School: Abington
Basketball
Favorite athlete: Steve Nash
Favorite team: Phoenix Suns
Favorite memory: “Senior Night win over Bensalem and securing our place in the district playoffs.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: “When we were playing against Truman my sophomore year, I got really excited after I made the basket, I turned around slipped and fell on the court. As I was lying on the floor, I could hear my teammates laughing and my coach screaming at me to get back up.”
Music on iPod: Anything but country
Future plans: Attending West Chester University and majoring in sociology to pursue a career in marketing research management
Words to live by: “Go hard or go home.”
One goal before turning 30: “Buy my Mustang”
One thing people don’t know about me: “In one day, my team and I had won four championships.”
Keanen Ellison has a passion for basketball.
There’s nothing especially unusual about that. Until, that is, the Abington senior tells his story. That’s when it becomes very clear that this young man is something special.
“He’s going to be a success in life,” Abington coach Anthony Hall said.
Those are not just idle words from a coach who watched Ellison persevere under circumstances that would have sent players with less character packing a long time ago. The senior swing player started just one game in his final high school season, and that came in the Ghosts’ Senior Night game against Bensalem.
Ellison made it count, scoring seven points and pulling down six key rebounds to help propel the Ghosts to a big win over the Owls.
“It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had,” Ellison said. “I couldn’t stop smiling for two days.”
Ellison’s clutch performance also left an impression on his coach.
“He was the MVP that night, no question about it,” Hall said. “We talked about it afterwards – this was a great win for a kid who hung in there and hung in there and hung in there and still did not receive what he thought he should have gotten, but that just shows the character of the kid that he hung in there.”
Ellison, who grew up playing soccer and baseball, actually got a late start in basketball and didn’t play for his first organized team until he was in eighth grade.
“It was a friend pressure kind of thing,” he said. “I was trying out to see if I could make it, and it turned out I could.
“I found out I really liked the sport, and I wanted to improve.”
It wasn’t long before soccer and baseball fell by the wayside, and basketball became a year-round priority.
“It was just the excitement and running – I love to run,” he said. “That’s why I played soccer.”
Since he was one of the taller players on his teams in those early years, Ellison usually found himself lined up at center, but a funny thing happened.
“I stopped growing when everyone else kept growing,” the 6-2 senior said.
Suddenly, Ellison was asked to take his game away from the basket. Instead of playing center or power forward, he was asked to play either shooting guard or small forward.
“It was a drastic change because as a small forward/shooting guard, you have to develop the ability to shoot the ball, which really wasn’t my strong point,” he said.
Hall acknowledged that Ellison found himself in a tough spot.
“He was a kid that didn’t grow into the 6-4 kid that he was on his way to being,” the Ghosts’ coach said. “He stopped growing.
“We asked him to really work on his shooting, and he worked very hard on his shooting.”
But shooting from the perimeter didn’t come naturally to Ellison.
“The hardest part is actually correcting your form after you’ve done something for so long,” he said.
As a junior, Ellison started the season on varsity.
“We thought he was going to contribute because he always ran the floor well,” Hall said. “When you have kids that run the floor well – that’s something that never changes.”
Ellison saw limited playing time, and by the midway point, the decision was made to give him some playing time at the jayvee level as well.
“It was a difficult transition because when I was on the jayvee, they used me as a big man, but when I was on varsity, I was a small forward or shooting guard, so it was a really tough transition,” he said. “But the team needed me.
“The jayvee’s big man was out with an injury, so they needed someone to play with them. The coach asked me to do the job, and I took it willingly and faced any problems along the way.”
That’s not to say it was easy. It wasn’t.
And things got even tougher his senior year when – after starting for the Ghosts during summer league – Ellison was relegated to coming off the bench when the season began. Self doubts began to creep in for the senior reserve.
“When he didn’t start me and didn’t play me much at the beginning of the season, it was kind of like, ‘Oh well, maybe I’m not that good,’” Ellison said. “It was extremely tough mentally. There were points where I’d want to yell, scream all types of things at my coach, but that would only hurt the team, so in practice, I would just try hard and never quit.
“My attitude slowly started to change during the season, knowing that I am better than what I’ve shown and I can improve my talents.”
Hall acknowledged that Ellison handled his circumstances with dignity.
“We put him in some uncomfortable positions from his viewpoint of things, but he always handled things extremely well,” he said. “He fussed a little bit sometimes, which is what you want a kid to do, but he never hurt our program.
“It actually showed a lot of strength from a kid who didn’t play a whole lot but was extremely supportive off season and in season. His parents didn’t shy away even though I know they felt he should play more. His entire family handled the situation well.”
For the past year and a half, Ellison has worked with his own personal shooting coach, former North Penn standout Jay Jameson.
“That was a perfect 10,” Ellison said when asked about the importance of working with Jameson. “Without his help, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the playing time I did this year.
“My coach was slowly allowing me more and more to take the outside jump shot, to stop and pop, because as my confidence level increased in my jump shot, so did his confidence level in me shooting that jump shot.”
Ellison has certainly put in his time working on developing his shot.
“I still have a little trouble shooting, but as long as I take 500 to a thousand shots a day, it will come around,” he said.
For the past year and a half, Ellison has been taking at least 500 shots a day.
“It’s extremely tiring, but I know I’m benefitting, so I keep going,” he said.
After his final high school season ended, Ellison joined LA Fitness and has continued that daily shooting regiment.
“Not only am I working out with Jay Jameson, but I go to the gym and lift weights, and play with older people, so I can improve my skills and hopefully make my college team,” Ellison said.
Ellison will pursue his dream of continuing his basketball career when he tries out as a walk-on at West Chester University.
“I’m sending e-mails to the coach to inform him of my arrival to see if he can get a chance to look at me,” he said. “I’m never going to give up.”
“That shows how much he loves the sport,” Hall said. “Usually kids that don’t get a whole lot of playing times sometimes perceive that to be – ‘It’s not fun, it’s not worth it, so I’m just going to let the game go.’
“He said right away, ‘I’m definitely trying out for the team.’ He’s still working on his game, and I think that shows great toughness and just great mental stability. He’s just a great kid all the way around, no question.”
A member of Abington’s Key Club, Ellison has been working with the Special Olympics basketball program at the Penn State Abington campus for the past two years.
“Basically, you get a buddy, you stay with him the whole time – get him refreshments, show him how to play the game if they don’t know that much and just be a friend to them,” he said. “It’s truly amazing, especially when you get that smile because you know they actually know you’re their friend.”
Ellison’s persistence is also evident in the classroom where he has turned himself into a standout student – although it wasn’t always that way.
“My GPA in ninth grade was terrible,” he said. “I think it was a 2.1.
“All my parents said to me was, ‘If you don’t get your grades up, you won’t be in college.’ I refuse to go to a community college because of my grades, so in 10th and 11th grades, studying became one of my main priorities.”
Ellison’s GPA is 3.2, and instead of coasting through his senior year like some of his classmates, he elected to take an AP math course.
Next fall, Ellison plans to major in sociology with his sights set on pursuing a career in marketing research management.
And, of course, continuing to play a sport that is his passion.
