Photos/Videos: Richard Barnes, Lennie Malmgren, Ryan Nix, Allie Riches
By: Rich Flanagan
PHILADELPHIA – Brandon Williams was more than up to the task.
Getting his first position as a head coach of a high school program would bring about its challenges but the drive and fortitude to build it into one that would have success right away deterred any presented. Every coach has an image for their program, and Williams has the track record for one that can sustain longevity and permeate to other players looking for an opportunity to excel in an environment that is robust with talent.
Williams did that with Philly Pride on the Under Armour Association (UAA) circuit for years with names like Donta Scott, Jameer Nelson Jr., Seth Lundy, and Stevie Mitchell catapulting the program from mediocrity to respectability. Williams took over Penn Charter, which was coming off two consecutive shared Inter-Ac League titles, but losing a large contingent of players in Mark Butler, who played for Williams with Philly Pride, Keith Gee and Trey Shinholster brought about uneasiness for his inaugural season.
The first-year head coach did what he does best and that is roster formation which turns into team building, and he attracted several key pieces that launched the Quakers to the top of the league for the first time in 20 years.
For Williams, getting players to come together and put individual accolades aside says a lot about their character and often leads to greater success.
Penn Charter head basketball coach Brandon Williams - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
“Seeing young people come together for a common goal but also coming together and putting their egos aside was the biggest thing we had to deal with from an adversity standpoint,” Williams said. “We had to go through a bad start and go through some growing pains outside of basketball. I’m a basketball coach and have been doing it for a very long time and my comfort side is basketball, but I had to step outside of that to connect with some of the key guys on my team and things they were going through. It means growth, trust, and a number of things other than basketball.”
Penn Charter defeated Episcopal Academy, 68-62 on Feb. 14 to secure its first outright Inter-Ac League title since 2004 behind a host of newcomers and two veteran mainstays from the previous regime. Williams brought in two Philly Pride players in Jamal Hicks (Bonner-Prendergast) and Matt Gilhool (Westtown School) and had the addition of Archbishop Carroll transfer Jake West come onboard.
Penn Charter vs. Episcopal Academy - PSD Game Highlights by Lennie Malmgren
West scored 22 points while Hicks added 21 points, six rebounds and three steals in that win over the Churchmen. Gilhool chipped in nine points, 12 rebounds and a pair of blocks as Penn Charter rebounded from a 2-3 start in league play and rattled off five straight victories to win the crown. This title was vindication for Williams and his background of player development on the AAU circuit translating to a more organized form of basketball.
Furthermore, it also meant “history as the school has not won an outright Inter-Ac championship in 20 years.”
The last Penn Charter team to win the Inter-Ac League title outright consisted of Sean Singletary, Rob Kurz, Zack Zeglinski, and his younger brother, Sammy under the leadership of head coach Jim Phillips. That team finished undefeated in league play during the regular season then downed Episcopal Academy in the semifinals and culminated the season by beating Germantown Academy by 11 in the championship game of the Inter-Ac Postseason Tournament (the tournament was discontinued in 2008). Singletary scored 26 points in that win while Zack Zeglinski had 24 and Kurz just missed the 20-point mark with 19.
That team even beat a Neumann-Goretti team that featured Rich “Tabby” Cunningham, D.J. Rivera, Earl Pettis and freshmen Antonio “Scoop” Jardine and Rick Jackson in nonleague play. Singletary averaged 22.9 points per game for the year and was named Inter-Ac MVP on a first team that included Kurz, Malvern Prep’s Brian Grandieri, Germantown Academy’s Ryan Ayers, and Episcopal Academy standouts Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson. Kurz avg. 17.4 ppg that season and Zack Zeglinski was a reliable third option at 11.6 ppg. It was the second straight title for the Quakers after Singletary, Kurz, Zach Zeglinski and former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan held on to beat the Patriots in the first-ever Inter-Ac Postseason Tournament.
Singletary finished his Penn Charter career with 1,137 points then was prolific at the University of Virginia where he recorded 2,079 points, 587 assists and 222 three-pointers while leading the Cavaliers to the 2007 NCAA Tournament as a junior. Kurz scored 1,258 with the Quakers then played four seasons at Notre Dame alongside the likes of Chris Quinn, Kyle McAlarney, Luke Harangody and Germantown Academy’s Ryan Ayers. Kurz avg. 12.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg and 1.5 bpg over his final two seasons with the Fighting Irish and finished his collegiate career with 1,013 points.
