For The Whalens, Basketball Is In Their Blood

Joe Whalen quietly continues to be a fixture in the landscape of New Jersey boys high school basketball.

Although he may not be a household name like Bob Hurley Sr. or Kevin Boyle, Whalen’s coaching resume and ongoing contributions to the game don’t go unnoticed amongst the hierarchy of New Jersey high school basketball.

A 53-year-old resident of Oceanport, Whalen lived in West Long Branch from 1987-2009 and grew up in Manhattan. He attended Loyola High School, where he played on two city prep championship teams. He later attended Wagner College where he was eventually cut from the men’s basketball team by former NBA and longtime Seton Hall University head coach P.J. Carlesimo.

“(Latrell) Sprewell was the second guy to choke him,” Whalen joked, referring to a 1997 incident in which Sprewell, then with the Golden State Warriors, choked Carlesimo during a practice and was later given a 68-game suspension. “Basketball was a game that I spent a great deal of time playing as a youngster. It was the sport of choice where I was from.”

Whalen’s long and distinguished high school coaching career began in 1996 as an assistant coach under Boyle, the head coach at St. Patrick High School (Elizabeth) at the time. Then, from 1998-2000 Whalen coached at St. Anthony High School (Jersey City) under Hurley, a Hall of Famer.

But it wasn’t until 2001 that Whalen would get his chance to be a head coach, founding Academy Charter’s program and leading it to two state tournament berths in a three-year span.

In 2005, Whalen became the head boys basketball coach at Long Branch High School. During that season, he guided the Green Wave to the Central Jersey Group III and was named 2004-05 Shore Conference Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

During the 2007-08 season, Whalen returned to St. Anthony to serve as the athletic director and an assistant coach under Hurley. In his second tour of duty with the Friars, he handled much of the paperwork regarding the nationally televised games and the extensive college recruitment for the nation’s top-ranked prep team which went 32-0 en route to winning the national championship.

Following the success at St. Anthony, Whalen spent a year as head boys basketball coach at Franklin High School before returning to Long Branch, where he spent the past two seasons behind the bench before stepping down as head coach. He does still work at the school, however.

This summer, Whalen went full circle, returning to St. Patrick to work out and practice with the team. In addition to his new duties as associate head coach of the Celtics, Whalen, along with his oldest son Ryan, will be running his 10th annual basketball skills camp.

“Joe Whalen’s Basketball Skills Camp 2011” will be held from Aug. 15-18 at the Frank Antonides School Gymnasium (Locust Ave., West Long Branch). The boys’ portion of the camp will be from 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., while the girls’ portion will be from 1-5 p.m. Tuition is $175 per session, along with an additional $50 deposit fee with the application.

Some major stars from St. Patrick’s past will serve as guest speakers at this year’s camp including, Kyrie Irving, the former Duke point guard and No. 1 draft pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA Draft, Dexter Strickland, a junior guard at the University of North Carolina, and Derrick Caracter, a forward-center for the Los Angeles Lakers. Also working as coaches are current and former Friars and Celtics including Madut Bol, the son of former NBA center Manute Bol.

Unlike most basketball camps at the Jersey Shore where campers play in games rather than fine-tuning their skills, Whalen’s camp provides participants with the fundamentals needed to improve as an individual as well as a team player.

Skills such as passing, shooting, ball handling, rebounding and defense are the main focus of Whalen’s camp.

“I realized that I wanted to run my own camp when I felt that there was a need for better skills instruction and less playing,” Whalen said. “My son Ryan would come home from basketball camp when he was younger, and on the first day if his 5-on-5 team or his 3-on-3 team both lost the week was a disaster. I decided that I would focus primarily on skill improvement and development. I have always felt that sports are overcoached and undertaught.”

Ryan Whalen, the camp’s co-director, has been working alongside his father at the camp since its inception in 2001. He has followed in his father’s coaching footsteps and has put together an impressive coaching resume.

Last August, Ryan was hired by Seton Hall University to be the men’s basketball video coordinator, and he was promoted to the position of coordinator of basketball operations last month. His responsibilities include film scouting, exchange and breakdowns. He’s also responsible for helping with travel and meal coordination, as well as handling head coach Kevin Willard's personal schedule.

Prior to being hired by Seton Hall, Ryan spent the 2008-09 season at Towson University as an administrative assistant and video coordinator under head coach Pat Kennedy. In 2009-10, he worked as a video coordinator for Iona College, which was coached by Willard at the time. When Willard took the Seton Hall job in March of 2010, he offered Ryan a job.

“It is a great joy to work alongside my son Ryan,” Whalen said. “I have watched his development from a player into an excellent coach. Ryan is now coaching at a very high level and I couldn’t be more proud.”

According to Ryan, the camp grows and improves with each passing summer. 

“That first summer we had about 15 kids, which was co-ed,” said Ryan, who played AAU basketball for the Jersey City Boys Club under his father, winning five straight New Jersey state titles. “We ran the first couple of summers at Academy Charter down in Lake Como. Each summer, the camp grew to where we now have over 100 kids and we had to split the boys and girls into two sessions. Three summers ago, we moved the venue to FAS to accommodate the growing numbers.”

With a laundry list of accomplishments to his name, Whalen has unquestionably earned the respect of his coaching peers. But if you ask Whalen, husband and father of four, he’d probably be happier having the admiration and support of the people closest to him over any trophy or championship.  

“I've been around a lot of great coaches (Hurley, Willard, Kennedy, and St. Joseph’s University men’s head basketball coach Phil Martelli) and I can say firsthand that my father is right up there with them,” Ryan said. “He has a passion for teaching the game that you don't often see. These kids are very lucky to be getting taught the game by him.”