Lancaster Catholic hoops product David Kamwanga signs athletic scholarship to D-I Tennessee-Martin

In the long history of Lancaster Catholic High School boys basketball, the program boasts just one player that landed an athletic scholarship on an NCAA Division I men’s basketball roster. That distinction belongs to 1987 alum Tom Bennetch, who went on to captain the 1991 St. Francis Red Flash team that competed in the big dance.

Soon, David Kamwanga will become just the second Lancaster Catholic boys basketball product to compete for a D-I program on a full athletic scholarship. After graduating from Lancaster Catholic in 2020 and playing a prep year at Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy, Kamwanga signed his National Letter of Intent to the University of Tennessee at Martin earlier this week.

“It’s just a blessing,” Kamwanga said. “I have an opportunity that many people don’t. This just means that if you work hard for something you’re going to get it.”

The accomplishment is the latest in an incredible journey that began for the 6-foot, 7-inch Kamwanga in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he spent the first 15 years of his life.

'Be the next Dikembe'

Kamwanga grew up the youngest of four children raised by their mother and father.

From his older siblings, Kamwanga said he learned, “don’t forget where I come from.”

And from his father, “Pick your friends, know your worth.

“I don’t communicate that much with my parents now,” Kamwanga said. “But I usually get in touch with my brother.”

Kamwanga grew up playing soccer. But being taller than most kids his age, he was often questioned by others as to why he didn’t pursue basketball like Dikembe Mutombo, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who is now a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and among the best defensive players in NBA history.

“People were telling me to be the next Dikembe,” Kamwanga said. “I liked soccer because my parents played soccer. One day, my brother was like, ‘You’re going to play basketball. Come with me.’”

The brothers went to an outdoor court.

“I saw people dunking,” Kamwanga said.

In March 2016, Kamwanga and cousin Denzel Kabasele later attended a basketball camp put on by the Serge Ibaka Dreams Academy, the sports arm of the Serge Ibaka Foundation. Ibaka is an NBA veteran and a native of Republic of the Congo (a separate but adjacent nation).

A handful of months later, Kamwanga and Kabasele came to the United States on F-1 student visas, joining family already living in Lancaster.

They left behind a life in a poverty-stricken country fraught with political instability and armed clashes.

“I knew I was coming to the United States with a future that will be better for me and my family,” Kamwanga said.

Learning the game and the language

Kamwanga and Kabasele were junior-varsity starters for Lancaster Catholic as freshmen in 2016-17. Both were also still learning to speak English -- the official language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is French. Kamwanga now has a solid grasp of English for someone who speaks it as a second language.

“It’s just not being scared to speak even if I mess up,” he said. “And I read books and watch movies.”

Kamwanga worked his way into the Lancaster Catholic varsity lineup as a sophomore in 2017-18, becoming a full-time starter in the back-half of a season that saw him hit the game-winning free-throws of a Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament semifinal.

As a junior in 2018-19, Kamwanga averaged 11.1 points a game, the third-leading scorer for a 17-win Crusaders team that competed in the District 3-4A title game and reached the second round of the state tournament.

As a senior in 2019-20, Kamwanga was the team’s leading scorer (11.9 points per game), made 102 of 139 free-throw attempts (73.4 percent) and knocked down 16 3-pointers. He hit the game-winning jump shot in the final seconds of the District 3-4A championship game at Hershey’s Giant Center. The 25-win Crusaders team reached the quarterfinal round of a state tournament that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While often the tallest player on the floor, Kamwanga had solid ball-handling skills, could get up and down the floor and occasionally knock down perimeter shots. He also kept an even-keel demeanor no matter the situation.

But he was still learning the game, understandable for someone who first picked up a basketball in 2016. His stats also weren’t eye-popping.

Perhaps it’s why he had no interest from D-I college programs. And although two D-II programs in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference had a roster spot for him, they didn’t have any scholarship money available. The latter was a necessity for Kamwanga, especially considering his home life had changed over the course of his final two years of high school.

