By Laura Amato
Christ the King basketball coach Joe Arbitello has been pleasantly surprised.
He knew his team was talented, but he wasn’t quite expecting this year’s Royals squad to be ready to contend for a title. He has a different feeling about that now.
“I’m excited and happy,” Arbitello said. “And I don’t normally say that. I think we’re tough. I think we’re good. I think we’re better than what people think we’re going to be. And I’ve got a bunch of young guys that want to learn and play hard.”
The Royals graduated a good chunk of their starting lineup from last season—a team that came up just short of its city championship goal—but despite the overall youth of this season’s Christ the King squad, the group has found its rhythm early.
And that rhythm is based, almost entirely, on an ability to move the ball.
“Mainly it’s just been about [working on] confidence,” said junior guard Tyson Walker. “We can communicate well and we can run the floor and we can score. Everybody passes the ball well, too.”
There have been plenty of preseason questions regarding the Royals’ youth, but if there’s one thing that’s certain about Christ the King it’s the team’s on-court leader—senior point guard Jose Alvarado.
The longtime varsity standout and recent Georgia Tech commit shouldered a good amount of pressure for the Royals last season, and was the unquestioned spark that made Christ the King’s offense go. Now he’ll have to do even more—be an extension of Arbitello on the court—but the Royals coach isn’t worried about Alvarado.
“Jose’s the one guy in all my years of coaching, I don’t have to worry about,” he said. “He can fit into anything because he does everything.”
In addition to Alvarado and Walker in the backcourt, Arbitello expects to start small forward Jared Harrison-Hunte and 6-foot-10 center Kofi Cockburn. The fifth spot is still a bit up in the air, but that uncertainty has only helped up the intensity in these early-season practices.
It’s also given Arbitello the opportunity to get a bit more hands-on with this squad. He’s teaching again, molding players to fit in a Christ the King program that’s a perennial force across the city.
“It’s a little bit more exciting in the fact that I’ve got to come in and teach and go through it,” he said. “Last year I had so many experienced guys who knew exactly what was going on and, at times, that’s probably a little less fun, but it’s also a lot less frustrating.”
Arbitello—and his team—know it won’t be easy. The league isn’t wide open this year and there are plenty of squads across Brooklyn-Queens that could contend for a title or, even a city championship. That hardly means the Royals aren’t prepared to try.
In fact, this year’s team is ready to prove something. There’s a youth movement happening in Middle Village this season and Christ the King is ready to surprise a few people.
“I feel like we’re very tough, a lot of talent, but we’re very young,” Walker said. “We feel like we have a lot to show people. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean anything. We still can play anybody.”
