Dunbar basketball standouts Baker, McConnell transferring to prep school

DeVon Baker and Caleb McConnell, two high-scoring underclassmen at Dunbar High School, are in the process of transferring to SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, for their senior seasons.

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Both retweeted this week announcements from SPIRE that they would be joining the relatively new athletic complex that bills itself as a “United States Olympic and Paralympic Training” site that doubles as an international high school and post-graduate prep academy.

Located on a sprawling campus in Ashtabula County near Cleveland, basketball is just one of several sports at SPIRE. Its basketball team will compete as a prep school. The program does not belong to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

A 6-foot-2 guard, Baker averaged 16.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists. A 6-5 guard, McConnell was good for 13.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Dunbar (24-4) lost to Trotwood-Madison in a Division II regional final last season.

Baker said he has offers from Wright State University, Miami and Toledo and “interest from a lot of others.” According to 247Sports, McConnell has offers from Massachusetts, Ohio, Toledo and West Virginia.

“We (saw) that it was better for us,” Baker said on Tuesday. “We can learn more and get more exposure and get stronger and faster.”

DEVON BAKER

Personal: 6-2 sr. G.

Stats: 16.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists.

Veteran Dunbar coach Pete Pullen suspected the pair were planning not to return to Dunbar after they quit playing summer ball with the Wolverines. Instead, Baker and McConnell were go-to performers on another AAU 17U team, C2K Elite, based out of Lima. The team also included Trotwood-Madison high-scoring junior Myles Belyeu.

“I knew they were talking about going to a prep school,” Pullen said. “They put so much in AAU and they think that’s the route.”

Baker said neither he nor McConnell have withdrawn from Dunbar, but expect to be registered at SPIRE for the beginning of its new school year.

CALEB McCONNELL

Personal: 6-5 sr. G.

Stats: 13.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

Baker said neither he nor McConnell knew about SPIRE until contacted by academy coaches while playing for C2K. He said they both were invited to tour the campus, then were “offered” by coaches.

“We all sat down and talked about it,” Baker said of making a family decision. “We felt it was the best thing to prepare me for college.”

In addition to basketball, SPIRE also specializes in training athletes in swimming, soccer, volleyball, football and track and field. It’s a boarding school with living quarters on campus and also offers popular weekend athletic camps. It’s anchored on 175 acres and is quickly earning a reputation as a quality Olympic certified athletic training center.

The New York Post wrote about SPIRE and Romanian-born basketball player Robert Bobroczky last January. He was a 16-year-old freshman last season who’s fluent in four languages. He’s also 7 feet, 7 inches.

In the 2015-16 season SPIRE fielded six boys basketball teams. Players were from 20 countries and 19 states. The head basketball coach at SPIRE is Bobby Bossman. He previously co-founded the basketball academy at La Jolla Prep in San Diego and prior to that was coached at Westwind Prep in Phoenix.

“We’re losing our top two returning players,” Pullen said. “I was disappointed that they left, but our freshmen just won a national AAU tournament last weekend. The bright part about it is we played all summer without them, close to 40 games, and we didn’t lose but four all summer.”

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