The day John Paul the Great held its first-ever boys basketball open gym in the fall of 2008, David Long showed up with his gym bag ready to go to work.
Wolves head coach Angelo Hunt, though, wasn’t sure what to make of the freshman from Springfield. All Hunt knew was that Long wanted to be on this team, which was evident since he was there before any other players when Hunt opened the gym doors.
But could Long play? Hunt wasn’t sure until Long got inside the gym, grabbed a ball and proceeded to swish a 3-pointer.
“At least I have one player to build a program around,” Hunt thought to himself.
Beyond that, Hunt knew it was going to be a long season for a team short on experience and ability. One player like Long was a start, but it wasn’t enough. Not yet anyway. And he was right.
While playing a junior varsity schedule for the 2008-09 season, the Wolves took their lumps, winning only six games.
Certainly it was frustrating to watch one deflating loss after another, but Hunt understood what he was getting into after taking his first varsity head coaching job following stints as a varsity assistant at Paul VI and West Springfield.
Hunt, who is in his 17th year as a coach, had a five-year plan, one that included establishing John Paul as a basketball power. So he kept pushing ahead and the turnaround began.
The talent pool got deeper, especially when Skye Johnson, a standout at Potomac Middle School, rejected overtures from more successful private schools in Northern Virginia and enrolled in John Paul as a freshman.
Hunt had promised Long he would surround him with skilled players and he kept his word.
So when Hunt told Long that Johnson was coming to school there, Long thanked his coach before turning back to the task of taking care of unfinished business. The five-year plan was still unfolding.
If all goes right, that plan takes a giant leap this season in its efforts show how far the Wolves have come.
With a schedule that features games against two Prince William County AAA programs, including one against one of the state’s best in nearby Potomac, along with two games against defending VISAA Division I champion Benedictine, Hunt wants opponents to view John Paul as more than just another game, but as a team to watch out for.
Four years ago, he started with a vision. Now, Hunt is seeing that vision get closer to being fulfilled. And Long, the one player who has been a starter from the beginning, can’t wait to see what the next chapter brings.
“We’ve obviously progressed a huge amount from my freshman year where half the guys couldn’t even dribble a basketball,” Long said.
AN APPEALING CHOICE
Penn State, they were scheduled to come in Tuesday. James Madison came in two weeks ago. VCU, Niagara, Virginia, Radford, George Mason, Delaware, William & Mary and George Washington have also been among the 13 colleges who have stopped by John Paul since open gym in October to take a look at some of the Wolves’ top players.
Johnson, a 6-foot-7 junior, is the main attraction, but 6-foot junior guard Aaron Young, 6-3 junior guard/forward Ian Douse, 6-2 junior guard Desmond Robinson and 6-6 sophomore forward Pernell Adgei are also garnering plenty of interest.
But beyond the number of colleges checking out the players, another number stands out even more and that’s the team’s cumulative grade point average of 3.8. Young leads the way with a 4.3 followed by Long with a 4.2. Johnson, a self-admitted slacker as a student in middle school, has a 3.1.
It’s the combination of getting good grades and the opportunity to play hoops in college that forms Hunt’s message when talking about his program to prospective students.
First, he emphasizes the academic side, wanting them to understand that they are students above everything else when they come to John Paul. There is no tolerance or leeway for poor performances in the classroom.
But Hunt also talks about his plans for the future and how he wants John Paul to become a place where you can get an impressive education as well as a chance to play college basketball.
He wants to avoid kids he calls “Johnny Driveway,” the type of player who hangs out just recreationally shooting at the basket at the family home. He wants players who want to learn and are serious in that pursuit.
Sometimes, Hunt sees a player and inquires about him, planting a seed about John Paul. Other times, players and their families come to him.
In either case, Hunt is very careful about being perceived as a poacher of players from other high schools.
He’s so careful in fact that he said he stays away from attending in-county high school basketball games during the regular season for fear of a backlash with coaches raising eyebrows any time he steps into a local gym. Instead, he goes up to see games in Fairfax County.
Hunt said he waits until the district tournaments before showing up at any area games.
Currently eight of the team’s 15 players are from Prince William County. Besides Young and Johnson, that number includes Robinson, who transferred in last year as a sophomore from Forest Park, and Adgei, a native of Ghana, who enrolled as a freshman after attending Potomac Middle.
Douse, who commutes from Falls Church, transferred to John Paul this fall after being at Bishop O’Connell in Arlington last school year.
“When I do come [to local games], I hear the comments, like, ‘You are everywhere,’ ” said Hunt who works for the federal government in Falls Church, but lives five minutes from John Paul. “I don’t want them to feel threatened that I am getting players to come over to John Paul when they are still say in a Gar-Field uniform.”
But scouting players in the middle schools?
“I think that’s fair game,” Hunt said. “They are not committed to a high school.”
