Connor McAdoo surveys the court ahead of him in SCH's Friday-night alumni game against recent grads. McAdoo is one of a number of seniors with similar skill sets for the Blue Devils. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

In their last four years of Inter-Ac play, the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Blue Devils basketball team have all of four conference wins.

SCH hasn’t been out of the league cellar since 2013-14—the year its current seniors started high school. Last year, they were skunked—0-and-10.

New head coach Julian McFadden has quite a task ahead of him.

“The support that I’ve gotten from the alumni, the support I’ve gotten from the AD—It’s been great,” he said. “It’s been interesting—as an adult, I never quite saw myself coming back to this spot.”

He might be a rookie, but the gym is familiar. McFadden, an ’06 graduate of SCH (back then, there was no “S”; Springside School was just a neighbor), had a 1,026-point career for the Blue Devils—then known as the Hillers.

“It was a job that I knew I’d be interested in, if it ever presented itself,” he went on. “It’s my first time doing high school—I was in college coaching for six years.”

He had been working in the basketball program at Chestnut Hill College, where he etched his way into its record book with a 1,117-point career (sixth-best in program history). Since graduating in 2010, he worked as an assistant coach helping with day-to-day operations, as well as serving as a recruiting coordinator.

“It’s rapid fire,” he said. “You’ll be thinking of one thing, and all of a sudden, another comes to mind. It’s a lot more on your plate than you’d think, sitting back as an assistant coach for so many years.

“Head coaching’s a lot of responsibility. It’s something I feel like I was ready for.”

This year’s squad has a cadre of seniors to help him along. Zuri Peyton, C.J. Sweitzer, Matt Rahill (a 2017 newcomer to the program), and Connor McAdoo all figure to tally major minutes. They’re down Xavier Bell (to graduation), and Sean Simon (to transfer), but hope that the team’s added experience will make up for the loss.

“They’re adjusting, and I’m adjusting,” McFadden said. “Coming down from college, it’s a big difference—even beyond skill levels. You’re dealing with teenagers, compared to adults. It’s just different.”

The group got its first taste of game-like action Friday night, in a scrimmage against recent basketball-playing alumni. This year’s squad lost—58-56 in overtime—and while it wasn’t always pretty, it was at least a start.

“They got a lot better as the game went on,” McFadden said.

Part of it was realizing that the alumni were there to play, as well as figuring out what they’re trying to do on offense.

“They haven’t had the greatest game habits, and I’ve been harping on that,” he said. “It’s things like body language and communication—things that are the foundation of being a good basketball team. They picked it up.

“There are some Division I or II players on that alumni team. It wasn’t like they were just playing a bunch of alumni who happened to go to the school.”

After racing out to a quick lead, the Blue Devils fell into a double-digit hole. They clawed back to go up by a pair with less than a minute to go on a couple of McAdoo baskets from the charity stripe, but the alumni got the better of them by the end.

Offensively, the Blue Devils will have to rely on patience. They don’t have a natural slasher or a natural lights-out shooter, so ball movement and taking the right shots will be even more crucial than it usually is.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are around the same size, with very similar skillsets,” he said. “Everybody can get in the lane and pass.

“We’ll need to work on driving and kicking. Overall, most of them are pretty good at shooting off the dribble.

“We had those first game jitters. They’re getting used to me and my staff—the way everything came together, it didn’t look so bad.”

If the Blue Devils can say the same by the end of the year—that they didn’t look too bad—then McFadden will have certainly done his job.