For an hour-long practice in late January, the 17 members of the Prospect Hill Academy Charter School boys’ basketball team never touched a basketball. They ran the entire time at their home Saint Parish Clement gymnasium, punishment for showing up late to a Friday practice.
After a week including the program’s first victory over a Division 1 program, a top league rival and a state tournament berth, the team lost focus. Punishment then, the long cardio session now resembles a season-altering moment.
“One thing that it taught us was that staying consistent is hard,” said senior captain Pedro Hartmann, a Cambridge resident who enrolled as a freshman from Cambridge Public Schools. “If we wanted to make it far or go on a long run, we had to keep holding each other accountable and push past our limits.”
Credit: courtesy of Prospect Hill Academy Charter School
That lesson stayed with the team in what became the deepest MIAA Tournament run in school history across all sports, a spot in the Division 5 Final Four.
During the full conditioning practice, the team developed a chant. Partly, as coach Dennis Orellana admitted, a rebellion, but also a moment of true camaraderie. “It turned from guys annoyed and bothered that they had to do this running to them all coming together and embracing the moment, adversity and accountability,” Orellana said.
Last week, Prospect Hill Academy Charter School (PHA) wrapped up its dream campaign. A K-12 school with campuses spread across Cambridge and Somerville, PHA enrolls students from around the region. Eight of the 17 varsity players reside in Cambridge or Somerville.
The team’s motto — brick-by-brick, day-by-day — “led to this beautiful road that we built,” said Orellana, a Somerville native and 2006 PHA graduate, and “cemented in the school’s athletic history.” A member of the Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization (MCSAO), PHA joined the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) five years ago, along with many of its peer schools.
PHA previously made the tournament in 2023 and 2025, losing in the preliminary round their first appearance and winning in the prelims last year, the school’s first postseason victory.
This year, the Wizards (20-4) received the No. 7 seed. They earned a preliminary round bye, won home games in the Rounds of 32 and 16 and topped No. 2 seed and reigning state runner-up Hopedale in the Elite Eight on the road. The season came to a close in the Final Four, a narrow 68-65 defeat to sixth-seeded Holbrook at UMass Boston in front of a packed house, including a large student section that traveled to the game on a full bus.
Credit: courtesy of Prospect Hill Academy Charter School
After every win, the school put a graphic on the large screen in the learning commons. Teachers and peers congratulated players. Lucian Grant, a sophomore captain from Cambridge, heard from his old teachers that their students were interested.
“Since they basically go to school with us, they get to see what’s happening first-hand, that what we’re doing can really happen,” said Grant, who started at PHA as a kindergartner. “I feel like it’ll inspire them to do some.”
Orellana, who enrolled at the school in its first year as a fourth grader, became the school’s first 1,000-point scorer and college player (Keene State). After stints on college staffs at Franklin Cummings Tech, Roxbury Community College and UMass Boston, Orellana returned to his alma mater in 2022. Former coach Geoff Lerner announced his retirement, and Orellana served as the junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant for a year as a transition period. The Hyde Park resident, a landscaper by day, took over the varsity team in 2023.
“PHA has won some championships in our league, but to bring back a trophy was crazy and unreal,” Orellana said. “Especially because it’s a piece of hardware that will be there forever.”
While last year’s team made history, this season served as the real breakthrough. Twenty years after the team won its first MCSAO championship behind the play of Orellana, then the league’s MVP, the Wizards showed promise in the Cambridge Rindge and Latin fall league, making it to the championship game in a league loaded with teams from top divisions. Those games don’t matter when it comes to the MIAA, but matchups with teams PHA never played before offered lessons.
There’s also a positive relationship between CRLS and PHA. Players and coaches from each program support at games. “We’re in the same city, so we see each other a lot,” Grant said. “We’re pretty cool with the kids on the CRLS team.“
Of the program’s six graduating seniors, three started (Hartmann, Thomas Mebatsion, and Edward Nyasembi). The other two starters were Micah Crawford, a junior, and Grant. Off the bench, seniors Elijah Richmond, Davi Vilela, sophomore Mason Prophete, of Somerville, and freshman Isaiah Richmond, Elijah’s younger brother, all played key roles.
Despite not starting, Isaiah Richmond led the team in scoring at 15 points per game. Nyasembi (13 points, 8 rebounds) and Crawford (12 points) also averaged double-figure scoring. Hartmann (9 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 4 assists), who will play at Roxbury Community College, and Grant (8.4 points, 4.6 assists) were both playmakers and reliable scorers. Isaiah Richmond, Nyasembi, Hartmann and Grant all made the MSCAO All-League team.
It’s the culture, Hartmann said, that took the team over the top. From the top scorer to the last player on the bench, they all understood their roles.
“No one was selfish,” said Hartmann, who plans to play collegiately. We were worried about winning together, and that’s what made the team special.”
A stronger
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