alumni in:
sports A Catholic school student until he came to AFS in the middle of his sophomore year, Jesse Balcer was struck immediately by three things: There were no locks on the lockers, students left their bags in the hallways and teachers were known by their first names. “And just the overall friendliness of the community stood out,” says Jesse, who transferred to AFS because he wanted to play sports. A good athlete who somehow never made the team, Jesse arrived at AFS eager to play. And play he did. He was on the first baseball team that won the FSL championship, in 1990, and he also played soccer and basketball for the School. “The sports were great,” he says, “and I met some unbelievable friends, which I think is what athletics is all about.” A dozen years later, when Jesse became Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Chestnut Hill Academy, it was Coach Chadwin’s example he kept in mind. He called him often, too, to ask for advice. “And he gave great advice,” says Jesse, “Which I still use to this day.” It wasn’t all about sports for Jesse at AFS, though. Something he says he would never have done at his previous school was to join the choir and become a member of the chamber singers. “Here,” he says, “It was cool for an athlete to be in the choir.” Jesse chose Philadelphia University for college mainly because his best friend Dave Fields ’91 (aka Chewy) was a freshman there. A psych major, he made the basketball team as a walk-on and played baseball for four years. He ended up being captain of the basketball team and starting frequently in his senior year. “I was a good player,” he says. “Not great, like Chewy, but tough. I played hard.” After almost a decade of sporadic coaching work and a fulltime job as a juvenile
JESSE BALCER ’92 Head Basketball Coach Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia
“Kids come in and they grow so much here. I compare that a lot to AFS. It’s pretty neat how everything has come full circle.” probation officer for sex offenders, Jesse landed the head coaching job at Chestnut Hill College, which was turning co-ed and starting a men’s basketball team. Jesse loves his job. “I love waking up on game day and having that feeling in the pit of my stomach,” he says. “I love the relationships with the kids. So much that goes into coaching has to do with teaching kids how to make decisions in their lives. You get to meet great kids and watch them
grow. I always say the second best thing to being called Dad is being called Coach.” Jesse is called Dad by three children, Isabella, 14, Jesse Jr., 11, and Angelina, 7. His wife, Amy, is a guidance counselor at Mount St. Joe’s. Chestnut Hill College has an amazing sense of community; “just like AFS” says Jesse, “and the feeling of safety there is similar to AFs, too. Kids come in and they grow so much here. I compare that a lot to AFS. It’s pretty neat how everything has come full circle.”
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