They came, they saw, they … had an absolute blast.
Of course they did. It’s not every day you get to play your favorite sport in a 21,000-seat arena that has housed some of the all-time greats and the larger-than-life stars of today, like Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, that you’ve grown up cheering for and emulating.
But that’s the opportunity the ELCO boys and girls basketball teams had on Monday afternoon, Dec. 18, as they took on Wyomissing in a boys/girls doubleheader on the spacious floor of the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The chance to make an otherwise ordinary non-league doubleheader supremely memorable came about largely through the efforts of ELCO athletic director Tommy Mealy, who had learned of the “Court of Dreams” experience offered by the Sixers to have local schools play a game at Wells Fargo Center and did the necessary legwork to make it happen.
“I was aware of the ‘Court of Dreams Experience’ with the Philadelphia 76er organization for quite some time and this was always on my radar on this job to do for a basketball team and the stars really aligned with dates, academic timelines, and logistics,” Mealy said prior to the games. “Thankfully our programs, school administration and the Wyomissing Area School District was also fully supportive and on board as well.”
“Education and athletics to me has always been about relationships, experiences and memories and to see the smiles on the faces of both programs and both communities are why we are in this profession.We have a nice Philadelphia 76er following in the area and this will be an experience of a lifetime for the kids.”
That experience included courtside seats for the host 76ers’ frustrating 108-104 loss to the Chicago Bulls Monday night.
But the narrow defeat the home team absorbed to the Bulls in the nightcap of a busy day of hoops failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the Raiders.
The boys enjoyed the day just a smidgen more than the ELCO girls, taking down Wyo 60-47, while the girls absorbed their first defeat of the season after a 5-0 start in a 43-27 loss to the Spartans.
“It’s been great for them,” ELCO boys coach Brad Conners said of his squad. “We’re out of our (normal gameday) routine, so I was a little nervous about that. But the kids, they didn’t seem nervous, they didn’t seem confused. They were ready to go play some basketball.”
No Raider was more ready for the big stage on Monday than sophomore standout Kaden Shultz Tillison, who dropped in a game-high 20 points, including 14 in the first half while looking blissfully unaware of his surroundings.
“He’s a gym rat,” Conners said of Tillotson. “Kaden’s a gym rat. You have to chase him out of the gym sometimes, but that’s a good thing. I love it. Really happy for him. We know he can shoot the ball, it’s something he’s been doing the whole offseason. He’s gotta continue to earn our trust defensively, but what he did shooting the ball didn’t really come as a surprise.”
The ELCO girls, as noted, didn’t get to walk off the Wells Fargo Center court victorious but still made a good showing against Wyomissing, a 4A district champ and state quarterfinalist a season ago, playing the Spartans on even terms for the first three quarters before fading down the stretch. But that did little to dampen their enthusiasm for the day’s events.
“What a great opportunity for them to be at a venue like this,” said ELCO coach Karl Keath. “Not being used to playing in a large arena like this is a challenge for the kids. But they adapted very well and played real hard.
“We’re not excited about losing, by no stretch of the imagination. But at the end of the day, they were a state semifinalist last year. And it’s not like we played terrible, the fourth quarter just got away from us.”
And really, the outcome of the games took a backseat to the enormity of the experience. As it should have, given the once-in-a-lifetime nature of it all.
“It was really cool, a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said senior point guard Sara Miller. “It was really fun to play here. To start the game, even the refs told us to look around and take a deep breath. Just like every timeout, every quarter break, it was cool to just look around and see all the people and see the huge arena.”
For the adults as well as the kids.
“This is the cherry on top now,” said Conners, just before the start of the Sixers-Bulls game. “The kids have been starstruck. We were down here for shoot around about 45 minutes ago and the big kids have been down by the tunnel getting handshakes from guys like (Bulls guard) Alex Caruso and a couple Sixer guys came out. It’s been really neat for them.”
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