Basketball
Favorite team: Philadelphia 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Cutting the net last year after winning the league
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting dunked on freshman year of AAU
Music on your playlist: Kendrick Lamar
Future plans: Play basketball in college, major in Kinesiology and Sports Performance
Words to live by: “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
One goal before turning 30: Make it to the NCAA tournament
One thing people don’t know about me: I was a lifeguard at the NAC
By Craig Ostroff
For Connor Taddei, being a part of Pennsbury basketball goes far beyond individual accomplishments and means more than wins and losses could measure. It’s all about playing his part in the storied tradition of Falcons’ basketball – respecting the past, giving your best effort in the present, and helping prepare for the future.
“We’ve always had this saying, ‘Play for those who played before you,’” Taddei said. “It’s all about showing gratitude to the ones who played before you and who helped make this place better. I always remember talking to (former head coach Bill) Coleman after games, talking to the alumni about their experiences. They were all great mentors for all us, and the fact that they were always around shows how deep the culture is at Pennsbury and shows how different our alumni base and culture has been.”
With the Falcons’ season recently ending in the first round of the District One playoffs, Taddei will now take his place alongside those who came before him. Coach Wes Emme believes Taddei will be remembered as the ideal Pennsbury student-athlete.
“Connor is a program kid, he’s a kid that came up through the middle schools, played in the local youth organizations and did it all the right way,” Emme said. “Everything about Connor represents Pennsbury in a positive way.”
THE PAST
Coming up through the school system and regularly attending Pennsbury’s youth camps and clinics, Taddei always admired the high school basketball players. During middle school, Taddei would watch his older brother Kennan play for the Falcons.
He wouldn’t just dream of one day following in his brother’s footsteps … he was watching the game, watching the players, and learning what he needed to do to be successful when his time came.
“He’s always had a big effect on me,” Taddei said of his older brother. “He’s always been with me playing 1-on-1 in the driveway, making me better, and watching him play in high school made me develop how my game was going to go. I’d watch him play and I’d say, ‘This is the level I need to be at if I want to compete, this is my style, how I can find my shot?’ The game’s a lot different from middle school to high school, so I needed to learn what I needed to do to play at that level. I even asked him questions about it so when I came in freshman year, I was ready.”
Taddei missed out on playing with his brother by one year. Kennan graduated in 2021, while Connor was elevated to varsity the next season as a sophomore.
A very nervous sophomore.
“I’ve watched a couple games from my sophomore and junior years,” Taddei said. “Sophomore year I was really timid. I think I was really nervous about always making the right play. My game was pretty much catch and shoot. I’d try to be a soft facilitator, but I was little timid to dribble. Junior year I started to be more aggressive.”
Taddei’s junior year saw a lot of changes, most notably with Emme stepping in to take over for longtime coach Coleman. Taddei was one of the first players to reach out to the new bench boss. And getting Taddei on board was key to the success that the Falcons enjoyed.
“I had learned a little about him, I had done my research on him,” said Emme, who is also a part of the tradition of Pennsbury basketball families. “His whole family – his mom is the president of our booster club, so I’ve worked closely with her and the family the last couple years. They’re good people who were all about Pennsbury basketball, totally invested in everything we were doing from start to finish.
“We knew the kind of kids that were at Pennsbury, and we knew if we could get them to buy in, the buy-in you get from a Pennsbury kid is unique because of the history and all the great players that came before. If you can show them a path and let them know, ‘You give me everything you’ve got, I’ll give it back to you in helping you reach your goals and helping you cut down a net.’ Having a guy like Connor buy in early helps the other guys buy in.”
As a junior, Taddei was the second-leading scorer and Second-Team All-League selection on a squad that won the Patriot Division title with a 12-4 league record (16-8 overall) and advanced to the district playoffs.
With his final season – with a senior-heavy team – coming up, Taddei challenged himself by playing high-level AAU ball in the summer to compete with the best around in order to prepare himself.
“Connor put himself out there to play at a high-level AAU organization and benefitted the most of any kid I’ve ever seen,” Emme said. “He’s a kid who’s not afraid to try something new, to put himself out there and take a risk.”
For Taddei, though, it wasn’t a risk. It was simply what he felt he needed to do in order to be the player he needed to be when Pennsbury basketball took to the court for his senior season.
“I’ve always tried to play against people that are better than me so I can get better,” he said. “Playing AAU, I was the sixth or seventh man, but we’re starting Division I players every game. It made me so much better. I got to experience the athleticism, I got to see the players who are being recruited, and I watched them and watched guys on my team. My team has two guys going Division I, so I would try to guard one every day at practice, because this is what I need to do to get better.”
THE PRESENT
His senior season may not have ended at the destination the team had originally planned, but Taddei and his classmates certainly enjoyed the journey.
The Falcons finished 11-12 overall (8-8 in the SOL Patriot Division), but they refocused down the stretch and won four of their last five regular season games to secure a berth in districts. Along the way, there were numerous memories made.
“Our record didn’t show how we wanted to end, but it was really a fun season with a great group of guys,” Taddei said. “We got a lot of big wins this year – we beat Neshaminy twice, beat a top 8 seed in Bensalem by 10. We had a lot of good wins, we started the year at the Hatboro-Horsham Tipoff and beat a really good Northeast team and a tough Paul Robeson team. We had our fair share of good games and wire-to-wire games.”
Still, the Falcons found themselves on the District bubble heading into the home stretch. That’s where Taddei and his senior-laden squad stepped it up.
