Mercersburg Academy head coach Sean Crocker brings two decades across college hoops, Hoop Group, and the MAPL to this no-fluff episode. Sean breaks down exactly what college coaches need from a Division I guard—defend multiple positions, handle pressure, and make open threes—then shows how he develops those habits: 1,000–1,500 made shots per week, “500 threes on Saturdays,” fall strength and conditioning three to four days a week, and film-driven footwork (“the eye in the sky doesn’t lie”). He’s candid on MAPL vs NEPSAC exposure—why relationships still get phones picked up—and how Mercersburg’s location opens doors beyond New England. Families get real recruiting strategy: honest evaluations, stubborn advocacy, and proof points (a Ghanaian PG to a D2 full ride; Eric Oliver-Bush from NE10 Rookie of the Year to Manhattan). We also unpack the two-postgrad rule, when a two-year reclass beats a PG year, and why transfer-era decisions can cost kids the college experience. If you want straight talk on development, exposure, and fit, this is it.
⏱️Timestamps:
6:34 Lessons from early coaching jobs: enjoying the experience, work ethic, and treasuring every opportunity to coach.
7:54 Sean’s pitch on Mercersburg Academy: academics, community, and the basketball culture.
10:13 Explaining the MAPL League: how it compares to NEPSAC and what families should know about exposure and recruiting.
12:52 Player development philosophy at Mercersburg: shooting goals, strength training, and “the eye in the sky don’t lie.”
16:49 Post-grad rule in the MAPL: history, challenges, and how Sean strategically uses the two available PG spots.
20:20 What Sean looks for when recruiting players: love for the process, coachability, and defensive intensity.
22:29 Handling the “playing time” question from families — earning roles through competition.
24:48 College placement strategy: honest communication with families, building coach relationships, and success stories.
28:11 Why smaller programs like Mercersburg allow more personalized recruiting focus.
28:53 Reclass vs. Post-Grad: which path is better and why two-year development often wins out.
30:07 Future of prep school basketball: shift toward European-style models and NIL impact.
33:48 Transfer portal concerns and how players lose opportunities chasing the wrong path.
33:53 What it takes to be a D1 guard: defense, ball handling, and shot-making.
💡 Key Topics
📌 D1 guard traits: defense, shot-making, pressure handling
📌 MAPL vs NEPSAC exposure: relationships, geography, visibility
📌 Player development plan: high-volume makes, S&C, film-based footwork
📌 PG year vs two-year reclass strategy and the MAPL two-PG rule
📌 Honest recruiting/placement: evaluation, advocacy, real outcomes
📌 Transfer-era realities: risk to “middle” players and college experience
🏀 About Sean Crocker
Sean Crocker is the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at Mercersburg Academy (MAPL). With prior stops at Hoop Group and multiple college programs, he blends college-style development with prep-level placement, emphasizing honest evaluations, high-volume skill work, and strong college relationships.
🔗 Connect with Sean Crocker
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/coachcrocker/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/mburg_boysbasketball/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/mburgathletics/
Website | https://www.mercersburg.edu/athletics/winter-sports/boys-basketball
Twitter | https://x.com/CoachCrocker
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/seandukecrocker/
🔗 Connect with Cory:
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166
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Welcome to this week’s episode of the Prep Athletics Podcast. I’m proud to have coach Shawn Crocker on from Mercersburg Academy. Shawn grew up in New England and he played at Kong College and then he spent a lot of time in the coaching ranks, both in the college and prep school world, spent some time at Hoop Group and is now entering his 11th season at Mercers Brewer Academy. We get into all the questions we ask all the coaches. You know, what’s it take to be a D1 guard? What’s your college placement strategy? what’s it like playing in the Maple League? Um, and learn more about Mercersburg. So, thank you so much for tuning in and stick around for this week’s edition of the Prep Athletics Podcast with Coach Sean Crocker from Mercersburg Academy. Welcome to the Prep Athletics Podcast. This is Corey Heights. Some battles. I’m I’m not sure if they got us. If they did, maybe maybe. So, you will get better as a player during that year. So, it was kind of exciting like, oh yes, somebody wants me. Sean, welcome to the podcast. Corey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it’s a pleasure to have you on and we’ve been trying to get you on for a while now. And uh first, tell us where you grew up and what got you into basketball. Yeah, sure. Um, you know, I I bounced around New England most of most of my uh growing up life, I guess you could call it. Um, I was actually born in North Hampton, Massachusetts. Um, which ironically is where another head coach from the from the Maple League was also born. Um, who’s that? Joe Managna Alvar Blair. His his