Three years of growing pains pay off for Chelsea boys’ basketball

“When I got the job, these seniors were freshmen and I told them, ‘I’m looking at the bigger picture,’ ” said Castro, the dean of students at Wright Science & Technology Academy. “I saw a lot of potential in those kids and I wanted to get them experience early on. We got our beatings and now we know what the bottom feels like. So now the kids are really hungry and bought in and we’re really doing something special.”

Castro’s floor general, Jonathan “JJ” Williams has been a program mainstay for four years, along with seniors Moe Osman and Roify Otanez. Castro’s lead assistant, Armani Cheek, has been his “right-hand man” throughout the process, with help from assistants Joseph Rivera, Terrance Kennedy, and a crew of volunteer coaches.

This season, junior guard Geo Brito is breaking out with a team-high 18.6 points per game, including 25 in a nonleague win over English High to open January. After topping Somerville in the season opener, the Red Devils scored a clutch 44-43 win over Everett with Otanez draining the go-ahead 3-pointer. Brouk Ephrem, a 6-foot-4-inch senior forward who led Chelsea boys’ soccer to a GBL title this past fall, has provided a stabilizing presence in close games.

And while the wins are nice, the program is making roads off the court, with Williams and teammate Alex Cruz joining the newly formed Chelsea unified basketball team this fall. Junior Omar Iman, who has been practicing with the varsity squad since eighth grade, said basketball has helped him become a better student and person.

“My whole freshman year I was getting in trouble, being dumb, talking back to teachers, and as time went on I just realized with in basketball, in real life, or school, you got to pick your battles,” said Iman, who Castro said brings a high-energy approach to practice and games.

“So the game really did teach me a lot. Everything you do, there’s consequences. Like in basketball, you foul someone, they go to the line. You’ve got to find a middle ground where you can bring that intensity, but it has to be reasonable.”

For the past decade, Castro and his best friend, Chelsea native Kyle Umemba, have run the Let it Fly Classic basketball tournament during the second weekend of August to raise scholarship funds for Chelsea seniors, and the invitational has drawn the best ballers in Massachusetts, from the late Terrence Clarke, to Bensley Joseph, to AJ Dybansta. The co-founders have expanded their tournament with versions of Let it Fly in London, Puerto Rico, and Cape Town in recent years.

Recognizing that it isn’t easy to grow up in one of the most densely populated cities in the country, Castro and his staff try to be there for their student-athletes. When senior Felipe Franco Garcia had to quit the team to get an after-school job last year, the coaches held his spot on the roster, and convinced him to return for one last appearance on senior night.

“And that’s why I coach, for those little things,” said Castro. “It’s always bigger than basketball for me. I want to see these guys win at life.”

Chelsea’s last winning season came with a 17-4 record in 2019-20 and then the pandemic hit, impacting the city harder than many parts of Massachusetts, leading to a completely lost basketball season the following winter.

The Red Devils have been building from the ground up since, and they are motivated to continue showcasing that improvement.

“We definitely are an underdog compared to the other cities in the GBL,” said Williams. “Being from Chelsea, that’s something to be proud of and we’re playing for the community. All those losses taught us that you just have to love the sport. You have to love losing, love winning, because at the end of the day it makes you who you are outside of sports.”

Courtside chatter

▪ Abington senior Kingston Maxwell became the program’s career scoring leader on Dec. 30, scoring 35 points in a win over New Heights to surpass Bryson Andrews’s mark of 1,359, set in 2019. Maxwell entered Wednesday with 1,396 points and has led the Green Wave to two South Shore Tobin Division championships.

“Kingston has put in countless hours to hone his craft. Each year, he has grown not only as a basketball player, but as a leader and a human being,” said Abington head coach and athletic director Peter Serino in a statement.

▪ Also on Dec. 30, Holbrook senior Allen Brown Jr. became his program’s scoring leader, posting 40 points in a road win at Diman to pass Jeremiah King’s 1,646 points, a mark that stood since 2019. Brown added another 31 points Monday against Boston Collegiate, giving him 1,699 and counting.

▪ John Willis, the 32-year head coach at Norwell, became Massachusetts high school basketball’s 30th coach to reach 500 career victories on Tuesday, as the Clippers defeated East Bridgewater, where he graduated from in 1984, 72-40.

▪ Senior Brody Bumila continued his hot start to the season, posting 27 points and 18 rebounds to lead Bishop Feehan past Wareham on Tuesday . . . Junior Grant Neal scored 32 points with 18 rebounds on Tuesday, his fourth consecutive game with at least 25 points, leading Lynnfield to an impressive win over the defending Division 4 champions, Georgetown . . . Beverly senior guard Jacob Klaas scored a team-high 19 points in an 80-36 win over Danvers on Monday. A Globe All-Scholastic last season, he sits 12 points shy of 1,000 for his career, with a Friday home game against Salem awaiting.

Games to watch

Friday, No. 13 Brockton at Abington, 6:30 p.m. — Kingston Maxwell and Tyler Staiti form a fearsome duo for a Green Wave team that has been hot since dropping its first two games of the season.

Sunday, Methuen at No. 11 Winchester, 11 a.m. — The earliest of a large slate of nonleague matchups Sunday pits the leaders of the Middlesex Liberty against a visiting contender from the Merrimack Valley.

Sunday, No. 1 Central Catholic at No. 14 BC High, 11:30 a.m. — The top-ranked team in the Globe’s poll heads down to Boston to face Bill Loughnane’s gritty Eagles.

Monday, No. 9 Masconomet at No. 4 St. Mary’s, Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. — Undefeated squads with designs on state title runs this winter clash in a great matchup at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium in Lynn.

Tuesday, Marblehead at Swampscott, 7 p.m. — Archrivals meet with Swampscott sporting an undefeated mark and Marblehead’s only losses coming to Top 10 teams Beverly and Masconomet.

Correspondent Henry Dinh-Price contributed to this story.

Nate Weitzer can be reached at nweitzer7@gmail.com. Follow him on X @nweitzer7.