Daniel Boone grad Jeff Sparrow coaches in NBA-sponsored Basketball Africa League

Nov. 24—Jeffrey Sparrow, a Daniel Boone graduate and former Reading High assistant basketball coach, is grinding toward his dream of professional coaching with a twist, and in more ways than one.

Currently a head coach and director of basketball at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, Sparrow recently helped the Bangui Sporting Club (BSC) become the first team from the Central African Republic to earn promotion to the NBA-sponsored Basketball Africa League (BAL).

Working as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator, Sparrow guided the BSC through the league's qualification tournament, known as "The Road to the BAL," using his Twist defensive system to help lead the team to a championship win.

"What's unique for me is that what we relied heavily on in Africa was my matchup zone called 'Twist,' " said the 35-year-old Sparrow. "I created Twist my very first year of head coaching at Red Land High School (in 2016). So it's just funny how I invented it because I thought that we were going to struggle to play man-to-man at Red Land, and then seven years later, I'm in Africa with our season on the line and a chance to go to the BAL, and we relied heavily on Twist.

"It's funny how things are all connected."

The BAL, founded in 2019, will enter its fourth season in March and is Africa's largest basketball league. The 12-team league holds its season from March through May, and each team has to qualify through domestic competition.

National federations from African countries each select one team from their respective leagues to fill out the BAL. Six teams are predetermined based on commercial history and market size, while the other six must emerge from the "The Road to the BAL."

"It (The Road to the BAL) is basically a two-month opportunity, starting in late September, where you had one pool of four teams and you had to qualify out of that pool in the first round," Sparrow said. "Then it moves on to another pool in which you essentially had to play five games in six days for a chance to qualify (for the league).

"It was grind. It was two-a-day (practices) for two straight weeks before we played, followed by another round of two-a-day practices for two straight weeks, so it was non-stop basketball."

Bangui Sporting Club went 2-1 during the initial group stage of the qualifying tournament to advance.

That phase was where Sparrow's defensive strategy began to take hold as Bangui Sporting Club responded from a 73-69 loss to Espoir Basketball Club with an 82-39 win over BC Virunga.

In the win against BC Virunga, the Twist defense held the club from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a tournament record-low 19% shooting from the field.

"It's a rotating 1-3-1 matchup zone that causes a ton of confusion," said Sparrow, a former guard for Albright. "People have a hard time understanding how to attack it because it feels like a man (defense) but it's a zone that they don't know."

After advancing from the first round of group play, BSC began the aforementioned roller coaster of five games in six days that led to qualification.

After winning its first game of the Western Conference group phase and losing its second, Bangui Sporting Club played a must-win game against Abidjan Basket Club from the Ivory Coast to advance to the conference semifinals.

Once again, Bangui Sporting Club used its defense to hold Abidjan Basket Club to 32% shooting from the field in an 83-70 win, which advanced them to the semifinals against Al Ahly Benghazi from Libya.

Despite going against the Libyan club that had previously played in the BAL and came with experienced talent, Bangui Sporting Club grinded out an 87-85 victory to clinch a spot into the BAL as the top three teams from each conference qualified.

In even more dramatic fashion, Sparrow's team won the Western Conference title with a last-second, 93-90 win over F.U.S Rabat from Morocco on a three-point play with six seconds to go.

Throughout the eight games, BSC's opposition shot 29% against the Twist defense and 40% overall.

"It was above and beyond the most physical, aggressive and toughest league that I've ever seen," Sparrow said. "Guys are just laying out people with screens and boxing people, putting them on their backs. There's no calls, so you got to be cut for it. It's the most physical league that I've ever been a part of."

Connections helped pave the way for the journey that led Sparrow to join the Bangui Sporting Club. After beginning his head coaching career at Red Land in 2016 — he also has been an assistant at Exeter and Pope John Paul II — Sparrow pivoted when he got an invitation to be an assistant coach at Reading High under Rick Perez. He was with the Red Knights for two seasons, the first the state title-winning season of 2016-17.