dad was actually the head coach at Northampton High School when I was real little going there. And so, um, you know, it’s a small basketball world, but um, you know, we lived there for for, uh, for 12 years and I moved to Vermont. Um, I played high school basketball at a a small fra small small high school in central Vermont, Stephford Academy. Um, you know, didn’t really have much guidance um, in terms of the college process. Um, ended up going to Connecticut College thinking, “Oh, yeah, it’s division three.” You know, again, didn’t know it. You know, that was Glenn Miller’s last year at Connecticut College for, you know, that that’ll date when I was there. But um they had just gone 29 and one or something like that and lost their only loss was in the semi-finals and brought in a bunch of recruits. So it took me a couple days at captain’s practice to recognize this was not small town Vermont anymore and and you know and I loved the game but I I wanted to be involved. Um, and so I went and met with the coaching staff and um, you know, became a student manager. And, you know, I think every job I’ve gotten since then has really connected to to those, you know, the head coach and the assistant. The assistant coach was well connected with the hoop group, um, where I spent a lot of summers working and then two years full-time. Um, the head coach kind of connected me with with Bob Sheldon at TUS where I spent four years as an assistant. um in Boston. Um you know, ended up getting a a full-time teaching job, you know, the the grind of the division 3 college assistant, you know, trying to trying to stay above water. Um at Boston Latin, um you know, enjoyed teaching. Um interviewed for a couple of head division 3 jobs, met my wife, um and you know, then um you know, when you when you meet your when you sort of want to start a family, that kind of changes your perspective on things. And um I spent uh 18 months working full-time for Rob Kennedy in the Hoop Group. Um and then um my wife was finishing up her PhD and so needed to move down to Harrisonburg, Virginia. And so um took a volunteer spot with Adam Hutchinson at what WNL Washington University in Lexington. Um and we happen to move to a to a small town named St. It’s called Stan Virginia. um which is kind of right between Harrisonburg where where my wife was working and Lexington where I was working and there was a small uh boarding school there named Steuart Hall School and um I got a part-time job tutoring math there while I was working for Adam and then um after that first year they had a math teacher opening and said hey would you be interested in this and at that point they’d only been co-ed for like 12 years and I said look you know my wife and I want to start a family you know we’d love to be here. Um, I’ll take this job, but you know, I kind I kind of want to be the boys basketball coach, too. And they hadn’t had very much success. And, um, you know, I wasn’t sure what they were going to say to that. You know, they had a boys basketball coach, but, you know, he was a part-time guy. Didn’t have a lot of experience. So, um, you know, took that on. Um, that was that was kind of our first part of our journey. Um, did that for three years. um brought in uh Adam Ticket who ended up uh playing at Winthrop scored like 1,400 points in two years for me at Steuart Hall. I should say I got to watch him score all those points. You know, it was just a blessing to coach him. Um and then I think we were at a place where um we weren’t sure kind of what the next step at Steuart Hall was going to be. Um, and I started kind of looking around and Mercesburg popped up and um, you know, I’d been a college assist and I’d recruited the other schools in our league. Um, but I I didn’t really know much about Mercy’sburg at the time because it it had kind of been a little bit dormant. Um, and so when I got on campus, you know, I still remember texting texting Trisha and being like, we might be home. You know, she wasn’t here. Um, but you know, it’s it’s an awesome campus. um you know and so 10 years ago uh 10 years ago August so this is our 11th year here now um you know we we took the leap um I was maybe a little more excited than she was at that time but you know we’ve now we’ve now raised our three boys here um you know and and you know had had some ups and downs with with the program but kind of got it back on on good footing now and um you get to coach in a league that’s got um really high level coaches um teach at a place um you know work in dorms with with great kids and um you know we’re home and so we’ve been here since 2015. So after graduating college you like you just mentioned you coached at colleges you coached in prep school you coached at the hoop group. What are like three top takeaways, Sean, that all this basketball experience you had after graduation and playing that you use now at Merchesburg Academy? I mean, I think my first boss at TUS, you know, really taught me that you have to you have to enjoy the experience, right? Like if if you’re not enjoying it, the guys are going to recognize that. Um, you know, Bob was always cracking jokes. Um, you know, was very serious. Um, you know, I think the hoop group, working for the hoop group is, you know, you