Basketball
Favorite team: Sixers/Duke
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing with friends and winning
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: The PW student section trolling then losing by 20 (a 65-45 UD win on Jan. 7)
Music on playlist: Rod Wave and Drake
Future plans: Attend college and play basketball at hopefully the highest level possible
Words to live by: “You can’t pray for this, then play with this.”
One goal before turning 30: Buy a house
One thing people don’t know about me: I am a great babysitter
By Craig Ostroff
When Derek Brooks took over as head coach of the Upper Dublin boys basketball program three years ago, one of the first players he got to know was then-sophomore Idris Rines.
Most of all, he got to know Rines’ texting habits.
“When I first got the job, Idris was a sophomore, and he’s absolutely a hoops junkie,” Brooks said with a laugh. “I remember getting texts from him at 11:35 at night on a Friday about something he saw in a Kings-Wizards game.
“He’s watching a game with two totally random teams, noticing high-level stuff and sets and plays, and he’s texting me about it and, ‘Can we do something like this?’”
Rines makes no apologies for his late-night texts. Or for his love of the game. Or for his desire to see something and try to emulate it to try to improve his game and aid the success of the team.
“I love basketball. I’ll watch it any day, any time,” Rines said. “I have NBA League Pass, so yeah, I’ll be watching a Kings-Nuggets game or something, just watching and looking at different guys and seeing what they do, and if I see something I think we might be able to use, I’ll make suggestions for Coach Brooks.
“Lately, I’m mostly watching our films and the teams we’re going against, but I’ll watch a 76ers game and watch how Embiid will break out of the pass, watch (Sacramento Kings’ Domantas) Sabonis, how he holds the ball high and looks for his teammates. I’ll watch college for set plays and see a play work or a defense and suggest it to Coach Brooks.”
That basketball IQ, combined with his skills and work ethic, have made Rines a standout performer on a squad that has an opportunity to cement its legacy as the greatest team in Upper Dublin boys’ basketball history.
Last season’s Cardinal squad – on which Rines was a captain as a junior – finished 24-5 overall (15-1 in league play), earning the Liberty Division Championship and SOL Championship, finishing as runner-up in District One 5A, and qualifying for the PIAA State Championship tournament.
The 2024-25 iteration of the Flying Cardinals currently sit at 21-1 overall, having put together a remarkable (and school record) 21-game winning streak after dropping the season-opener. They clinched the Liberty Division title with a perfect 10-0 league slate and will embark upon defending their SOL Tournament Championship.
Rines has played no small part in the team’s success, both on the scoreboard and in the locker room.
“Dris is a vocal leader,” Brooks said. “If I had to describe our team and our leadership, Ryan (Mulroy) is the heart, Dris is the voice. He’s the talker, the one that is a great communicator, he’s respected and well-liked by all his teammates. He’s so good at understanding the moment and bringing the group together. He’s not afraid to hold guys accountable, and he’s able to do it in a respectful, positive way.
“He’s able to see what needs to be done on the floor as well. We all trust him. He’s been locked in all year. He’s one of the guys who, if practice isn’t going as well as it needs to, he speaks up, rallies everyone. One of
the reasons we haven’t dropped a game since our first game is because of how focused we are in practices day in and day out, and he’s a big key to that.”
While Rines was already well-known for his abilities on the court, he left a calling card of what was to come both for himself and the team when he recorded the first triple-double in Upper Dublin boys’ basketball history with a 10-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist performance against Downingtown West on Dec. 6, the team’s third game of the season.
“I’m very honored to get a triple-double, it’s never been done at Upper Dublin,” Rines said. “But it’s not a solo honor. My teammates had to get me the ball so I could score, and they had to get open and score so I could get those assists. My teammates got me involved that game, and they had to do their jobs as well for me to get that.”
Winning is always fun, and this has been a fun season. But it’s also taken a lot of hard work for the Cards to get to where they are. For Rines and his fellow seniors, they are simply doing whatever they can to make their final season the best it can be.
“I know it’s my last lap, my senior year,” Rines said. “I hate losing, I want to win it all, especially with this group. I’m playing with a bunch of my friends, a lot of us played travel with or against each other. It’s my last time with them, so we want to go out and win. Opportunities like this don’t come easy. You’re not a state championship team every year, but we feel like we have the players and the coaches and the experience to be one this year if we work hard and stay focused, so we’re trying to do that.”
Upper Dublin’s second-leading scorer, Rines would likely be the first option on a majority of teams in the area. Yet he embraces his role for the Cards, which includes games where his ballhandling or defense is needed rather than his scoring touch.
“Idris has always been accepting of his role,” Brooks said. “He’s a tremendous shooter, but he’s also got a great passing game. We use him as a Swiss Army Knife, inside-outside, as a passer. He gives us a lot of different ways we can use him.”
