By Five Boro Sports
Sean Johnson noticed the changes immediately.
The senior guard on the Christ the King boys’ basketball team walked on the court for the first day of practice Nov. 1 and there were some very familiar faces missing.
Chief among them was head coach Bob Oliva, who has been diagnosed with a heart ailment that resulted in a hospital stay last month following accusations earlier this year of sexually abusing a minor 30 years ago.
After 27 seasons on the Royals’ sideline, Oliva has not returned and may never come back.
Although there has been no official announcement – Joe Arbitello, the school’s athletic director, hasn’t been named the interim coach and Oliva hasn’t made a decision on his coaching future – the 31-year-old is filling in for Oliva, who has a record of 549-181.
“We’re going to be pushing the ball up, we’re going to pressing more. There’s going to be more stuff that we’re doing,” Johnson said. “It’s more serious. … (Arbitello’s) making us run more, he’s on us every second.”
Arbitello played for Oliva and was named a “non-playing captain” of the team that won the city championship in 1995 and featured NBA players Lamar Odom and Speedy Claxton, as well as former St. John’s guard Erick Barkley.
Arbitello went to St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, but served as a junior varsity assistant under Artie Cox. He’s also been an assistant for Oliva, a varsity ‘B’ head coach and the girls’ JV coach at Christ the King, where he’s worked full time for the past nine years.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with Bob Oliva. He’s a good friend of mine and his health is an issue for me,” Arbitello said. “I hope that he comes back, but if he doesn’t my philosophy more than anyone else is that I want teams to run up and down the floor. I think the best team is the best conditioned team.”
Oliva is not the only one gone from last year. Erving Walker and Ryan Pearson were key cogs on a Christ the King team that advanced to the CHSAA Class AA intersectional championship game for three consecutive years, including a victory in the 2007 final.
But Walker, the lightning quick guard who averaged 13.6 points per game last year, is now at Florida and Pearson, the forward who averaged 23.2 points per game last year, is at George Mason. The two helped carry Christ the King to a 22-6 record and another berth in the city final.
Without a distinct star, the Royals will be playing a bit differently this season.
“We don’t have that one guy who is going to give us 40 a game like Ryan or Erv did,” Arbitello said. “Guys are going to have to be different positions to score the ball and we’re trying to run a little bit more of an organized offense, so guys are in a better position to score.”
The closest thing Christ the King has to a superstar is sophomore Corey Edwards, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury and has high expectations this season. Joining Edwards in the backcourt is lightning quick Marion Smith, who is also a threat from deep and defensive specialist Ihsaan Davis, a 6-foot-2 senior guard.
“Corey Edwards is as good as everyone expects him to be,” Arbitello said. “Marion Smith stepped his game up to the next level. He’s been consistently very good for us, shooting the ball well, he’s defending real well. He’s doing a lot of good things out there.”
A pair of juniors will return in the frontcourt as 6-foot-8 Roland Brown joins 6-foot-6 Dominykas Milka, who has improved his offensive skills around the basket and 6-foot-4 junior Maurice Barrow had a solid summer and should also contribute.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a 20-point scorer on this team,” Arbitello said. “It’s going to be more that guys are going to get points off of rebounds, get points in the post. We’re going to rely a lot on defense and I think guys are going to play harder because they know there’s not a guy who is going to score 40 or 45 points.”
But that doesn’t mean that expectations aren’t sky high.
“I think we have a more organized team, instead of just having two people,” Johnson said. “It’s the whole team. It’s going to be the team that wins the city championship.”