Zack Zeglinski dabbled in a few sports, first beginning with football at Penn State then baseball at Temple before playing his senior season on the University of Hartford men’s basketball team, where his youngest brother Joe - the head coach at Archbishop Ryan - was the leading scorer for the Hawks. Sammy Zeglinski turned an Inter-Ac League title as a freshman into a terrific career with three All Inter-Ac First Team selections and 1,642 career points, second all-time at Penn Charter. Sammy went on to play at Virginia himself, where he played 121 career games and made 200 three-pointers. He was a starter on Tony Bennett’s first NCAA Tournament team at Virginia in 2012 and is now an assistant on Joe’s staff at Archbishop Ryan.
The comparisons between that team and the current version are eerily similar when accounting for overall versatility and the accumulation of talent as Singletary, who began his career at Haverford School, and Kurz, who played at Germantown Academy prior to Penn Charter, did not begin their careers on School House Lane but left as household names for the unprecedented success they brought to the program and school.
Gilhool is the biggest name of the group with offers from Iowa, Syracuse, Temple, Maryland, Penn State, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Mississippi State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Miami (Fla.). The 6-foot-10 forward towers on the defensive end and can beat the opposition in several ways at the other with his array of post moves, strong two-dribble finishes or smooth jumper.
After avg. 10.7 ppg, 8.4 rpg and 1.0 bpg with 13 made three-pointers at Westtown School a season ago, Gilhool took off in the Inter-Ac, avg. 15.6 ppg during league play with a season-high 28 points coming against Episcopal Academy. He had 19 points, 13 boards and five blocks in a huge win over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy on Feb. 2 then poured in 13 of his 19 points in the third quarter in a 69-66 win over Germantown Academy a week later.
West, the 6-3 junior guard with offers from Mississippi State, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Fairfield, Lafayette, and St. Francis (N.Y.), avg. 13.6 ppg during Inter-Ac play and scored 20 or more points in three contests. He is also receiving interest from Yale, Quinnipiac, Iona, and Princeton, and with performances like his 20-point, five-assist game against the Blue Devils on Jan. 12, where he hit four three-pointers, it’s not hard to see why.
Penn Charter junior Jamal Hicks #10 - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
Penn Charter junior Matt Gilhool #13 - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
Penn Charter junior Jake West #3 - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
West has the quickness to blow by defenders combined with the length and athleticism to finish strong at the rim. He has long arms that allow him to finish over defenders and corral rebounders amongst bigger players, and he’s only scratching the surface of his potential.
Hicks, the 6-2 junior guard, had the best season of his high school career as he showcased that he’s much more than a spot-up shooter. He avg. 13.7 ppg in league play and had 14 points in that Feb. 2 matchup with Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. While he’s more polished all around, his shooting was apparent yet again. He hit four three-pointers on his way to 22 points against Germantown Academy on Jan. 20. He can run the floor, convert at the rim through contact and rebound at a high level.
All three new additions who were so instrumental to the title run are coming back next year, along with 6-5 junior Kai Shinholster who avg. 11.2 ppg during the Inter-Ac season. Shinholster was part of the rotation for the two shared league titles, first with former head coach John Owens then David Bass, and he bounced back after suffering an ankle injury that forced him to miss four games.
Injuries were certainly part of Penn Charter’s season as it had to overcome more than a few but Williams worked with those players he could and once the entire group was together, everything else took care of itself.
“It was getting everyone comfortable, specifically the key players on the team,” Williams said. I wanted to get everybody on the floor and through nearly the first 12 games, we didn’t play a game with our full roster. We opened up with Phelps School and Kai went down with an ankle injury. He’s out for a couple games and his first game back against Friends’ Central, Matt goes out with a concussion and misses the next two. The first game of the season that we played with our full roster was at the end of December. It’s one of those things where in order to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’re at. I couldn’t get a real evaluation or read on where we were because we never had all our pieces.”
Penn Charter junior Kai Shinholster #1 - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
William Penn Charter - 2024 Inter-Ac League Champions - PSD Photo by Lennie Malmgren
“At the end of December when I was able to look at the full scope of the team playing together, I thought how do we make everybody comfortable? I got an idea of when Jamal was playing his best and what does it look like, or when Kai or Matt is playing their best. We started to understand the top guys in our rotation and what it looks like when they’re all playing at their best.”