“I always take pride in that,” Rines said. “I’ve never been the type of person that feels like I should be the #1 option to score. I don’t need to score to get myself involved in a game. And any of our guys can step up and score if we need them to. So if they don’t need my scoring and they need me to play defense, I always try to take my matchups personally, and I do what I have to do for the team to win. And if they need me to let it fly and hit shots, I’m going to do that.”
Rines has been working his entire athletic career for this year. Though he played soccer and baseball in youth leagues, basketball was always his first love. When the other two sports started to fade out of the picture in middle school, basketball only grew in importance.
Rines played on the UD freshman team, then split time between junior varsity and varsity as a sophomore. He was a starter and was named a captain as a junior on last year’s stellar team, and as a senior, the second-year captain serves as a leader both on and off the court.
“Idris has grown into that, the way most young players learn as they get older,” Brooks said. “As a sophomore and junior, I don’t think he was as mentally locked in as he is now, and that comes with maturity. But even
as a sophomore, you could see it coming. There were a lot of seniors on that team, but you could see his leadership qualities.
“He’s a great teammate, too. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever coached. He always cheers for the JV, he’s vocal for their guys, helps warm them up over the last couple years, loves seeing his other teammates succeed. He is elite in that way, he is a team guy.”
Just as Rines is always there to support his teammates, he knows he would not be in his current position if not for his own support system. His transition to high school life included some struggles early on, and he was able to get back on track thanks to the support he received from his coaches, teammates, and most importantly, his family.
“You can get caught up with people you hung out with whose maturity is not the same as yours,” Rines said. “My freshman year, I wouldn’t be a leader at times, I’d be a follower and I’d get off-course with schoolwork, and not pay attention.
“What turned things around was having people in my corner. When Coach Brooks came, I had someone to talk to, somebody who understands me, and I had the support of my family – my grandmom and my mom telling me, ‘You have to lock in, you have places to get to and places to be.’ I go to them a lot, and I had a lot of people to talk to and people behind me. Feeling how much people believe in me is what got me to start taking things more seriously.”
Now, Rines is in a position to return the favor and support others the way others supported him. As a senior captain, he is a leader and a role model for the younger players on the team.
But most importantly, as the eldest of four siblings, Rines gets to serve as a role model for them as well.
The older of his sisters, Ameerah Jones-Rines, is a freshman at Wissahickon High School and is ranked nationally in her age group in the long jump, hurdles, and 100 meters. Youngest sister Ameenah Rines is in fifth grade.
And then there’s his biggest fan. Rines’ younger brother Isiah Jones is 5, and he and his mom attend every Upper Dublin game.
“He’s a Mini-Me,” Rines said. “He brings his iPad to games, and we’re there hanging around after games and at halftime shooting.
“He knows every single player on the team, knows all their handshakes, knows how they shoot. He’ll tell me after a game, ‘Dris, you shot like Ryan this game.’ ‘This is how Kobe (Bazemore) shoots.’”
•••
In a few short months, Rines will be walking in the Upper Dublin graduation procession. He’s still considering his college options and looking for a school that can provide him with everything he wants from the place where he’ll spend the next four years.
“I’m trying to figure out where I’m most comfortable,” he said. “Relationships are the most important thing for me. My relationship with the coach, the team, seeing where my playing style fits. And seeing if it’s a place
I can call home.”
Rines’ experience in Upper Dublin’s Unified Gym and Unified Art clubs has him looking toward a career in special education.
“Last year, I had Child Development, working with younger kids, it made me realize how much I enjoy being around the kids,” he said. “After games, kids are coming up to us asking for autographs, and just to see how much people look up to us and things like that. I want to be involved in that, help lift up those kids.”
For now, however, Rines and his teammates are focused no farther than the next game. After all, for all the success they’ve had this season, they’re not satisfied, and they’re not finished.
“We want to go four-for-four,” he said. “We got one … we won the league. Now we’re looking at the SOL Championship and we go on from there.”
Wherever the postseason may take the Flying Cardinals, wherever this group ends up in the pantheon of elite Upper Dublin teams, there is no debate about where Rines stands as a leader and what he’s meant to the Cards during his time in red-and-grey.
“It’s been so nice to see a young man who has grown and become such a bright spot in the school,” Brooks said. “I’m so proud of how he’s developed as a young man. And I know that’s going to continue and carry him to greater heights moving forward.
“It’s been cool to see how he’s evolved over time into a guy who’s going to be a multi-time all-league player. He’s going to have around 600-700 career points, he’s an all-time leading rebound guy. He’s probably one of the top 25 players in school history, and he’s been a key player on two of the best teams in school history these past two years. This year, he’s the second-best player on a team that has a chance to be the best in school history. He sometimes gets overshadowed or overlooked, but it’s amazing what he’s done. Dris deserves his due for what he’s done for this team.”