Perez discovered Sparrow when many players from Reading High, including current Brooklyn Nets guard Lonnie Walker IV, started training at the Birdsboro Community Center.

"Reading High guys like Lonnie and Ty Gibson were coming to my gym and Rick's like, 'Why are all my players leaving Reading to go to the Birdsboro Community Center to train,' " Sparrow said. "And then one day he showed up and said 'I want you to come to work with me.'

"I actually was a coach at Central Penn College for two weeks and Rick convinced me. He said, 'Listen, man, you come on board at Reading, you run the show (on defense) and we're gonna win a state title.

"I showed up to (Reading's) Northwest (Middle School) and I did a clinic for two hours on defense and the way that Lonnie and Wesley Butler looked me in the eyes and said, 'Yes Coach, I got ya coach.' ... I called my dad and said, 'Dad, I'm quitting my college job, we're gonna win a state title at Reading. This thing is going to be special.' "

That special season helped propel Sparrow to where he is now as all of the typical attributes of Reading High's program — heart, relentlessness, grit — translated seamlessly to his time in Africa.

"I just think about the power of love and being connected with your players," Sparrow said regarding what helped his success in Africa. "At Reading that was magnified because Rick was the same way. He was bigger than X's and O's, and I think in Africa it showed its face.

"I thought every game in the fourth quarter in Africa we were more connected, player to coach, and they respected me more than the other players respected their coaches.

"And I think that's just getting to know your guys and learning to love them. For some professionals, that's kind of weird. They're looking at me like, 'Man, this is a guy my age and I'm used to having a coach be all business and not get to know me off the court,' but that's how we do it. And that's a Reading thing. You gotta love your guys and I think that that really helped in Africa."

Bangui Sporting Club is coached by Australian Liz Mills, who has coached pro basketball in Africa since 2011 and heard about Sparrow's keen defensive mind through a mutual friend. Sparrow previously had coached in Australia. Similar to how he was approached by Perez, Mills gave Sparrow an opportunity that he made the most of.

"She (Mills) is one of the best coaches in Africa," Sparrow said. "She's an Australian woman who has been a head coach in Africa for over 10 years. We talked on the phone one time through a mutual friend, so she did not know me other than my reputation about defense, and she took a chance on me.

"I knew of her and we had spoken but I never met her in person. She went out of her way to give me this opportunity and let me run the team, eerily similar to Perez. This is such a cliquish culture in terms of coaches and no one will hire you unless you know somebody that knows them. And these two people, you know from two different worlds, did not know me but took a chance on me and it obviously worked out on both ends. So I'm forever grateful for that."

Furthermore, the opportunities that have been given to Sparrow on his journey have inspired him to continue his coaching career at the highest levels. Coaches are hired full-time in the BAL prior to the start of the regular season and Sparrow said he already is fielding calls from potential suitors.

"The next step for me is to be a full-time professional coach," Sparrow said. "I'm fielding calls from ACB (Liga ACB) in Spain, which is one of the highest leagues in the world. The NBL (National Basketball League) in Australia, which is another one of the highest leagues in the world, and multiple teams in the NBA BAL."

Sparrow said he believes his story has the potential to show others that there is not one set path to making it in professional basketball.

Indeed, Sparrow's journey serves as a testament to the things that can be accomplished while taking many different twists and turns on a road less traveled, but one that hopefully leads to the same desired destination.

"I've been on this journey for so long and I feel like because it's not a path that's been chosen by many people," Sparrow said. "People don't know what can happen. When I was at Reading, I was behind the scenes and I loved that. It was way bigger than Rick, way bigger than me, way bigger than one person. But now I want people back home to know, look, I'm a kid from Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.

"I carved my niche, I worked my butt off and basketball has taken me across the world and now I'm talking about signing professional deals in leagues all over. So I want to inspire the next kind of coach who didn't have someone that went division one or had connections because I really was not connected.

"I just put my head down and worked, and then people like Rick and Liz saw me and that's how it happened."