than the guys who just come for one year. I’m really proud of where our team is right now and I look forward to where we’re going to be come February.”

Returning starters for the Lions are guards Jailen Jamison and Anton Loginov and forward Yagizhan Selcuk.

Jamison is a 5-foot-9 point guard, now in his third year at the school and one of the team’s longest-tenured players. Loginov is a 6-foot-3 guard who has played for Ukraine’s youth national teams. Selcuk is a talented 6-foot-8 forward, who can score in the post. Loginov and Selcuk, who is from Turkey, are both in their second seasons with the Lions.

Stepping into the starting rotation this season is 6-foot-1 guard Manasseh Small who has been at Phelps for four years. Also returning for the Phelps School are forward Lassana Kesselly from Philadelphia, who is in his second year with the program, and Spanish forward Carlos Palacio, a three-year member of the team.

The existing camaraderie has expectations high for the team, which has its sights on making a run in the PAISAA playoffs.

“I’ve known these guys for so long,” Jamison said. “We’ve just come together for the common goal of winning a championship.”

The Lions lose starters Kaleb Morton and Timmy Perry Jr. from last year’s team. Perry, a 6-foot-10, 218-pound forward, is currently at Drexel.

Trying to replace Perry will be Temple commit Arashma Parks. The Ohio product is listed at 6-foot-9, 245 pounds on the roster. Parks, the younger brother of Villanova big man Omari Spellman, is maybe a couple inches shorter than Perry, but he is bigger-bodied and has a high ceiling if Shanahan can tap into his talent.

Parks said he hopes to bring more more physicality, rebounding, scoring and leadership to the team.

“He is just scratching the surface of what he can do offensively,” Shanahan said. “He’s a big kid. He can be a lot stronger. He’s built big, but he’s going to get very strong in the next nine months with us and the foreseeable future at Temple. You can see, you have to get his motor going but he has the glimpses of a kid that could be really, really good. I’m just here to help him meet that potential.”

Parks isn’t the only big man on this year’s team, which is part of the reason the Lions have so much optimism heading into this season. Selcuk is a reliable post presence. Palacio, who is 6-foot-5, 245 pounds, can also help Phelps inside.

Shanahan adds English forward Carl Campbell, who is 6-foot-10, and Spanish forward Jon Garcia, who is 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. They can help provide depth at the forward spot the team did not have last season.

“Last year, we only had one big guy on the team,” Palacio said. “This year, we have three or four. Last year that was a big problem, the height. This year, we’re going to be comfortable in the paint.”

“When I get tired or the other starting big gets tired, coaches roll in the other two bigs, and they do just as much damage as we do,” Parks said.

The Lions last won the PAISAA tournament in 2015. That is the standard this year’s group hopes to live up to.

In order to do so, they will likely have to knock off Westtown, the two-time defending champions. The Lions lost to Westtown, 78-44, in the second round of last season’s PAISAA tournament. The two teams play each other Jan. 6 at Westtown.

At the Westtown Invitational, the Phelps School showed it can hang with top talent. The Lions lost close games to the Knox School, and the eventual tournament champion, Orangeville Prep.

“Westtown is definitely the benchmark,” Shanahan said.

“That’s something we want to work toward,”he added. “We want to be a championship-level team, and if that’s what you want to do, you gotta go after the guys who have won it.”


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