Patience Pays Off for Donovan's Grennan

Like any other serious young basketball player, Monsignor Donovan senior Sean Grennan grew up watching Big East basketball and dreaming of one day playing in what has become arguably the most competitive conference in all of college sports. Not many players have a chance to compete at that level, and until recently, Grennan was content to pass up that opportunity to play his college basketball at Davidson College in a situation that he thought better suited him.

When the doors at Davidson suddenly closed on him, the door to the toughest conference schedule on the planet stayed open long enough to welcome in Grennan.

Davidson pulled Grennan’s scholarship offer off the table because of what they called a fluctuation in grades, at which point Grennan immediately got back in touch with Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard and his staff. Two months after he re-opened his recruitment, Grennan verbally committed on Jan. 29 to play for the Pirates next season.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” Grennan said. “I been watching Big East games my whole life, recording a game pretty much every night dreaming of one day getting a chance to play in those games. To have a chance now is a dream come true.”

After the verbal with Davidson fell through, Grennan stayed in touch with multiple schools, most of which were mid-majors from conferences like the Northeast Conference, but from the moment his options opened up, Seton Hall was the team for which Grennan wanted to play.

“What happened with Davidson sucked and it’s not something I wanted to go through, but I think things worked out for the best,” Grennan said. “I have an amazing opportunity. Deep down, I think (Seton Hall) is where I really wanted to be. It’s close to hope, they have a great coaching staff that I get along great with and of course it’s the highest level you’re going to find at the college level.

“I stayed I touch with the coaches up there and I just wanted to make sure I weighed all my options,” Grennan said. “It was nice to know there was still interest (in me) out there, but the thing I learned is that everything will be just fine if you focus on your team and keep working to get better. That’s all I’ve concerned myself with and I think the coaches that I’ve talked to and have seen me know that.”

If anyone is equipped to handle the mental transition from high school star to Big East point guard. In his freshman year, Grennan was the starting point guard for the Shore Conference Tournament runner-up and served as a pass-first point guard whose first order of business was to involve his more experienced teammates. Over his next three seasons, Grennan has been called upon to be more of a scorer and has been one of the best pure scorers in the Shore Conference in that span. His role with Seton Hall will likely be as a point guard and the experience as a freshman guard on a senior-heavy team is something Grennan plans to draw on when he gets to South Orange next season.

“That was a great experience for me,” Grennan said of his freshman season. “To get a chance to start as a freshman with a group of seniors is something that obviously helped shape me as a player. Those guys taught me a lot, not just about the game, but about leadership and being a leader on and off the court.”

Monsignor Donovan is preparing for what it hopes will be a second straight run to the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals after reaching the tournament’s final four last season when Grennan and Duszczak were juniors. The Griffins have struggled to get scoring from players other than Grennan and Duszczak and will likely need the supporting cast to step up in order to advance deep into the tournament again. The Griffins have played SCT favorites Lakewood and Asbury Park close this season, but have not been able to get over the hump against teams of that caliber. That most recently showed in a 70-48 loss at Neptune in which the Griffins trailed 26-23 at halftime and had a chance to cut its deficit to six early in the fourth quarter before the Scarlet Fliers broke the game open.

“We know we have a good team, we just haven’t been able to get it going,” Grennan said. “It just seems like in the games we’ve lost, especially the Lakewood game at home, the Point Boro game, Asbury Park, we had our chances and we’d doing something stupid like turn the ball over or take a bad shot or miss an assignment on defense and it ends up costing us the game. Even (against Neptune) we just let the game get out of hand.

With the college issue hanging over his head from the beginning of the season, Grennan has endured by scoring 16.7 points per game – second on the team behind center and fellow senior Anthony Duszczak – and helping lead his Griffins to a 10-5 record through Saturday’s games. With both the Shore Conference and NJSIAA Tournaments coming up, Grennan hopes he and his Griffins have one more run left.

“I’m excited to up to Seton Hall, but all my focus is here,” Grennan said. “It’s my senior year and I want to be able to leave here knowing I left my mark as a player and we as a senior class left our mark on the program. Our expectations are high, so no one is satisfied. There’s still a lot more we can accomplish.”