Hunt first met Johnson during the summer before Johnson’s freshman year of high school. Johnson was working out with Dennis Marshall at the Hylton Boys & Girls Club when Hunt noticed the tall player.
“He asked who the big kid’s mother was?” said Johnson’s mother Cheryl Schultheis. “[Angelo] thought [Skye] was in high school.”
Johnson had been pursued by Bishop O’Connell and Paul VI, but the possibility of staying close to home (Johnson lives just minutes from John Paul) as well as other aspects of John Paul appealed to both Johnson and his mother.
“I spoke to his mom about the advantages of a John Paul education,” Hunt said.
Schultheis was impressed with what she heard.
“Both [O’Connell and Paul VI] wanted him and they were offering low [tuition] prices upfront,” said Schultheis, who is a single mother. “But with John Paul when I first met [Hunt], he first stressed grades and becoming a gentleman and letting basketball get you into college. He was very down to earth and stressed education over being a great player or winning a state title.”
Schultheis went to the school, got a tour and met the staff. She liked the small class sizes as well.
“Whenever [Skye] needs to help, the teachers are there and the door is always open,” Schultheis said.
And as far as basketball goes, Schultheis has seen steady improvement in the program from previous years when she admits it was hard to watch games sometimes. Plus, she knows her son is getting plenty of attention from college coaches playing AAU.
Young, on the other hand, arrived at John Paul after spending his freshman year at George Mason High School in Falls Church, where he was an all-Bull Run District selection.
Young and his family had moved to Montclair when he was a sophomore when Young’s mom called Hunt about coming to school there.
“I told her to take a look at the school and she liked what she saw,” Hunt said.
Young, who is the brother of Forest Park standout runner Natalie Young, said he was being courted by O’Connell, Paul VI and Ireton. Young, who spent his eighth grade year at Gonzaga in Washington D.C., even had registered for classes at Ireton for his sophomore year before coming to John Paul.
Young’s decision to attend John Paul was helped by the fact he already knew Johnson since they were AAU teammates, playing for the Washington D.C.-based Team Takeover. This past summer, competing on the 16U team, they, along with Douse, were coached by Marshall, the father of North Carolina standout guard Kendall Marshall.
“People ask where I go to school and I say Pope John Paul and I say it with pride,” Young said. “It’s a new school in Dumfries and we’re building a basketball program.”
Once the family of a player expresses an interest in John Paul, Hunt tells them the procedure for admissions and stays out of the way.
To gain admission to John Paul, incoming freshmen must take an entrance and placement exam, while 10th and 11th grade transfers are admitted based on high school transcripts.
The cost to attend John Paul for a year is $9,750 for Catholics and $12,950 for non-Catholics.
There are no athletic scholarships granted. Students can receive financial aid, but that is based strictly on need and nothing else. The school is very emphatic about separating the admissions part from the athletic end of things.
“It’s not like you just come in here and play,” Hunt said. “It’s not that easy. There are rules and those rules are strict and non-negotiable.”
NEW BEGINNINGS
John Paul, which opened in the fall of 2008 in Dumfries, is far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Route 1 that many people don’t even know that the school is located three miles off I-95. And it’s easy to see why.
It’s only when you take Dominican Drive all the way to the end that you will see the $60 million facility that is surrounded by woods on a 40-acre property.
For a long time, the school did not show up on people’s GPS and when people ask for directions, students like Johnson usually respond by telling them to turn right at the Wal-Mart off Route 1.
Before her son enrolled in John Paul, Schultheis didn’t even know the school was there and she lived just minutes away.
But the isolation is a nice respite from the hectic lifestyle that is part of living in Northern Virginia.
Another advantage of going to John Paul is that it gives kids the opportunity to get a Catholic education without having to travel into Fairfax County to attend private schools there. It’s a point that combined with other positive aspects of the school that Hunt heavily promotes.
“Make it so it is attractive and they stay in your backyard,” Hunt said.
This season more than ever, Hunt is ready to make John Paul a name in the area hoops circles and there won’t be a bigger contest on the Wolves’ 24-game regular-season schedule than when it travels to Potomac Dec. 21.
The two schools are less than three miles apart, but have never played each other. When Potomac contacted John Paul about a game this season, Hunt jumped at the chance.
The kids know each other from both schools.
In fact, there are two former John Paul players at Potomac this season, including senior Joseph Velez, who averaged 13.5 points and was the team’s top 3-point shooter last season. Since he lives in Potomac’s school district, Johnson would have attended school there as well if he chose to.
Ultimately, the Wolves’ main goal this season is to be among the top 12 teams that qualify for the VISAA Division I state tournament. John Paul does not play in a league yet so the VISAA would serve as the program’s postseason trip.
But first things first as they prepare for early tests against not only against Potomac, but also against Battlefield. It’s the type of challenge the program craves and its members plan to leave an impression one way or the other.
“Win or lose against Potomac or Battlefield, they are going to know who we are after the game,” Johnson said.
Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-530-3911
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement