The Sneads are a very athletic family.
But the ones who do the most running in the family might be mom and dad.
DeVonne and Gerald Snead are always on the move.
They never miss an Archbishop Ryan High School boys basketball game, where rising senior Jalen Snead is one of the leaders of the program.
Then they race across the city to watch Aleah Snead, one of the top girls basketball players in the city, who is a junior at Penn Charter.
That accounts for the great basketball players, but that’s not all they do.
They also run to Benjamin Rush, where Aleah’s twin, Amyah, stars in a different way. She’s a dancer.
Then, when they’re done watching games and performances, they can head to their Oxford Circle home and read the Slate, the newspaper at Shippensburg University, where their oldest, Isaiah, a former basketball player at La Salle High School, is the sports editor.
All four of their children do amazing things, and all four are bonded. But Jalen and Aleah share the basketball bond, something they picked up from their dad, who played basketball at Fairmont State in West Virginia.
And they both picked up a lot from him.
“I think I learned defense from him,” said Jalen, who will start for the third straight year in the winter at Ryan. “I’ve been a defensive player my whole life. I just like it. And when I started getting good at it, everyone would say I was a great defender. I loved hearing that, so I’d work that much harder at it. It’s a lot about effort.”
“I definitely take after my dad, I play like him, I think,” said Aleah, who has been a huge part of the Quakers’ rotation since she got to the school. “When I was younger, I was the biggest player on the team, and my dad played in the post, so I would do what he taught me. Now I’m a guard, but I’m still tall, so when I post people up, I do what he taught me. I think I do a lot of things like him. He taught us all (how to play).”
Gerald might be the guy everyone is playing like, but Jalen and Aleah have certainly made a name for themselves while becoming household names in the Philadelphia basketball scene.
Jalen did it through defense.
It wouldn’t be fair to say he’s just a defender because for the last two years he’s been a clutch shooter, a great passer and a clutch scorer for the Raiders. He’s been one of the reasons the Raiders have made the Catholic League semifinals in each of the last two years and he had a huge hand in leading the Raiders to the state championship game last spring.
But he made a name for himself as a lockdown defender. Even when he was a sophomore, he was pitted against the top offensive players in the Catholic League, and he gave many of the top players fits when he guarded them.
“I think sometimes my defense overshadows my offensive game, but I don’t care because people love defense, that’s how you win,” Jalen said. “I love the challenge of going up against a top player. They’ll tell me to shut a guy down, I take it as a huge challenge. I never get nervous about it, I just look forward to it.”
Like her brother, Aleah is a complete player.
After getting her feet wet as a freshman, playing with three elite seniors, she took a huge step last year becoming a star at Penn Charter. It was a short season, but the Quakers had a great season and she was a massive reason for that.
She expects to take another step this year.
“We won a lot, we only lost five games since I’ve been there, and we’ve played over 40 games,” Aleah said. “Last year we beat Germantown Academy, which is so amazing, we’re a part of a team that did that.
“I love playing for Penn Charter. The team is so good. I’m so close with the girls. My best friend plays on the team, but now they’re all my best friends. We’ve gotten so close playing together. We all want each other to do better. It’s like a family.”
They found a lot of success in high school hoops, but they’re putting in the work this summer.
Jalen became a leader for the Raiders last year, stepping up on offense and playing that defense he’s become known for. This summer, along with Luke Boyd, he’s become the guy who unites the team in summer leagues so they’ll be ready for the Catholic League in the winter.
The team lost four great seniors last year, but has a strong class of returning players. They also added sophomores Mike Jones and Thomas Sorber, who came to Ryan after their school, Trenton Catholic, closed. They’ll help bring the talent level up, but it’s important to fill the leadership void left by the departure of Christian Tomasco, Dominic Vazquez, Dylan Maloney and Aaron Lemon-Warren.
“It’s really me and Luke as the leaders now, and we’re trying to do what the guys before us did,” said Jalen, who is also starring for a new AAU team, GBA Elite. “Last year, we had great leaders. Aaron was a great leader. Dom was great. By the end of the year, Christian was great, he was leading. All of them were great leaders. We have to be that for this team.
“They’re learning a lot and they’re good players. If we can be the leaders they need, we can be a great team. Summer league is going great, but we’ll know when the season starts. We have to do that.”
Aleah is adding to her resume this summer.
She helped the Philadelphia Belles win a U-16 national championship in Washington.
“It was really fun, the atmosphere is great,” said Aleah, who maintains a 3.8 grade point average at Penn Charter. “It’s always good to play against that level of competition and winning it means everything. We have a close team there, too. It’s a family.”
The Sneads know better than anyone what it’s like to be in a basketball family.
Aleah and Jalen might compete for who is the best baller in the family, at least outwardly, the truth is they are both extremely proud of their sibling.
They talk hoops, pass on advice to one another, push each other to do better, and more than anything, they are always there to support each other at games.
“I really like watching her play,” Jalen said of Aleah. “She’s really good. She’s aggressive. She’s a scorer, but she can do everything. I like watching her play defense, too. I think before she didn’t put in a lot of effort on defense, but now she does. She gives it her all. I always told her to do that. She’s really good. It’s fun watching her.”
“The only thing I don’t like about going to his games is I get nervous,” Aleah said of Jalen. “I hate it when he loses, but they usually win. Defensively, he’s so good, and I think he’s good on offense, too. He has really quick feet. I’ve learned a lot from him. I learned to be tougher because he plays so tough. He tries to make me better and if I can, I would help him get better. We’re always there for each other.”
It doesn’t stop there though.
All four siblings are close.
Obviously, the twins have an unbreakable bond even though they don’t take part in the same activities.
Jalen also loves watching Amyah dance. And both love supporting their older brother.
“I’m still a girl, so I love watching Amyah dance,” Aleah said. “I help her with her makeup sometimes because I’m pretty good at that. It’s different watching her dance, you don’t cheer, you just go and enjoy the show. I never get nervous. Her dancing, it’s so impressive. She’s so flexible. We both did dance. I was terrible. She grew into a great dancer.
“We are all really close. We’re close in age, so that helps, but we all love and support each other. I think we all want to see each other do great. I’m proud of all three of them. Isaiah is a great writer and he was a great athlete. Jalen is a great basketball player, and Amyah is a great dancer. But we have fun doing everything together. We’re just a really close family.”
“I think (Amyah) has the best footwork in the family, she’s really a great athlete, she just does dance instead of basketball,” Jalen said. “Isaiah is a great role model for all of us. I try to be a great role model, too. And Amyah and Aleah are great at what they do. We’re blessed.”
Just as they do in basketball, Aleah and Jalen have big plans in the future, and they’ll likely stay around the game they love.
Jalen wants to follow in Joe Zeglinski’s footsteps. He hopes to be an athletic director and basketball coach. Aleah wants to go the medical route, though she’d love to stay around sports.
“I just think being an AD and basketball coach is something I’d like because I think I would like to help kids, help them get better and get into college,” said Jalen, who does well in school and intends on playing college basketball. “I want to see people get better through basketball.”
His sister just wants to see people get better.
“When I was younger, I was into education because I love children, but now I’m more into physical therapy or occupational therapy, something like that,” said Aleah, who has been offered a scholarship to Penn. “I would love to be around sports, so physical therapy and athletic training. I don’t see myself coaching, but neither did Dawn Staley, so things could change.”
One thing that will never change is the Snead bond. According to the basketball stars, it starts with the parents and has been passed down to the children.
“I’m a lot like my dad, he coached me in baseball and he was a basketball player, I play like him,” Jalen said. “We all learn from each other. My mom was a great athlete, too. I think we all learn from each other and try to do the best.”
“My parents are really supportive to all of us, they’re at everything, every game, every performance,” Aleah said. “They both love watching us. And we go to each other’s games and to watch dance. I think we’ll always be close. We all love each other. We’re just a really close family.”
