Rumors of Canaries’ demise may have been exaggerated
Few players made a greater impact on a scholastic boys basketball program than Nate Ellis made at Allen High School.
He won a 3-point shooting contest in a high school tournament even before he had his first class in the building. And then over the next four seasons he led the Canaries to two District 11 championships and a league crown and accumulated 66 wins, a total that would have been higher had not games been lost to COVID-19 in 2020-21.
Ellis finished with 1,560 points, the second most in over 100 seasons of Allen basketball.
But now Ellis is playing at DeSales along with his Canaries teammate Eli Vigo, and if Allen fans want to see his familiar face and calming presence on the court they’ll have to travel to Center Valley.
Like all high school programs that see players come and go over a fouryear span, Allen basketball will move on without Ellis and new players will get the chance to emerge, and while the Canaries are in the unusual position of not being a top league or district contender, they don’t plan to tumble toward mediocrity or worse.
Freshman coach Mike Kaminski, paraphrasing an old line attributed to Mark Twain, said: “Rumors of our demise have been exaggerated.”
The Canaries, though, are embracing the underdog role.
“We lost our four top scorers from last year, but this group is excited for the challenge,” thirdyear coach Darnell Braswell said. “We’ve adopted an us-against-the-world mentality. I’m sure everybody expects us not to have any talent or do anything, so we’re just coming here and putting our heads down and working hard. We want to play a different brand of basketball than we’ve played the last two years.”
Asked what he meant by a new brand, Braswell said: “We’re just going to try to set the tone and be the aggressors and push the tempo as much as we can.”
In terms of a leadership void created by Ellis’ departure, Braswell said: “We may have to fill it with a leader-by-committee approach. There are a couple of guys who are in the process of trying to be the vocal and emotional leaders. It’s still to be determined but what I like is that we’ve got some guys who understand what’s out in front of them and they’re maximizing their opportunities.”
Where does Allen fit in the highly competitive EPC West? Braswell doesn’t know, but he understands the challenges of having to play Parkland, Emmaus, Allentown Central Catholic, Whitehall and Northampton twice in the division.
“You’ve got some great players in this division,” he said. “You’ve got Nick Coval at Parkland, Jahrel Vigo at Central, Dylan Darville and Will Barber at Emmaus in our division and you look around the league and Liberty’s got some up-and-coming talent and Pocono Mountain West’s JuJu Pagan just committed to Kutztown. It’s a league that’s wide open, but there’s a lot of teams out there who come into it feeling like they have a chance to do some things.”
A capsulized look at the 2022-23 Canaries:
Allen
Head coach: Darnell Braswell (third season, 25-14) Last season: 14-9, 9-7 EPC. Lost to Northampton 49-47 in the District 11 6A quarterfinals. Won the Hershey Tip-Off tournament and the J. Milo Sewards Gym Holiday Basketball Classic. Season opener: Dec. 6 at Emmaus
EPC opener: Dec. 6 at Emmaus
Nonleague games: Dec. 9-10 in Hershey Tip-Off tournament starting with Cumberland Valley; Dec. 17 at Dieruff; Dec. 27-28, host holiday tournament with first game against Liberty; Jan. 21 at Geigle Classic in Reading vs. Muhlenberg Township
Players to watch: Darius Brant (6-5, Sr. F) 5.3 ppg; Jharon Johnson (6-1, Sr. G-F) 1.5 ppg; Robert Johnson (6-1, Sr. G-F) 1.9 ppg; Cristhofer Justo (5-8, Sr., G); Jadyn Davis (5-9, Sr. G); Ramses Valera (5-10, Sr. G); Alexis Fernandez (6-5, Sr. F); Aaron Schneider (6-2, Jr. F); Adrian Figueroa (6-2, Sr. F); Darrell Monroe (5-11, Sr. G); Lawson Vasquez (6-0, Jr. G); Jassius Allen (6-3, Jr. F); Omari Landy (6-3, Jr. F); Keith Jackson (6-2, So. G-F). Take note: Connor Hughes, the former Notre DameGreen Pond standout who had been on the staff for several years, is no longer coaching because he is now an assistant principal at an Allentown School District school. Former Canaries standout Daquan Holiday is now the JV coach and Kaminski is the freshman coach. The rest of the staff remains in place with Jamil Newsome, Brent Williams and Dan Freed assisting ... In addition to Ellis and Vigo going to DeSales, Leandro Pena is playing at Penn State-Scranton.
Why the Canaries are Top 10 material: This is a program that has tradition and coaches and athletes who want to maintain its tradition of excellence. In Brant, Allen has a player with all-star potential and the Canaries have other talented kids who are ready to make their presence felt. The Canaries made strides over the course of the summer and figure to continue to improve as the season goes along.
Final word: “It’s another year and another challenge, but I really like our staff and feel we have a really great relationship with the kids,” Braswell said. “We work well together. I like the group we have and I am excited for this group. We’ve played a lot of basketball in the offseason. It was what some of these guys needed because they haven’t played a lot. We have guys who have played minimal roles in the past and now they’re going to play larger roles. We want them to learn what they can do in their new roles and get them to play together. We love playing the underdog role. We’re just stacking days and trying to get better every single day.”