Kevin Cotton was the lone senior on the team and helped indoctrinate the newer players into the program. He also played well on the court, scoring 11 points against Germantown Academy on Jan. 20. Carter Smith, a 6-3 eighth grader, made an immediate impact in his first varsity season, particularly when different players went down with injuries. He “had some really good games early in the season,” according to Williams, such as 20 points versus Abington Friends School in his second varsity game then later scored 10 points in win over Malvern Prep during the five-game winning streak to close out the season. TJ Bryson Jr. and Jayden Driver played key minutes over the course of the year, and both will return next season.
Penn Charter vs. Episcopal Academy - PSD Gallery by Lennie Malmgren
With so much offensive firepower, Williams didn’t have to spend too much time and effort on teaching this group how to play together with the ball in their hands but instruction on defensive principles is where his tutelage paid dividends. The struggle for the Quakers was not only stopping their opponents but finding ways to turn defense into offense. Once they figured out how to lock down, especially after taking the experience from playing other talented teams like Phelps, Archbishop Ryan, Friends’ Central and Perkiomen School, things started to click and Penn Charter was the best version of itself by season’s end.
“We shifted the focus to defense as we have a lot of offensive firepower and that's something that is evident,” Williams said. “Younger guys are always going to talk to offense because that’s what they know but what I saw defensively was we have the ability to suffocate teams. This is where we started to hang our hat and it gave us energy offensively, too. We changed up our man-to-man scheme and put a few zones in to move personnel around.”
The Inter-Ac title has returned to School House Lane and Williams’s commitment to longevity could keep it there for a second season.
Rollerson is the Most Electric Guard in the League
Germantown Academy has more 1,000-point scorers than any other Inter-Ac program all-time. The Patriots program was forged by players like Otis Ellis, Alvin Williams, Larry Leith, Lee Melchionni, Matt Walsh, Ryan and Cameron Ayers, Kyle Griffin, Devon Goodman, Kyle McCloskey, and Evan-Eric and Jordan Longino. That is a history of individual excellence that no other Inter-Ac program can rival as 25 players have reached or exceeded the 1k mark and 24 league titles have been accrued along the way, with the late Jim Fenerty having been at the helm for an Inter-Ac record 17 (with 12 outright) of those.
The next great player is currently starring on Morris Road and has a chance to be one of the all-time greats. Bryce Rollerson has been part of Germantown Academy’s rotation since his freshman year and his scoring prowess began to take shape midway through that season with his first career 20-point game coming against The Pennington School (N.J.). Since that game, the point total has skyrocketed at a pace that is emblematic of so many of the players that have made names for themselves in Fort Washington.
Rollerson has scored at least 20 points in 36 games over the last two seasons, with a career-high 36 points coming against Springside Chestnut Hill on Jan. 26. He had 35 versus Germantown Friends School in the 2023 Commonwealth Cup semifinals and one breakout performance seemed to feed into another and a string of 20-point games came together, as one did where he poured in 20 in 11 consecutive contests to close out the regular season. The 6-foot junior guard avg. 26.6 ppg in Inter-Ac play, the highest mark ever for a Germantown Academy player, and the third highest average in a single season behind only Penn Charter’s Billy Harris (28.7) in 1971 and Haverford School’s Doug Fairfax (28.3) in 1999.
Germantown Academy junior Bryce Rollerson #11 - PSD Photo by Ryan Nix
He is the league’s most electric and dynamic scorer and potentially its most underrated. His 533 points this year are the 10th-most in a single season in Germantown Academy history. The Patriots have finished in the bottom two of the league in each of the past two years, but the emergence of 6-5 junior Tyler Nolan and 6-5 sophomore Bryce Presley – the son of Rider associate head coach Dino Presley – gives Germantown Academy a lot of optimism and promise heading into next season. Rollerson finished the season with 1,283 career points, ahead of Melchionni and Goodman and just behind Chris Krug, and he still has an entire season left to play.
Williams Caps Off Dominant Career
Ryan Williams will be heading off to begin the next phase of his basketball career at Northeastern next year, but he left a lasting impression on Malvern Prep and the Inter-Ac as a whole during his three sensational seasons with the Friars.
The 6-3 guard was named All Inter-Ac First Team three consecutive seasons, joining former Malvern Prep greats such as Deuce Turner, Brian Grandieri and Gary Duda to achieve that mark. He avg. 20.9 ppg during the Inter-Ac season and scored 20 or more points in six league games with an impressive 33-point performance against Penn Charter on Jan. 17.
Over his three seasons as a starter, Williams recorded 32 games with at least 20 points, including four performances with 30 points, all coming this past season including a career-high 34 vs. Parkland in December.