got to show up early. You got to be the last one there. You got to do the work right, whether people are recognizing it or not. Um, you know, and I think, you know, I spent one year coaching at at a small college named Wheelock College right in the fence near um, you know, where we didn’t even have our own gym since closed. and and you know, I think just just treasuring every opportunity you get, right, to play, to coach. Um, and that’s kind of, you know, I think it’s taken a long time for me to recognize how important those things are. But I think as I’ve become a dad and all that stuff, um, you know, something I definitely want to impart to our guys and recognize like, hey, we have workouts today at four o’clock, you know, let’s enjoy this moment, right? We’re here and we get to have fun playing basketball. Yeah, that’s smart. I’m glad you get, you know, make them think about that as teenagers cuz they don’t always think that that maturely at this age. Um, so, so like you mentioned, you ended up at Mercersburg after this long road. You’ve been there 10 years now. Give us your pitch on Mercersburg as a school and then Mercersburg as a basketball program. Sure. I mean, I think, you know, I think um, Mercersburg as a school is, you know, we have 300 acre campus. you know, our facilities. I, you know, I still remember the first time I saw our facilities and thought, you know, I went to the ne I was in the Nesc nicer than those. Um, you know, uh, small class sizes, you know, teachers always want to help work in the dorms. If you’re on, you know, if you have a math question, you can go find your math teacher. Um, you know, just people that really care about you. And I know it’s it’s somewhat cliche, but, you know, I think the community here is is really awesome. um you know if you popped on campus right now we’ve been we’ve been in session for about a month I think outside of size maybe um you know be be hard to figure out who’d been here for you know for four years and who’d been here for you know a month and a half um you know I think in terms of basketball um you know you get to play in the best league um you know uh prep league at least in the uh outside of New England Um, you know, I think all of the schools in our league go up to New England and play some NEPsac schools and usually don’t come back without at least one or two wins. Um, you know, plus I think for Mercersburg, um, I know the other Maple schools don’t love it, but we’re a lot closer to the DMV in Baltimore and TC than even to New Jersey or Philly. And so, you know, we’ve been able to go into into Virginia and play Blue Ridge and and and so you’re getting and and go and play Bulis and places where um you know, you get to go play against really good competition outside of that, you know, Mid-Atlantic or that New Jersey prep school region. Um and so you’re opening yourself up to other coaches and and um you know, I just I just think this is an awesome place and I guess that’s the end of it. But um yeah. Well, talk to us about that because, you know, when you’re recruiting players, a lot of them are looking at the New England schools and you’re obviously in the Maple League. Um, tell us about the Maple League. What makes it so strong? And like what do you say to families that ask you like, “Hey, we’re looking at a Nepsac school. How does the Maple compare?” Like I know you must get that a lot. So, how do you how do you share your opinion on that? Yeah, I mean I think you know um I think the Maple League is especially on boys basketball I think it’s as good as it is because you know I’ve been here this is my 11th year now and I’m like the fifth most senior coach in the league. So you got guys that have been here you know since I was in high school since I was before I was in high school. um you know who have have long track records and and you know um and so you know you’re really competing. you’re having to figure out, you know, um, you know, how how to make plays against, you know, defenses and and um, I’m kind of getting lost here in this answer, but um, you know, I think it’s just a a a high level lead. And then um you know I think in terms of the New England’s you know quite honestly um one of the things I’ve learned in 10 years here is that we don’t necess if somebody wants um to play basketball at a high level um they’re going to be found wherever they are right and so if you feel like you need to go to a New England prep school so that 80 coaches can see you um you know that’s I’m going to support you in that. Like we had a kid we had a young man that ended up going up there this past year that that we were you know we thought I thought we had strong connections with and um and his dad just told me like he just felt like he was going to get more exposure up there. Um you know and that’s their opinion, right? I think um the nice thing about my track record and and being a division three assistant and working for the hoop group is that um we might not get as many coaches in the gym. I’m just being honest. But coaches are going to pick up the phone when I call them and they’re going to, you know, these are guys that I have long-term relationships with. Um you know, we’ve never had a kid come through here who didn’t get