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Dragon tales: YCS star Carroll to Drexel
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
Casey Carroll, The Vindicator’s 2010 boys basketball Player of the Year, feels the rigors of playing a season with Kiski Prep in Saltsburg, Pa., have helped prepare him for Division I college basketball.
Tuesday, Carroll signed his letter-of-intent to play for Drexel University of the Colonial Athletic Conference. He’ll attend the Philadelphia school in late summer and major in business management.
Carroll, who is 6-foot-8 and weighs 225 pounds, will be playing for Drexel coach James “Bruiser” Flint, someone familiar to the Carroll family.
“Bruiser and I go 20-or-so years back,” said Dolph Carroll, Casey’s father and the boys basketball coach of Youngstown Christian School.
“It’s a comfortable fit but he had to make his decision,” said Dolph Carroll of his son’s decision. “We tried not use that [relationship] in any way, shape or form.”
Dolph Carroll and Flint were on the University of Massachusetts coaching staff before Carroll came to Youngstown to be part of John Robic’s staff at Youngstown State.
Casey Carroll said he narrowed his college choices to Drexel and Northeastern.
“They really made me feel like [it’s] a family because [Flint] has known me since I was 2 years old,” said Carroll of Drexel. “So it felt good to be around coaches that I’ve felt comfortable with and knew personally.
“I loved Northeastern but I just felt that Drexel was the place for me.”
The Carrolls (mom Darcy and brothers Trevor and Spencer) moved to Canfield when Casey was a fifth-grader. He played for John Cullen’s program at Canfield High through his junior season then transferred to Youngstown Christian.
“It was really hard because I had a lot of good friends at Canfield,” Carroll said. “I didn’t want to leave them but I felt like my Dad had never been around me enough because of the college coaching and now at Youngstown Christian.”
Robic’s contract was not renewed in 2005. Carroll spent two seasons not coaching before taking over at Youngstown Christian.
“I thought it was going to be a good opportunity to go play for him,” Casey Carroll said. “I finally got my chance my senior year and I loved every minute of it.”
Exposure to college coaches and practices have motivated him.
“I’ve been growing up with basketball my whole life,” Carroll said. “It’s good to finally get my dream, something I’ve been going after my whole life.
“I’ve been to his [dad’s] college practices so I know what it’s like to do prepare yourself for college,” Carroll said. “I kind of prepare myself the way he prepared his players when he was coaching.”
In the 2009-10 season, Carroll helped the Eagles to a 22-2 record and was named first team All-Ohio and the Division IV Northeast Ohio Player of the Year.
At Kiski Prep, Carroll averaged 18 points and nine rebounds despite an aching right wrist that required surgery. Carroll said he injured it during last summer’s Gus Macker Tournament at the Covelli Centre parking lot.
“I went to throw a dunk and I just got undercut and landed awkwardly on it,’ Carroll said. “It’s been a rough year, “I wanted to play the whole year so I thought it was better to wait [for surgery].”
Kiski went 26-12. Among the road trips were an eight-hour bus ride to Boston and flights to North Carolina and Connecticut.
The decision to spend a year at Kiski helped him mature on and off the court.
“I was a younger kid in my grade so I felt like it was a good idea to go to Kiski this year and [allow] my body to mature,” Carroll said. “It definitely helped with academics because I’m taking college-level courses.”
Carroll’s signing was on his dad’s 53rd birthday.
“Got to be one of the top ones — I can’t think of anyone that’s better,” Dolph Carroll said.” It’s a great moment for him and the school. God has blessed us.”
Casey, who wore 22 in high school, said he will wear 20 at Drexel, his father’s number when he played at Kansas.