He was a remarkable scorer from the moment he was inserted into the starting lineup as a sophomore, and he couldn’t have come at a better time as Malvern Prep had lost Turner and Rahdir Hicks in the two years prior.
Malvern Prep senior Ryan Williams #2 - PSD Photo by Allie Riches
He had 14 of those 20-point games over two seasons alongside Andrew Phillips and his output as a senior was a major reason the Friars were in the Inter-Ac hunt until late in the season. He culminated his career with 1,463 points, 5th all-time in Malvern Prep history, and ahead of Hicks and Brendan Kilpatrick while just behind Duda.
Episcopal Academy Rebounds with Strong Year
Taylor Wright’s first season as head coach of his alma mater didn’t go as planned as the Churchmen finished 1-9 in the Inter-Ac but rebounded to secure the Commonwealth Cup by defeating league rival Germantown Academy to close out the season. Episcopal Academy brought that momentum into this season and made a steady improvement behind Kevin McCarthy, Matt McCarthy (no relation to Kevin), Reggie King and Langston Foster by finishing 5-5 in the league. The Churchmen were 5-2 and in sole possession of first place before dropping their final three Inter-Ac games.
Episcopal Academy senior Kevin McCarthy #22 - PSD Photo by Richard Barnes
Still, it was a resurgent year in Wright’s first season as permanent head coach after having the interim tag was pulled following last season. Kevin McCarthy, the 6-4 senior who will play at Army West Point next year, avg. 18.7 ppg in league play and had a stretch of four straight 20-point games following the Inter-Ac opener. That stretch began with a 24-point game against Germantown Academy on Jan. 12 where he hit five three-pointers and scored 17 in the second half, and it ended as he made three treys and finished with 25 points in a win over Malvern Prep on Jan. 26.
Kevin poured in 22 games with 20 or more points in the last two seasons, but he was already making strides as a freshman during the 2021 season when he hit five three-pointers against Springside Chestnut Hill then knocked down seven shots from deep in two different games vs. Abington Friends School and Audubon High (N.J.) as a sophomore. He finished his career with 1,504 points, placing 8th on the all-time list in program history, and putting him in exclusive company with players who have surpassed 1,500 at Episcopal Academy such as Henderson, Ellington, and Nick Alikakos.
Matt McCarthy avg. 15.7 ppg and scored at least 25 points in three of the final five games of the regular season. The 6-2 junior guard, who played at Archmere Academy (Del.) last season, had 25 points against Germantown Academy on Feb. 2. then a career-high 31 points vs. Haverford School where he hit seven three-pointers. He closed out the regular season with 28 points, 24 of which came in the second half, against Penn Charter.
King came into his own as a sophomore and the 6-3 guard shot 6-for-7 from the floor with three three-pointers on his way to 15 points against Springside Chestnut Hill Academy on Feb. 6 then had 19 points with four more three-pointers in a win over Council Rock North two games later. Foster arrived by way of Lower Merion and the 6-3 sophomore guard had a breakout year. He hit four treys and scored 14 points in a game against Penn Charter on Jan. 30 then scored 14 again in a matchup with Germantown Academy the very next game. His best game of the year came against Springside Chestnut Hill Academy where he drilled five three-pointers and finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
The future is bright for Wright and the Churchmen as Matt McCarthy, King and Foster all return next season.
Haverford School Builds Momentum without Two Key Players
The Fords were in the thick of the Inter-Ac race until the final game. They finished 6-4 after winning four league games the season prior, and they did it despite two players, Duke Cloran and Emmanuel “Manny” Butts, suffering torn ACLs and missing the entire season.
Silas Graham starred as an eighth grader and he was even better as a freshman, avg. 14 ppg during league play and churning out one solid performance after the next. The 6-2 guard had 19 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists in a win over Germantown Academy on Jan. 17 then had 20 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a 20-point victory over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy as head coach Bernie Rogers became the winningest coach in Haverford School history. He went for 16 points and 10 assists in the second win over the Patriots then finished off the regular season with 11 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in the next victory over the Blue Devils. Graham is a rising prospect and one of the best returning players in the Inter-Ac.
KJ Carson and Jacob Becker put together strong seasons as well. Carson, the 6-foot junior guard, avg. 12.4 in Inter-Ac play and played his best basketball over the final three contests.
Haverford School freshman Silas Graham #4 - PSD Photo by Mike Nance
He scored nine of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and hit five three-pointers against the Churchmen then subsequently hit four more treys while shooting 6-6 from the foul line to finish with 20 points in a win over Friends Select School. Becker, the 6-4 junior transfer from Pioneer Academy (N.J.), scored in double figures in six of the final eight regular season games, with 17 points coming against Malvern Prep and a career-high 26 against Germantown Academy where he added seven rebounds and five assists.
