SYRACUSE – Two decades ago, Kevin King, who already had an extensive connection to basketball in Central New York, took the helm of the Westhill boys basketball team – and with much help from a string of talented players, made a great program even greater.
And after leading the Warriors to three New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class B championships, King announced on Wednesday that he would retire, handing the reins to long-time assistant Jon Connelly.
King said that it was time to step aside, and he could not have picked a better time. Donnelly will inherit a team that returns, from its 24-4 state title run, stars like Kam Langdon, Omar Robinson and Charlie DeMore.
Not that Westhill was struggling in any way when King took charge. The Warriors were just a few years removed from a state crown won in 1997 and fully expected King to maintain that high standard.
Yet King was a familiar face in local hoops circles, having played at Syracuse University in the mid-1970s, capped by a reserve role on the Orange’s’ first-ever NCAA Final Four team in his senior year.
Instead, King only made Westhill stronger. He schooled his teams to utilize a man-to-man defense that, at its best, foiled whatever an opponent wanted to do, while on the other end a string of star players would light up the scoreboard.
Plenty of winning followed, including the first of nine Section III banners, and, in 2010, with Dan Ross, Mike McMullen and the Warriors, by beating Burke Catholic 60-51, claimed another state title, but that was just the start as Westhill returned to Glens Falls and reached back-to-back state finals in 2014 and 2015.
But no one stopped the Warriors in 2016-17. Led by Kam Jackson, Zech Brown and Sean Dadey, Westhill made a dominant run to the Class B title game in Binghamton led to an 80-62 victory over Canton and another championship banner.
Following an early playoff exit in 2022, Westhill, in 2022-23, knocked off defending champion Chittenango in the sectional Class B semifinal and topped Marcellus in the sectional final at SRC Arena. Then came routs of Owego (73-38) in the regional final and Newark (63-38) in the state semifinal at Glens Falls.
Led by 18 points from Robinson and Shawn Mayes and 16 points from Luke Gilmartin, Westhill held off Catholic Central 66-61 for King’s third state championship – and his last win as Warriors coach, as it turned out.
Connelly is quite familiar with every aspect of Westhill, though, having served as an assistant to King for 16 years and, when King had a surgery in 2017, having a stint as head coach.