recruited at the levels they needed to get recruited at. Um you know, and that’s in 10 10 11 years. Um, and so, you know, it kind of all depends on what you’re looking for. I mean, if you if if you want to be seen in a lot of different regions, um, then, you know, this is this is the location for you. Um, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Thanks for sharing that. Now, um, one question parents ask me a lot is, “Well, how does this school develop versus this school versus that school?” So, when families ask you what the development is for their their players at Mercersburg, how do you answer that? Yeah, I mean, I think we we kind of approach our development kind of like we used to when I was coaching in college, you know, um I think preeason, you know, I think the most highly coveted skill you have is shooting, right? And so, we want to make sure our guys are making between um a,000 and 1500 shots a week. And so we will spend Saturdays when there’s not a volleyball game or we maybe we work around the volleyball game and everyone’s got to make 500 threes, right, to to really work on that. Um, you know, we we have a strength and conditioning coach who has some background in professional baseball. And so we’re in our weight room, you know, three or four days a week all fall. You know, we have a a basketball program tailored for for our athletes all fall. Um, you know, and then we try to we try we play and we film that a little bit in the fall and then we look at our film and we say like here’s a read you might want to make or you know um here’s where you got to get to two feet instead of one feet. you know, you know, the you know, I think just just looking at on film cuz um you know, one of my f one of my coaching mentors used to say the eye and the sky don’t lie, right? And so then and then getting in the gym and you know, working on her footwork and you know, doing a lot of those Jay Wright Villanova pivoting drills that, you know, no one likes to do, but you know, you have to have great footwork. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think those are the things that that we really kind of hang our hat on, um, you know, to try to get them get them ready so that they’re they’re a little bit better, um, you know, when we hit November and the season starts. Perfect. Now, walk me through at Mercersburg, your do your basketball players have to play multiple sports? uh kind of, you know, um so we we have transitioned over the last two or three years where they can um where they can do a fall basketball. Um you know, we do have a couple guys that are really good soccer players and so they ch they choose to play soccer in the fall and they they can come work with us a little bit, but the vast majority of our our returning guys this year and our new guys are doing fall basketball. Um and then especially for our seniors and our postgrads, um I generally in um push them in the springtime to do to do something where they’re giving back to the school, right? So whether that’s track and field if they’re athletic, you know, we had the kid Colin Metaf with us a few years ago who’s now playing at Maryland and he won the he won the state the Pennsylvania state championship in the javelin. He’d never thrown a javelin until he got here, but he was 6’9 and his the coach figured out it goes from there. Um, our younger guys will will um in the past have have done some track and field training and then our our track coach is awesome. Uh, she’s great. Um, especially if the kids are going to score for us in the Maple Track meet. um you know she will generally be pretty flexible with them on a you practice as long as they’re there for that Maple Track that Maple um meet which is like one meet in May where there’s it’s a not a live period weekend anyways. Um, so and there are other options. You know, we have had some guys do baseball um who enjoyed that and this and the coach would usually be, you know, our coaches are all all in it for the kids and if the kids going to go to college play basketball, no one’s folding their backs just because, you know, he might be the ninth best hitter in your lineup or something like that. Gotcha. All right. Thanks for sharing that. Now, the Maple League teams have had two postgrads allowed per year. Is that still the case? Yes. Yeah. two postgrads. Um, that’s the rule. What? What? Who made that up? I’m just curious. Is that a league rule? That’s a league rule. That has been a rule since before I got here. Um, I I’ve always been told that it traces back to the very beginning of the league when um, Lawrenceville was loading up um, and Hun and Blair and Hill because we weren’t in we we had we joined the league like three years after it was founded. Um, and so I think they got together and said, “This is getting ridiculous.” And so they um just shut it down and made it two. So it’s been two the whole time I’ve been here. And what’s the challenge for you on just having two postgrads? I know we connected on a kid this year that’s one year or two, but like how do you strategically figure out who you’re going to give those two spots to or offer them to or try to get? Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think honestly I think for me Corey it’s it’s it’s about you know because we can’t have as many postgrads as the New England schools. you know, a postgrad almost becomes a luxury, right? So, it’s kind of a plugandplay. Um, you know, our postgrads have often been our best players, but two years ago, we ch we had seven seniors and we chose not to take any postgrads and just kind of brought in some younger guys. Um, you know, so, you know, uh, Michael Kmers, who’s with us this year, you know, he came in a lot of a lot of the reason he came in is because he was a great fit for what we had coming back, um, for the for the school and for the program. Um, and so, you know, I I think I think in the Maple, um, I don’t want to speak I can’t speak for the other coaches obviously, but there’s a little bit less of a focus on the postgrad. Um, you know, we we obviously want some impact postgrads and and we get probably more inquiries about that than than other positions. Um, but I also think that there’s a it’s, you know, we’re much more in the market for like a reclass 11th grade or a reclass 10th grade. Um but it definitely you know when we didn’t have that postgrad we also noticed that we didn’t have that injection of two really talented kids um that year. Now we had a bunch of seniors. So um we didn’t necessarily need that injection but um you know that’s that’s the biggest thing is that when we don’t get two or when we only have two you know you there has to be other pieces around those guys. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Perfect. Now we’re going to play a game called guess the famous alumni from your school. Okay, so I got three three names here. I think they’re I think they’re softballs for you, but you’ve got a long list of famous alumni from Mercersburg. So, I picked out three I think the public will know. So, first up, Jimmy Stewart. Do you know who he graduated? No, I’m just saying, do you know who he is? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a Wonderful Life. Um, Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if the younger generation knows who Jim Stewart is or James Stewart, but big- time Hollywood actor from the old days. This one they might recognize, Benio Del Toro. Who’s that? Yeah, actually actually didn’t act at Mercersburg. Was a three sport varsity athlete for all three years he was here. Um played basketball for act for the for um a science teacher that’s still here, Jim Malone. He played basketball for him. So really got into acting after he left. Okay. And then last one, Jim Ers. Yeah. Owner of the Colts. Yeah. Recently passed away, I believe, didn’t he? Recently passed away a couple weeks ago. Yeah. So, anyway, we we’ve worked with some prep schools and do this, Sean. We’re like, we’re we’re really going deep in Wikipedia. And uh the coaches sometimes don’t always get them. So, we just make that a nice softball round to let people know who has gone to Merc. So, all right. You just played this week’s edition of Do You Know Your Famous Alumni? So, you three for three. Congratulations. There we go. Thank you. Um, what are you looking for in a player when you’re recruiting? Yeah, I think this is where um, you know, this this is what I love I love to talk to our guys about. Um, you know, first and foremost, we need guys that really love the process, right? Like um, if if I jump on a call and everything about everything a family’s asking me is like, “What are you going to do for my kid?” and you know, how are they going to get their shots and all that stuff? That’s important, but it’s like I want to know that they want to get better, right? And and they want to push themselves. Um, and so I will usually ask a family to send me, hey, you know, send me your best game and then maybe a game where you don’t think you did that well because I I kind of want to see how that kids acting when they’re not doing so well, right? because espec especially with with postgrads, you know, there’s a reason they’re reaching out to prep schools, right? Whether they’re that could be that they’re not satisfied with their college recruitment, they just need an extra bump, they want to, you know, have an extra year to mature. Those are all valid reasons and that we can help with. Um, but you know, um, if they’re not if they’re not going to be bought in, that’s that’s that’s tricky. And then, you know, we want guys that that are pretty skilled, you know, that um that can shoot it. Um but that, you know, are really going to be scrappy defensively. Um you know, are going to play hard. Um you know, and play and play play to win, right? And not not just for themselves. Yeah. Love it. Love it. You can tell that through talking to them and watching film, right? I you can try. You can try. A couple have snuck by in my 11 years, but but uh we figure that out pretty soon in the fall, too. All right, here’s a question I love getting from families, but they say, “If we’re going to make this investment and leave our school and go to a prep school, how do we determine how much playing time we’re going to get there?” So, how do you address that question when families ask? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I think what I my general response to that is look, I probably wouldn’t be on a Zoom call or making a time out of my day to come talk to you if I didn’t think your son could play here. But, you know, everything you get, you’re going to have to earn when you get here, right? And so, I’ve never seen the kid play with our with our guys. Haven’t seen um you know, how he interacts with campus or anything like that. And so, um, I think we generally have an unwritten rule because we only have the two postgrads that we’re not really going to be bring a postgrad in unless we think they are pretty close to being able to start for us. Um, you know, we’re at very least play a lot of minutes off the bench. Um, but for younger guys, it’s it’s really about, you know, we we need guys that want to come in and compete and and figure it out. And you know, I think that just is another way of measuring, you know, kind of how hungry and humble a kid is, right? And and um because those are the kids that end up making it, right? The ones that fall in love with that the idea of getting better. And um you know, I’ve had a couple kids, we got a we had a junior right now whose dad asked me that question two years ago and they were just happy to be here and they came in with no promises. And then the kid came to the second I mean he I knew the kid was pretty good. Um but he in the first ball open gym I was like crap this kid’s going to have to play 29 minutes a game right like you know so he was being modest like you know and so um you know I think those are the kind of kids we want um you know who who are going to work for it um because generally those kids who are going to work for it are the kids that are going to earn it anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Smart thinking on that. Okay, perfect. Now, a kid has committed to play at Mercersburg. Walk me through your process of your conversation with the kid in the family about how you plan to get their name out there, how you plan to get them placed in college. Like, what’s your recruiting strategy? Yeah. So I think I think I think the cool thing that has happened over the last few years is that with the June live periods um you know sometimes you get to coach the kids and and get to know them a little bit more as a player than you used to before the July periods. Um so generally I’ll tell I’ll tell families like let’s let’s sit down or you know get on a go or Zoom call in July if they’re really eager. Um because then I have a sense I can actually talk to coaches that have seen the kid play live that I’ve been coaching. Um but you know I think in this in this market um with how many high school freshman or I’m sorry how many college kids are getting recruited as high school seniors um you know my approach is really like here’s what I’m hearing from coaches. Here’s what I’ve seen. Um you know here are some options if we wanted to go early. here’s maybe what could happen if we wait, but there’s no guarantees. Um, you know, I think we did a we did an internal kind of coaching leadership thing and um in the summer here at Mercy’sburg and and we had to kind of define our our coaching style and it took me a while and I just decided I’m stubborn like I’m going to believe in these kids. I’m going to keep calling coaches until um until we find them a spot that they’re happy with. And so, um, you know, we had a we had a young man from Ghana that was having a hard time because he needed a high high level scholarship and you know, it was June and he had graduated, but we kept calling and we got him a we got him a full ride to Virginia West Virginia Wesleyan and and D2 and um and so, you know, I I’ve there’s never, like I said, there’s never been a kid that’s come through here that hasn’t gotten recruited and placed at the level where they belonged. um you know in this market the way the the name of the game is get somewhere where you’re going to play play really well and then move up right like um I mentioned Colum Netaf earlier but like we had Eric Oliver Bush here who was who was a postgrad two years ago he went and was rookie of the year in the 10 at St. the end zone is now going to probably start at Manhattan um because that’s how we get there. But Manhattan, you know, John Gallagher recruited some of our guys pre-COVID, so he knew about Eric. He just needed Eric to go to prove it at at St. Ansils. And so, um, so yeah, I mean, I think I just tell them the stories that we’ve had of other guys that have been here, um, and how how it’s worked out for them. And, you know, recognize that I’m going to be honest, right? Like people can call me a lot of things um in my life, but the one thing I really work hard that they can’t call me is a liar. And so, you know, if I think your kid is probably a fringe D2, highle D3 player, I’m going to tell you that. And if you think your kid’s a division one player, you may not love that. But I’m at least going to be like I’m at least going to be telling you my honest evaluation after, you know, however many years, 20 years now. Holy smokes, I’m getting old. Uh getting a little coaching in college or prep school. And so, um yeah, I mean, I know that’s a long answer there, but I think that’s that’s kind of my approach with with families. And the nice thing, too, is you’ve only got a few players every year. You got a place, right? You got one team, you got maybe postgrads, maybe not, maybe a few seniors. So, you get to spend way more bandwidth on those few kids each year, which I think is something you probably tell families, especially some of these teams that have larger rosters or potentially second teams. So it’s about it’s about your bandwidth. Absolutely. Yeah. And that’s that is something else. I think you mentioned it. So that is another way I think that we differ from maybe a New England prep school or a bigger prep school is that because we have fewer postgrads. If you are here, you get a lot more of my attention in terms of that that work. If a family reaches out and they’re thinking about reclassing and doing two years at Mercersburg or just graduating and doing a postgrad year, what’s your advice when that question comes up? I think it’s always a case by case basis, but I I would say nine times out of ten, and this is going to sound self-certing, but you know, doing two years with a program, you’re going to you’re going to have an be able to have an adjustment year, get to know the campus, get to know the coach, get to know the style of play, all that stuff, and then be able to worry about getting placed and having a good senior year to impress the colleges. Whereas if you’re coming as a postgrad, sure you get the June period, but you don’t really I mean like you have to hit the ground running and be ready to perform and and so that it it takes a special kind of kid um to be able to do that. So I would generally recommend the two. Yeah. And what I tell families too, they got to make their own decision, right? If you’re at a good high school, you want to play with your buddies, maybe win a, you know, win a state title, stay in your stay in your high school because if you do a post-grade year like I did, you don’t know any better, right? You don’t even know there’s an adjustment period. You just, you’re doing what comes and you adjust pretty quickly. So, I see the pro and con to each, but family’s got to make that decisions in my opinion because, you know, like you said, everyone’s different. What do you see as the future of prep school basketball? Like, how does this world look in five years from now? Yeah, that’s a that’s a great question. I think it’s one that I talk to some of my college buddies about a lot. Um, I mean, I think if I don’t know how drastic the shift’s going to be in five years, I would imagine that we’re going to get a lot closer to a European model in the next 10 to 15 years. I mean, you got all these schools popping up um where they’re very very I mean, at least in basketball, they’re very focused athletically and okay. Yeah, you get to go to class for 3 hours in the morning. Um you know, I think there’ll still be a place for prep school basketball. Um you know, but I I think that um you know, it’s going to be a special kind of kid that that wants to be here, right? Um, and so I think at schools like like all the schools in our in our league, you know, uh, there’s a reason to go there. Um, you know, cuz you want that you want more than just basketball out of that out of that experience. Um, but it, yeah, it does it does seem more and more like, you know, college moved very quickly into a pro model then and I don’t know how how much longer we have to hold out before high school gets fully invested in that. I mean, I’m sure there are high school kids getting paid now, but um but yeah, I think uh I agree with you. There’s going to be more options out there now. I think it’s going to take away from a lot of kids that might go jo um they’ll go to thesemies, but I think Jos are more established and more stable than maybe some of these newer places. But to me, I think with a lot more prep school teams being on ESPN now and with social media and with so many good players come out of the prep school world, I’m seeing the demand on our end go up through the roof and I think it’s only going to be stronger and family’s going to have to make the choice. You know, do we want to go to a athlete specific school? If we want to have more structure like a traditional prep school. Um, so to me, I think it’s it’s going to be a great option, but you know, you nor I have the crystal ball to see how exactly it’s going to be. your school’s been around so many, you know, hundreds of years. Um, there’s still going to be a demand for that, I think. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. I think it’s just going to shift potentially shift a little bit with the highest level kids. Yeah, for sure. For sure. They’re going to have way options now. Do we get an OT? Do we do an IMG? Do we maybe get an NIL deal at this place? They’re going to be fine. I’m never worried about those kids. Yeah. It’s the kids like, you know, position, you know, three on the depth chart through the end of the bench. That’s the kids I always wonder about and want to make sure they’re being taken care of at these places because some of these places will just take their money and use that to fund the the hiring kids and those kids get left behind. I think that’s too bad when it happens. No, I agree. I agree. I mean, I think the it’s not it’s not really prep school basketball, but the biggest the biggest thing and I I told some of our