James Quinn MDVarsity.com Magazine Staff Rivals.com Rudy Gay developed into a nationally elite player at Spalding In his seven years at Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland. Head Coach Mike Glick has built one of the best prep hoop programs in the Baltimore Catholic League (BCL) and the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. At Spalding, Glick has won BCL and MIAA "A" Championships; developed over a dozen Division One college players (including McDonald's All-American Rudy Gay, now a star freshman at UConn, and 7' sophomore center Will Bowers at Maryland); played at prestigious national prep tournaments; and won over 70% of his games (165-69). This year's Cavalier team did not feature a future NBA Lottery Pick, like the aforementioned Gay, or a towering center like recent 7' graduates Bowers and Jason Loughery (who got significant playing time as a freshman at Mt. St. Mary's College this year). Also, Spalding did not win an MIAA "A" or BCL championship this year. But Glick told MdVarsity.com this week that, nevertheless, the Cavaliers had a "very successful" season in 2004-2005. Spalding finished the season 21-12 and ranked No. 14 in the final Baltimore Sun Poll. "I think we had a very successful year," said Glick. "I was very happy with our season. Our league was exceptionally tough, very deep, yet we went .500 in the BCL. We were the only team in the conference to beat (No. 2 ranked) Mt. St. Joe's in the regular season and we beat (No. 7 ranked) Towson Catholic at Towson Catholic. Outside of the league, we beat National Christian Academy twice, we beat Eleanor Roosevelt, Woodlawn and Good Counsel. We also beat Don Bosco Prep of New Jersey down in Richmond, they were one of the top teams in (New) Jersey at the time." "But, most of all, I'm proud that we had six seniors this year and they all qualified academically and they are all going to college," said Coach Glick. "Three of those seniors got scholarships to good D-I colleges that are excellent academic colleges with good basketball programs." Guard Justin Castleberry (14 points, 5 assists per game) signed with Bucknell University, guard Marquis Sullivan (17 points, 4 rebounds a game) signed with Loyola College and forward Lawrence Dixon (13 points, 6 rebounds a game) signed with Holy Cross. All three players earned All-County and All-BCL Honors. Castleberry and Sullivan each played in the Charm City Challenge preliminary game for the Suburban All Stars. Dixon plated in the Challenge's main game for the Baltimore All Stars. The graduations of Dixon, Castleberry, and Sullivan will cost Spalding valuable experience, and most of their offensive fire power, next season – but Glick is optimistic that the Cavaliers will still be "pretty good" in 2005-2006. "Obviously, we lost some great players, but we get back four seniors who played a lot of minutes as juniors. I think we can be pretty good, We'll be counting on these four guys to give us leadership, good defense, and experience. If they can step up their scoring, that will help. We also expect some help from some JV kids, though I'd like to keep some of the freshman on the JV for their sophomore years next year," said Coach Glick. The senior nucleus is led by 6'2" guard Derek Young. Young, an outstanding defensive player, had a good junior season off the bench for the Cavaliers. "Derek is our best returning player, he's a D-I college player. He is an excellent defensive player, a good ball handler – Derek has really improved his jump shot just since the season ended. He is a good leader, a good player." Young played on the Spalding JV as a sophomore after transferring in from Suitland High School. 6'4" senior guard/forward Danny Palumbo also played on the Cavalier JV in 2003-2004 after he transferred in from DeMatha. Palumbo is an athletic, versatile perimeter player. His father is the Athletic Director at Towson Catholic. "Danny is a very good athlete and a really competitive kid – he helped us as a junior this year – he can play a couple of positions," said Coach Glick "I think Palumbo will be a key guy for us next year." 6'7" senior forward/center Danny Quinn is another former DeMatha player (as were both Palumbo and Castleberry). Quinn is a hardnosed post player who rebounds well and plays good defense. "How much Danny can improve his senior season is a big key for us. He had a good year for us as a junior. He basically played almost no basketball as a freshman or sophomore, so he is still getting better as he gets more experienced He is a BIG key for us next year." Senior guard Matt Cassilly is a solid player who excels on the defensive end. He got some quality minutes off the bench as a junior. Glick has two of the most promising young BCL players moving up from his JV in sophomores Kevon Moore, a 6'3" wing/forward from Bowie, Md., and 6'6" forward Brad Bald from Millersville, Md. MdVarsity.com had a chance to see the Spalding JV play a few times this year and the highly regarded Moore and Bald looked like future BCL standouts. "They are both very talented and they played very well on the JV as freshman. I think that Kevon and Brad both have a lot of talent and potential and will be very good players for us…how much they'll actually contribute as sophomores, we'll have to see – but they are REALLY good prospects. They will both get a shot at playing time, for sure, next year. We had some other good, young kids on the JV this year, but I'd like to keep most of them on the JV for another year." Coach Glick is very excited about his incoming freshman class for next year and he told us about a couple of rising freshman that he thinks can be "… great players for us down the road." Coach Glick said that one of his incoming guards might be good enough to be the first freshman to play on the Spalding varsity for him since he arrived seven years ago. "I think this kid is the best freshman guard coming into our league next year," said Coach Glick. On Archbishop Spalding's "Senior Night " this year, when they upset Mt. St. Joe's, Coach Glick gave MdVarsity.com a tour of the construction site where Spalding will be opening a big, beautiful gymnasium next academic year. With a new gymnasium and two straight great incoming "recruiting classes", the future of Cavalier basketball at Archbishop Spalding is very bright!