Bilal Kelly, a former Strawberry Mansion star and now at Redlands Community College has checked in with the staff at Runhouse and Rasool Hajj. Kelly reports that the college workouts are ”very intense with a lot of running”. While classes may start at 9am that is by no means the beginning of the day for the lean athletic forward. Kelly also says that the “team gets up at 5:30am to run then workout with positional drills”

Kelly was an attendee of our 1st summer workout and earned his scholarship off the video of that workout that Rasool sent to the coach at Redlands. 

Bilal, make sure with the day beginning at 5:30am that your going to bed early and that hard work will pay off. Perhaps you can join your brother at the next stop on your journey. Check back with us soon and let us know how the team is doing.

Daniel Armah, aka “The Accra Assassin”, got a chance to show Lakeland’s coach Cedric Brown his skills recently at Rick Ball’s Juco Showcase in Chicago.

Armah not only was the leading rebounder but also finished as the 3rd leading scorer. Coach Brown was very pleased with his newest recruit and has alot of confidence in his ability.

Speaking with Coach Brown last week also revealed that Armah has had a growth spurt and is now a legitimate 6′ 7″. When asked about the growth Armah simply replied “I hope I grow to 6′ 8″. We hope you grow as well Dan and feel confident you will have a breakout season with Lakeland.

Philadelphia native Kelli Sawyer has been named the Graduate Assistant (GA) at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee. Ms. Sawyer is a former Friends Select (2000 points) and Rider University player. She joins a growing list of Philadelphia area youngsters (Will Logan, Rachel Johnson….) to join the ranks of college coaches.

Kelli will bring great enthusiasm and dedication to her position and we know that she will be a great addition to the staff.

Our first recruit from Ghana, Daniel Armah, has decided to transfer from Casper Junior College. After a long discussion with the Runhouse staff we believe he made the right decision in transferring to Lakeland Junior College in Illinois.

The 6′ 6″ Armah played very well down the stretch with Casper and recorded a record 20 rebound, 16 point game. At Casper he played strictly the 4 position. During our talks with Coach Cedric Brown at Lakeland we learned that Armah would also play the small forward position.

Says Coach Brown “Daniel is a high energy player who brings great defensive intensity”.

Coach Carroll has been named Head Coach of Basket Esch in Luxembourg. Basket Esch is a Pro team that plays at the B level.

I first met Coach Carroll about a year ago in a overcrowed gym to watch a Juco game. Since then we have talked weekly about recruits and have taken prospects to his workouts when he was on staff at Seton Hill University. 

He is a former all conference player at Loyola College (MD). While at Loyola he led the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in rebounding in the 2000-2001 season (10.6) and in blocks in the 1999-2000 season (3.3). In the 2000-2001 season Brian was seventh in Division I in rebounding while also averaging a double double for the season.

We wish Brian the best in his new endeavor and will keep in touch with him about prospects for his new team.