Graham, Carson, and Becker are back next year as will Butts, the 6-7 versatile forward, and the Fords look primed to build on their success this season.
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Finds Success with Guards
Julian McFadden used an array of guards that stifled opponents and nearly brought home the league title following a 4-0 start in Inter-Ac play. The Blue Devils sent a flurry of different looks at the opposition this season as Camden Burns, Ronald Brown III, Keni Williams, Kam Waters and Owen Kelly formed a lineup that created mismatches and incentivized dribble-drive scenarios every time down the floor.
The Blue Devils were at their best when their guards were attacking the rim and drawing double teams, and when this offense was run to perfection, it was one of the hardest to stop this season.
Burns played three seasons at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy after beginning his career at Martin Luther King and he closed out a solid senior campaign by avg. 13.2 ppg in league play. The 6-foot senior guard had 21 points in an overtime win over Episcopal Academy then nailed four three-pointers and scored 20 points vs. Haverford School in the regular season finale. Burns finished his high school career with 1,286 points.
Brown dealt with a slew of injuries throughout different points in his career but put together his best season by avg. 15.4 ppg, good for sixth in the league. The 6-2 senior guard saved his best for last as he went for 10 or more points in 20 games, including nine such games during the Inter-Ac season. He kicked off the league season by exploding for 28 points against Germantown Academy where he shot 11-12 from the free throw line. He had 18-point performances against both Episcopal Academy and Penn Charter.
Springside Chestnut Hill senior Ronald Brown III #3 - PSD Photo by Ryan Nix
Williams had a strong year by avg. 13.8 ppg during the Inter-Ac season and had his best game in the overtime victory against the Churchmen. He hit the game-tying three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime and finished with 26 points on 11-19 from the field with three three-pointers, six rebounds and five steals. The 6-1 junior guard scored in double figures in 26 games and went for at least 20 on seven occasions. He has a huge senior season on the horizon.
Waters burst onto the scene after missing his entire sophomore season with a broken ankle. The 6-3 junior guard started off strong with 10 double-digit scoring outings in nonleague play including a career-high 26 points against Friends’ Central School. His best Inter-Ac contest was a 16-point, nine-rebound, three-assist game against Penn Charter on Jan. 12.
Kelly, the 6-4 sophomore wing, was the Blue Devils’ best rebounder and spot-up shooter this season. He shot 7-14 from the field and finished with 17 points and seven rebounds against Episcopal Academy on Jan. 17 then scored 17 more points vs. Haverford School on Jan. 30. He’s in store for a bigger role next year.
Final Inter-Ac League Scoring Leaders
Bryce Rollerson, Germantown Academy 26.6 ppg
Ryan Williams, Malvern Prep 20.9
Kevin McCarthy, Episcopal Academy 18.7
Matt McCarthy, Episcopal Academy 15.7
Matt Gilhool, Penn Charter 15.6
Ronald Brown III, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy 15.4
Silas Graham, Haverford School 14.0
Keni Williams, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy 13.8
Jamal Hicks, Penn Charter 13.7
Jake West, Penn Charter 13.6
Camden Burns, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy 13.2
KJ Carson, Haverford School 12.4
Marvin Reed, Malvern Prep 11.5
Jacob Becker, Haverford School 11.4
Kai Shinholster, Penn Charter 11.2
Tyler Nolan, Germantown Academy 11.1
Bryce Presley, Germantown Academy 9.8
Billy Rayer, Haverford School 8.6
Nick Harken, Malvern Prep 8.2
Reggie King, Episcopal Academy 8.0
Langston Foster, Episcopal Academy 7.9
Junior McFadden, Malvern Prep 7.2
Final Inter-Ac League Standings
Penn Charter (7-3)
Haverford School (6-4)
Malvern Prep (5-5)
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (5-5)
Episcopal Academy (5-5)
Germantown Academy (2-8)
All Inter-Ac League Team
First Team
Matt Gilhool, Penn Charter (MVP)
Ronald Brown III, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
Silas Graham, Haverford School
Kevin McCarthy, Episcopal Academy
Bryce Rollerson, Germantown Academy
Jake West, Penn Charter
Ryan Williams, Malvern Prep
Second Team
Matt McCarthy, Episcopal Academy
Kai Shinholster, Penn Charter
Keni Williams, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy