The City Game: Eagle Academy I Dominates The Bronx

Photo courtesy of Dave’s Joint.

By David Cordova

In this installment of our series, “The City Game,” we will be talking about the Eagle Academy I squad, which has been one of the best teams in not only the PSAL, but throughout the city, compiling a record of 26-1 this season and showing how tough they can be.

In the South Bronx, there are a lot of high schools that are giving students an education. But they’re not like the schools are yesteryear. Unfortunately, the days of most of the schools in the public high school system in the five boroughs having thousands of students in one building is over. These days, there are as many as three or four schools in one building. An environment like that creates lack of resources for things such as funding and even recreational activities such as recess or physical education classes, as each school needs time to operate.

Enter a school like The Eagle Academy for Young Men, and you’ll see that there’s a different alternative.

Founded in 2004 by its original principal, David C. Banks, who is now the chancellor for the New York City Department of Education, it was the first all-boys high school citywide in as many as 20 years since DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx, before they became a co-educational school in 1983.

Eagle, which is the first of six schools in the network of the Eagle Academy Foundation that spans the five boroughs and Newark, New Jersey, and is a school with less than 500 students in grades 6-12. The graduation rate is at 85% and all of their students go on to college. That goes to show that this isn’t like any other public high school in the city. This school is different.

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On the basketball front, the history of the Eagle Academy program is a solid one. In the 2006-07 season, under their first coach in Rodney Plummer, the Eagles were on a mission in the PSAL “B” Division, as they went 23-3 and won the city championship and earned a berth in the New York State Federation Tournament, losing in the semifinals to Long Island’s own Malverne. All of this success was done with no seniors, just underclassmen that were committed to grinding and playing hard.

The following season, the same crew was back, this time in the A division, as they steamrolled through the competition throughout the 2007-08 season, going 22-2 overall and going 17-0 in the Bronx “A” division, only lose in the quarterfinals to Brooklyn’s own George Westinghouse.

And then the following season, they would move up into the “AA” division, but they would have a rough few years, as they had to compete with more dominant squads, including John. F. Kennedy and Wings Academy, both powerhouses at the time.

But then a few years later, under Ryan Queen, the Eagles began to catch up with their counterparts, which would lead to them winning to the borough championship in 2018. And then just like that, the COVID-19 pandemic happened and everything stopped just like the world did. After things came back to normal, Queen had moved on to coach high school basketball at West Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Which leads to the current regime, as their current head coach came with a resume and brought the program to different era, an era which has changed the game and made them one of the city’s best teams at the highest classification.

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When one thinks of Roosevelt Byers, a word that can be associated with him is a teacher. He is a solid individual that is all about helping his players and mentees on their road to success. The man that many know as, “Coach Rose,” is a true leader in the sense of the word. But like many, he has been associated with the game from a young age.

A Harlem native, Byers is a 1988 graduate of Julia Richman High School (now known as Julia Richman Educational Complex) in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he was a standout on the varsity basketball squad. He would then go on to play four years of collegiate basketball in Sparkill, New York, when the program in the NAIA, and graduated in 1992.

Since 2005, Byers has been the recreational director at the Dunlevy Milbank Community Center in Central Harlem, which is also the home of one of the area’s most prominent basketball programs in the Milbank Flyers, which has produced NBA players such as Charlie Scott, Shawnelle Scott and Mohamed Bamba.

Also on Byers’ Milbank teams were members of the “Jelly Fam” movement in Sidney Wilson, Ja’Quaye James and most notably, Isaiah Washington, who is now playing professional basketball in Germany. During the late 2010’s. the “Jelly Fam” movement was one of the biggest things going on in the basketball space, as the world went wild when players that were under a certain height made a stylish finger roll layup and made it popular nationwide. Byers could be seen talking about the crew and the phenomenon in a 2017 documentary made by Bleacher Report.

Also, Byers was an assistant coach on the varsity at St. Raymond High School from 2012 to 2020 under head coach Jorge Lopez and was also the head coach of the freshman team, whom led to CHSAA championships in 2015 and 2018.

Since his appointment as head coach at Eagle in 2021, he’s made plenty of improvements with the program and has helped elevate the program, making it one of the premier programs in the city. The program is modeled as “The Academy,” which is also the program’s social media handles on Instagram & Twitter.

In Byers’ first season, they went 18-9 and they won the PSAL Bronx Borough championship, and went to the second round of the “AA” playoffs, where they would lose to Queens’ own John Bowne.

Last season, the program had a phenomenal season, as he went 28-5 and steamrolled through the competition in the Bronx “AA” division, going 15-0. They would make it all the way to the semifinals, where they would lose to Brooklyn’s own Thomas Jefferson Campus.

All of that would definitely make way for what would come this season.

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This journey would start with this great group of players that are on the Eagle roster, as there are some special talents with plenty of promise.

In the backcourt are seniors D’Andre Gibbs, Braylin Sanjurjo, John Harrington and Antwan “A.J.” Williams and underclassmen such as sophomore Amir Cummings and freshman Elijah King. In the front court, there’s seniors Kanun Larry and Daye Kaba, junior Carrick Dorreland and sophomore Maliq Miller.

This group of players have brought plenty of grit on the floor and worked very hard when on the floor. In Gibbs, Harrington and Kaba, they are three scorers that can get to the basket and score in bunches. When either of them touch the ball, they can be difficult to contain, due to their prowess on the floor.

Sanjurjo and Williams are guards that are able to make plenty of decisions on the floor when they have the ball in their hands. They are also players that can control the tempo and also put the ball in their teammates on the floor.

The underclassmen, King and Cummings, are two players that have plenty of promise and look to be Eagle’s key to the future.

In the low post, Miller, Dorreland and Larry are formidable forces that can hold their own in the paint area and are solid rebounders and can make their presence felt.

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This season, Eagle has been very successful on the court, as they have gone 26-1 overall and 14-0 in the new PSAL Bronx/Manhattan 4A division. Outside of the PSAL, they went 10-0 against competition.

This past week, they played in the PSAL Bronx Borough playoffs, steamrolling against the competition, as they won against programs such as Fannie Lou Hamer and won a close game against DeWitt Clinton, and then got to the championship game at Queens College this past Saturday against rival James Monroe Campus, whom they beat twice.

Against Monroe, they played tough defense and made a lot of great plays throughout the game, and knocked off their counterparts, 63-54, and won their third straight Bronx borough championship.

Now entering the city playoffs, Eagle now has a bye until the second round and is awaiting their next opponent. Now, all there is left to do is win three more games to get to the championship game on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. After dominating their borough and getting to the semifinals, anything less than getting to the title game will be a letdown. But with the way things are going, it has a chance to get to the same place they were just 17 years ago, but in a different classification. The Academy is on the right path this season. As they continue to fly high, things will only get better.

Look out for the next installment of our series, “The City Game,” as we will be talking about James Monroe Campus, as they are in the midst of a renaissance with their coach and are gaining attention around the city with their play.