“For the seniors, we got to a point where we decided we don’t want our last year to end like this,” he said. “We started playing with more of a chip on our shoulder, and I think I developed into a little bit more of a facilitator, getting rebounds and assists. If my shot was there, I was going to take it. But I was doing whatever would help the team win, and if that meant diving for a loose ball, taking a charge, doing the little things that impact the game, I’m doing whatever I need to do to help us win.”
Indeed, though Taddei led the Falcons in scoring this season, he willingly sacrificed his points down the stretch to help the team in ways that don’t always show up in the scorebook. And it elevated his game.
“He was playing the best basketball of his career the last couple weeks of the season, doing the little things,” Emme said. “Connor was shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line for first 11 games, and even though he was not scoring as much at the end of the year, he was doing the stuff that leads to winning and doing the things that get us into playoffs.
“We asked Connor to change his game a little down the stretch because that’s what we needed from him. And if you ask Connor to do something, he’s going to do it. He’s very coachable, and he understands that everything he wanted was on the other side of winning, and winning was going to help him get to where he wanted to go and also help us get to where we wanted to go.”
With his season and high school career having so recently come to a close, Taddei said he hasn’t really had a chance to reflect on it yet.
“I’m still trying to take it all in, but it hasn’t really settled that my high school basketball career is over,” he said. “It’s going to hit me in the next couple months, and I’m going to miss it a lot, but I would consider it a success. I got called up as a sophomore, I’ve been through two head coaches, won the league title my junior year, and I’ve done everything in my power to help the team succeed. Coach Emme always says, ‘You leave the program in a better place than you found it.’ I feel like this senior class did that.”
Though basketball may be over, Taddei still has plenty of other things happening around school. He’s a member of the Pennsbury Ultimate Frisbee team, which is nationally ranked.
“Last year a bunch of my friends told me I should play – it’s fun, it’ll help me out,” Taddei said. “I figured, ‘Why not?’ I made the team, and it was a lot of fun. It kept me in good shape for basketball in the offseason.
“But being I was new to the sport, it’s a lot more intense than I thought and these guys are no joke. There’s a guy on our team who’s on the US National Ultimate Frisbee team. It took me by surprise. I thought it was just going to be going out and having fun throwing a Frisbee around, but it’s a lot more competitive. So I really had to step it up.”
Taddei and his friend Jake Miller are serving as Overall Captains of the Black Team for Pennsbury’s annual Sports Nite, a massive schoolwide field day competition held in April at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, NJ. After participating last year, Taddei decided he wanted to do more as a senior and ran for—and was elected—an Overall Captain.
“I want to be part of the experience of trying to make things go great,” he said. “I remember last year running out there doing the events in front of everyone in the stands, it was awesome. I had a lot of stuff on my plate this year, but this seems like such a memorable thing, especially with one of my best buddies running it with me. I’m looking forward to it.”
In the classroom, Taddei got through a tough fall semester, and while he’s not exactly taking it easy in the spring, he said his course load is now a bit more manageable. Of course, he’s still got Sports Nite and Ultimate Frisbee on his plate, but those activities have only enhanced his time in high school, and embedded him more in the community.
“Connor demonstrates what it can be for you to be part of something bigger than yourself,” Emme said. “He has this sea of people supporting him because he’s immersed himself in the high school community. Seeing the people who came out to support him and cheer him on Senior Night, it’s because he puts himself out there and he widens his circle of people who he comes into contact with. He got to live out the Pennsbury dream.”
THE FUTURE
One problem with having a senior-laden squad is that the younger players also need to be made to feel like they are valuable members of the team, and they need to be readied to step into the spots once occupied by the current crop of upperclassmen.
As a captain on this year’s team, it was important to Taddei that he was not only doing everything he could to help Pennsbury win now, but also to make sure the future is in good hands.
“Most of next year’s starting lineup played JV this year,” Taddei said. “I’ve tried to help those guys as much as I can. We had a freshman this year, Owen Hawkes, who was called up to swing varsity midway, I tried to help him out and help him lead the way, because next year he’s going to be a big part of this team.
“I try to lead by example with my voice on and off the court, but sometimes you lead just by doing the right thing. After every practice, I make sure the water bottles are cleaned up. I come to practice early, I leave later. I’m trying to do the little things to make this team better. The younger guys are going to see that. If they see the seniors and the captains cutting corners, they’re going to cut corners. So I have to make sure I’m doing things the right way so that they will do things the right way when they’re in this position.”
Taddei’s desire to help those who will follow doesn’t end in high school. He’s been a coach and counselor at the same team clinics he used to participate in as a youngster.
He admits it was an interesting revelation being on the other side of the coach-student relationship.
“When I was a fourth grader at those clinics, I thought these high school players were legends,” he said. “It hit me out there one time, ‘What if these kids are thinking that about me?’ So you try to be a good role model to them as well, and you encourage them and hope the things you show them stay with them.”
Taddei committed this week to attend St. John Fisher University in Rochester, NY, and will suit up for the Division III Cardinals on the hardwood as he pursues a degree in Kinesiology and Sports Performance. A history buff, Taddei said he’s also likely to minor in history.
And as he takes his place in the history of Pennsbury boys’ basketball, Taddei said he plans on remaining involved with the program, attending games when he can, keeping in touch with former teammates, and checking in whenever he is able.
In the meantime, Emme will make sure that Taddei’s contributions—and those of his teammates—will be passed on.
“Connor is a guy who was completely immersed in everything we do,” Emme said. “He’s selfless, and those are the guys that are hardest to replace. There’s always another good player, there’s not always another good player with buy-in the way Connor had. He’s a kid that consistently shows up and goes to work every day we’re going to miss that the most.
“I will always reference him and his teams, being that they were my first teams at Pennsbury, to tell the story of what a true Pennsbury team could be and what it means to wear that uniform.”
