By: Sean Moylan
Last season Billy Rhoades had to find a way to teach a newly-formed group of extremely talented Life Center Academy boys’ basketball players how to play together as one while facing the toughest teams in the tri-state area. Somehow, Rhoades was able to get everyone on the same page and lead LCA to a sparkling 21-7 record (excluding the last tournament).
This year, Rhoades finds himself back in the same boat.
"We have 11 new players," said Rhoades. "We’ll see how we jell. It’s a matter of getting them to play together. We’ll beat some teams by 50, but we can get beat that bad too."
This year 6-foot-8 small forward and wing, Michal Lesicky is back with the Warriors for his senior year. Lesicky will be joined by two other fellow Slovakians, senior Peter Simek and junior Peter Dorazil.
Standing 6-foot-8, Simek will be used as both a center and power forward. Dorazil is a 6-foot-7 small forward. Junior Sam Obetoh, a 6-foot-6 guard from Harlem, New York has also been added to LCA’s varsity roster. But this year, more of LCA’s players hail from South Jersey than in any recent year. In fact, freshman guard Chris Thompson comes right from Florence.
Sophomore Dylan Talley (a shooting guard-point guard from Camden), sophomore Khalil Murphy (a guard-wing from Willingboro), sophomore Dominique Youmans (a 6-foot-8 power forward-center from Willingboro), junior Jonathan Perry (a shooting guard-point guard from Westampton), junior Anthony Clayburn (a junior shooting guard-point guard from Burlington), junior R.J. Samuels (a junior shooting guard-point guard from Trenton) and Joe Sweat (a junior guard from Trenton) all are New Jersey residents. Perry and Samuels have been chosen as team captains.
Over the years Life Center Academy has competed against so many great teams and players, more than a few of their opponents have made it all the way to the NBA. St. Patrick’s and St. Anthony’s are on the schedule.
Coaching boys’ basketball has always been a team effort at LCA, with Wilson Arroyo, the Director of Basketball Operations at the school, bringing in most of the players. Rhoades also has four quality assistants in John Ramsey, Stephen Perry, Anthony Clayburn and Chip Mitchell. The team managers are Austin Spadaro and Chloe Bercaw and the team chaplain is Earl Dewson.
The season will get underway with a home game versus the Hun School on Friday. LCA is scheduled to host DeLaSalle on Tuesday.

