Boys Basketball All-Delco: Albeit at Carroll, Daly follows in father’s footsteps

RADNOR >> Ryan Daly was in second grade, bouncing along as basketball practice whizzed by, when he spied a familiar word on the wall at Monsignor Bonner’s gym.

Scrawled there was the name “Daly,” as in the 1988 Daily Times Co-Player of the Year, Catholic League Player of the Year, Markward Club Award winner Brian. Or, as Ryan knew him, dad.

“When he was at Bonner, I would always see his name on the wall,” Ryan said this week. “And that was always a big memory of mine because he would say, ‘if you’re lucky, you’ll end up even being close to that.’”

Brian never framed his playing accolades, which led him to Saint Joseph’s University, for his kids to emulate. But Ryan has nonetheless followed in his father’s footsteps, literally and figuratively, since Brian was the head coach at his alma mater.

Ryan, a senior guard/forward at Archbishop Carroll, and his younger brother, Colin, accompanied their father on trips across the country, following along in the breeze that carries college basketball coaches from campus to campus, from home in Havertown to Boston to State College and back.

On the court, Ryan has also indirectly pursued his father’s path to Catholic League stardom. In three seasons at Carroll, he’s grown to a Division I talent, averaging 21.7 points per game this season as the Patriots finished second in the Catholic League regular season and qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Tournament. Ryan committed to Hartford University, though he’s recently reopened his recruitment.

For his efforts, Daly is the 2016 Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year. The Dalys are believed to be the first father-son tandem to be named Daily Times Player of the Year in any sport (Brian shared the honor in 1988 with Chichester’s Clarence Armstrong).

Joining Daly on the All-Delco squad are teammate Josh Sharkey, Chester point guard Khaleeq Campbell, Academy Park guard Jawan Collins, Ridley guard Brett Foster and Episcopal Academy forward Nick Alikakos.

It’s the second straight All-Delco nod for Foster and Alikakos, the latter of whom is the only junior of the group. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with area coaches.

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When posed the question, Ryan Daly takes a moment to consider it. Brian doesn’t need that beat, since its answer was his design. Brian never directly coached either of his kids in organized basketball, an arrangement he sought. He helped direct Ryan’s hoops journey behind the scenes, from AAU to the Chester Biddy League, and offered expertise in his parental critique than most. But Brian primarily reserved his coaching efforts for other’s kids, a tacit respect for the gravitas of his profession.

Brian’s coaching travels are extensive, parlaying success as the head man at Bonner to joining Pat Chambers’ staff at Boston University, then moving with Chambers to Penn State.

With his kids, though, the line between player-coach and father-son is clearly demarcated. And if anyone broaches that divide, it’s more likely to be Ryan.

“I like talking about sports more than he does, so I probably bring up our games more than he does,” Ryan said. “He’s just the biggest role model I’ll have in my life. He’s helped me with sports, life in general, so I think he toes that line perfectly of being player-coach and also the father-son relationship.”

“I’ve often said that Ryan is as close to me in personality and competitiveness as he can get, and we just thought at an early age it wouldn’t be a good idea (to coach him),” Brian said. “I would help on the outside, doing drills and after games, but not coach directly, and I think that worked out the best for them.”

More vital was basketball’s role as a pillar through the family’s moves. Basketball was always there — Brian fondly recounts a toddler Ryan jokingly asked, “What does Ryan shoot?,” then putting his arms up to signal a 3-pointer — even if work precluded Brian’s physical presence.

In Brian’s first season at BU, then in his last two at Penn State prior to stepping down last May, he’s lived separately from Ryan, Colin, younger sister Keri and mom Tracie, limiting their in-season visits to once every couple of weeks. The bridge in many a conversation has been the kids’ exploits on the court.

Ryan, who starred in elementary school at St. Denis, spent seventh grade in Boston, eighth and ninth in State College, where he was confined to the freshman team despite certainly possessing varsity talent.

The effect on Ryan’s skills is twofold. He reads the game like a coach, Brian says, including a devotion to nightly film sessions on opponents and himself to burnish weaknesses that his father admits is well beyond his levels of high-school commitment.

Then there’s the unintended consequence: All the moving, to new leagues and talent pools, has fostered Ryan’s resiliency, a byproduct of constantly proving himself anew, aided by Brian’s insistent reminders to ward off complacency.

So when the conversation arose after Ryan’s freshman year, with Colin entering high school, about where they wanted to play basketball, the kids’ obvious answer was to return to their roots, to the Catholic League Ryan grew up idolizing, to the extended family they so missed.

The culmination of that career was successful by most metrics. Daly was second in Delco in scoring to go with 7.0 rebounds per game. He scored in double-figures in every game, 17 times notching 20 or more and three times creeping into the 30s. He registered 30 in Carroll’s PCL playoff win over Archbishop Wood in double-overtime and 24 in the disappointing PIAA ouster by Bishop McDevitt.

Daly capped his career with 992 points, in just three seasons.

Those aren’t the metrics by which Daly measures his final high school campaign, though.

“This was the best year,” he said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted. We didn’t win a championship, unfortunately. But in terms of my dad being home, Colin and I being on the same team, starting together — because it’s probably our last season playing together — and then just Josh and John (Rigsby) being with me for our senior year, it’s been awesome. And I’m so happy that they were here and that we could experience this one last year playing together.”