Photo courtesy of Dave’s Joint.
By David Cordova
It’s Dec. 23rd, just two days before Christmas and the scene is the Mohegan Sun Arena, which is located on the Indian Reservation in Uncasville, CT, and The Day Holiday Classic is taking place, featuring three games with some of the state’s best talent.
But the first game of the three games has to do with two teams based out of New Haven County. One is the historical powerhouse, Hillhouse, a public high school in the city of New Haven.
The other is the basis of this story, named Notre Dame-West Haven, a Catholic all-boys high school from the suburban town of West Haven, which is just outside of New Haven.
Throughout the game, it was apparent that the Notre Dame-West Haven was the superior team, as they did what they had to do on the fast break and were the dominant team on both ends of the court, as they ended up victorious, 66-43.
Another thing about the Green Knights, is they’re just coming off of an undefeated season, in which they won the CIAC Division I state championship and finished with a record of 28-0.
Prior to this season, they were rated as the No. 1 team in the state of Connecticut by Gametime CT. At the present time, the Green Knights are currently 7-1 on the season and have won games against in-state schools such as Ridgefield and Xavier and went 2-1 in the Kingdom of the Sun tournament in Ocala, Florida during the Christmas break.
To understand the story of this program, one first has to look at the leader of the squad. In this story, the leader is none other than Jason Shea, a 1997 graduate of the school who is the athletic director and the head coach at the school. He also played collegiate basketball at Connecticut College in the late ’90s and early 2000’s.
Since the 2013-14 season, he has been the man at the helm after spending the previous 10 years as the assistant under his predecessor, Gary Palladino, who was his coach when he was a student-athlete.
In his time there, he has produced plenty of talent, such as Connor Raines (UT-Rio Grande Valley), Zach Laput (Davidson) and most notably, Tremont Waters, who went on to play two seasons at LSU and was a second-round draft pick in the 2019 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. Also in his career, he has won more than 200 games and only lost 50 total games, including the lone loss this season.
As a Catholic school just outside of the city of New Haven, some of the best in the area and surrounding towns are coming through to showcase their talent.
There are a lot of players of note on this year’s roster, such as sophomore guard Kadrian Reeves, junior guards Eli Sssenyange, Quincy Dormevil and George Ganim and junior forwards Landon Krygier, Jonathan Jones, Jovan Lakaj and Abdou Toure.
Despite the youth on the Green Knights’ roster, this squad has continued to have success, thanks in part to players like Toure, a four-star recruit who’s rated as a top-50 recruit in the Class of 2026 by ESPN and currently holds as many as 16 Division I offers, from schools such as Rutgers, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisville and Oregon to name a few.
Last season, Toure won the Player of the Year awards for the state of Connecticut from Max Preps and also from GameTime CT. He also played in international competition on the U17 FIBA World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey this past summer with Guinea, as he scored 50 points in a loss. On the AAU scene, he also played on the Nike EYBL circuit with Expressions Elite’s 16U squad and also was selected to play in the Under Armour Elite 24 in Brooklyn, where he also had a spectacular performance in front of the lens of ESPN with 16 points.
In an era in which many of the best talent in the Nutmeg State end up leaving for prep schools in other areas like Massachusetts, New Hampshire and other places around the nation, he has decided to stay put. And that right there, shows that a kid playing in the CIAC can achieve national acclaim and still stay local.
It also helps a school like Notre Dame-West Haven, as plenty of young players will now flock to the suburban school in hopes of achieving success like Toure and Waters.
As far as the other players on the squad, Reeves is a shifty young guard that is able to make smooth moves and nifty plays. Ganim is a heady guard that is able to be a playmaker and is able to run a team. Lakaj and Krygier are both workhorses that are able to corral rebounds and be enforcers in the low post. Their athleticism is a plus to the Green Knights, who also have a superb running game, which has led to blowout wins in five of their seven games this season, which they won by an average of 36.6 points.
With 12 games to go in the regular season, including a matchup with Andover (Mass.) at the prestigious Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. next Thursday and a matchup against Wilbur Cross, another powerhouse from New Haven, on Jan. 20th, the Green Knights plan is simple: win their conference (Southern Connecticut Conference) title at Quinnipiac University in late February and make it back to the Mohegan Sun Arena in mid-March.
Last year, they were the hunters. Now they’re the hunted in the CIAC. Every team in their state will be gunning for them. But it’s all good. As long as they continue their teamwork and dominance, nothing can stop the success of the Green Knights.
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