guys as they head off to college about this, like because a number of our even our guys from last year, they’re like, “Oh, yeah, we’ll go there for a year and then we’ll try to transfer up.” is just losing that college experience, right? Like the the social the social network you build from living with somebody for four years and and getting to know guys and and maybe at prep schools they get that for a couple of years so they’re getting it early so they don’t they don’t need it as much later. But um you know that’s that’s the part about the the transfer portal and all that stuff because again the top guys they’re they’re getting a life-changing amount of money. You know, it’s the kids that are transferring D3 to D2 for 10 grand or or whatever it’s going to be. Like those are the ones that maybe they’re going to look back in 20 years when they got as gray the gray in their beard like we you and I do and and think, well, maybe that maybe that wasn’t as worth it as staying home. But oh, and then there’s the folks the thousands of kids that put their name in the portal and their career is just over. That that to me is what someone needs to do a story on like who are those kids and who gave them advice and what happens to them? I had a player once, former D1 kid, put his name in the portal and he didn’t get picked up for some other reasons, but he became a school teacher, you know, a few months later. It was just over. So, that doesn’t get talked about enough. Sean, what does it take to be a D1 guard? poof. I think um I think that’s been shifting over the last three three or four years, but I think the you got to be able to handle the ball under pressure and I think you got to be able to make open threes. Um and then you have to be able to guard you have to be able to guard probably three different positions because a lot of these college programs now are switching a lot more. Um but yeah, I mean I I think making shots, handling the ball under pressure. Um and really being able to guard um maybe not even in that order. It might be guard. It might be guard and then make shots and then handle the ball. Um because but uh I mean I think those those are definitely the keys. All right. I love that. We’re going to finish up here with some quick hitters. Okay. Who’s the best player you ever played against? I don’t even I can’t even remember. My playing career ended so long ago. Um, well, here’s here’s a I’ll give you this quick hitters. I once played in a pickup basketball game in Durham against Chris Collins when I was working Duke camp. So, I played in the pickup game. I think Wes was on my team and Chris Collins was there. There’s just a bunch of guys working camp. So, there you go. Good. Chris Collins. All right. Perfect. Best best player you’ve ever coached against at Mercersburg. I’m going to irritate somebody. I I think I think probably Derek Lively. Oh yeah. Yeah. When he was at West coming out of CO, that was our first game in like 18 months. And um Seth was not happy because we were it was like a six-point game at the end of the third quarter and they they had a couple kids make big shots. Um, but uh I think that game, you know, you could see you could see that potential. Um, and then I think that game actually how well Colin Metap played against Eric Lively is what got him to Nor Eastern and eventually transferred to Maryland. Gotcha. Okay. Favorite movie? Depends on my mood honestly. I But I think the first movie that comes to mind is Dumb and Dumber. You don’t want to take things too seriously. Okay. Classic. And then lastly, what are your hobbies when you’re not coaching or hanging out with your family? I am a um and this used to get a lot more sympathy, but I’m a diehard New England sports fan. So, you know, any any Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, you know, like I I’m I’m not in a great mood. Luckily, I went for a run this morning because the Socks blew their game last night against the Yankees. But, um yeah, a lot of that. Um and everything else is really my families. I got three kids and and a wife that I I know I could be better um with in the season, you know, when after the season. So, it’s a lot of time with them. Perfect. And then is there anything you want to touch on we didn’t mention uh in this interview? No, I mean I think I think we covered um everything we need to. Awesome. Well, Sean, I appreciate you coming on today and uh good luck this season. And if anyone has any questions, we’re going to put all your contact information in the show notes below. And we appreciate it and thanks for being a partner with Prep Athletics and connecting on Michael this year. And uh wish you the best of luck this season. Thank you so much. You guys enjoyed this podcast with Sean Crocker, coach of coach of Merchesburg Academy. Make sure you follow us on all the major podcasting platforms and subscribe on YouTube. And make sure to go to the website prepathletics.com to sign up for the newsletter. Any questions you have about the prep school world, feel free to reach out. We answer everyone that comes our way and would love to help you if this is something you might be interested in. So, thanks so much for tuning in. We’ll see you next time here on the Prep Aletics podcast.
