Insight Into High Level Prep School Basketball
Lots of us in the boarding school world have some degree of familiarity with high level prep school basketball.
By this I mean teams with 2, 3 or more players whose programs include preparing to play NCAA Division 1 college basketball and possibly professional basketball.
The number of outstanding college and professional players with prep school ties is far out of proportion to the norm.
Each school seems to have had a different reason for making serous basketball part of its program- a generally strong athletic school, basketball serving as the school’s flagship program (a profile raiser), and, bluntly, in some very cold climes, great basketball provides a winter spectator sport diversion and school rallying point during a long winter.
A Wednesday or Saturday night in the gym watching players perform feats that you can only imagine as part of a well fought contest is fun.
It’s more than high school basketball and a close look at the scheduling reveals that teams with super talent levels and a number of post graduates play a different kind of schedule. These PG populated teams tend not to play in the school’s traditional schedule or league.
They’re simply too good.
Sure they’ll play each other and some college JV teams as well. Schools often field two teams in this situation. The powerhouse team, sometimes labeled, “Varsity A” and the traditional team for league opponents, “Varsity B.”
Over the years, schools developing this type of talent tended to be grouped mostly in New England and slightly southward. The Phelps School (Malvern, PA) joined the serious basketball crowd last year and Pat Leonard at Philly.com has written a nice insight (In Basketball, Phelps vs. Phelps) into how Phelps works with its PG athletes and fields two overlapping teams to fulfill the school’s commitments to its serious athletes, traditional students, and long-time competition.
“…It’s complicated, but that’s the skinny – 16 players, two teams, one school…
…Phelps is not a member of the PIAA, so the Lions’ postseason will only include the Independent Schools Tournament, which lengthens the season for teams from the Friends League, Inter-Academic League, and other unaffiliated programs that cannot compete for a sanctioned state championship.
But as the Lions’ postgraduate team plays in invitational showcases and tournaments to earn nationwide recognition, Phelps’ high school team has its pride on the line in league play….” (philly.com)
Resources To Learn More About High Level Prep School Basketball:
NEPSAC (New England Prep School Athletic Council)
Photo credit: mvongrue