'The right thing to do'

For various reasons that Kamwanga asked not to be made public, he was no longer able to live with his family in Lancaster by mid-2018.

It’s then West Hempfield Township husband and wife Doug and Terry Kraft stepped up. A basketball lifer, Doug Kraft has more recently assumed the role of an AAU coach with the Lancaster-based Cats program, who Kamwanga played for throughout his prep days. Plus, Terry Kraft’s youngest son, Justin Baker, was a Lancaster Catholic teammate of Kamwanga.

“Each year there was always a player that needed a little bit more help than the others,” Terry Kraft said. “We had come close sometimes where we’re inviting that player over for holidays to make sure he wasn’t alone. A couple times it got close to where if this child needs another place to live, can we make it work?”

The Krafts were on a vacation in the summer of 2018 when they got a phone call asking if they could bring Kamwanga under their roof.

“Doug and I had a heart to heart,” Terry Kraft recalled. “And decided this was the right thing to do.”

Doug and Terry Kraft became Kamwanga’s legal guardians in August 2018 - Kabasele went to live with a family in Lancaster city.

“Doug and Terry came up clutch,” Kamwanga siad. “Through them, I have learned a lot about myself, about the man that I can be. ...if I was struggling with school or basketball, Doug would find the right words and find a way that I can do it. ...they never gave up on me.”

Even as Kamwanga was trying to figure what to do after high school, when opportunities to continue to play basketball appeared limited.

'Major upside'

Fork Union came into the picture in June 2020, offering a full scholarship to Kamwanga. It's worth mentioning here Kamwanga played alongside Elco alum Asher Kemble at Fork Union. Kemble is now headed to D-II Bloomsburg University in the PSAC.

Fork Union stats from the 2020-21 season are unavailable, but Kamwanga likely averaged close to a double-double as the team’s starting center. He collected most of his points on putback rebounds.

“That was a little bit frustrating but the right thing for the team,” Kamwanga said. “I had to find a way to do something to help the team if I’m not scoring. That was rebounding, passing the ball, setting screens, and taking people’s lunch money on the boards.”

He had a big adjustment to a quicker game playing alongside and against top-level talent.

“It was tough,” Kamwanga said. “The game was fast. There’s a shot clock. We’re going up and down the floor. You have to make decisions in a split second.”

Throughout last season, Fork Union assistant coach Tom Kotol was in constant communication with and promoting Kamwanga to the the coaching staff at Bethune-Cookman, a historically Black private university in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Bethune-Cookman coach Ryan Ridder was announced as the new Tennessee-Martin coach March 30.

All 13 scholarship players from last year’s 8-16 Tennessee-Martin team have entered the transfer portal. So Ridder has opted to clean house and essentially build a brand new roster for next season.

Along the way, Kotol kept in Ridder’s ear about Kamwanga.

Ridder offered Kamwanga an athletic scholarship at 3:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Three hours later, Kamwanga signed his NLI.

“The first thing that jumps off the table about David is he has major upside,” Ridder said. “His skill set is good. He hasn’t even scratched the surface of who he can be.”

Tennessee-Martin began playing basketball in 1951 and began competing at the D-I level in 1991. The Skyhawks have yet to appear in the NCAA tournament.

'Sky is the limit'

As Kamwanga has received encouragement from the Krafts while living with them since the start of his junior year at Lancaster Catholic, he's also gotten some tough love from Doug Kraft.

“After a hard game, Doug would call David out on things,” Terry Kraft said. “But then he said, ‘It’s OK to make mistakes, but what can we learn from this?'"

Doug Kraft said he hasn’t yet spoken to Kamwanga about what challenges await him at Tennessee-Martin, in part because he wanted Kamwanga to enjoy the moment for the time being. But the conversation is coming.

“He can rebound, he can take charges, he can block shots, he can protect the rim,” Kraft said. “What is he going to have to work on? His strength, his pace, he’s got to play faster, adjust to playing higher-level competition.”

Back in Lancaster since March 26, Kamwanga has been conditioning and hitting the weightroom with a personal trainer in Harrisburg, and finding open gyms in Allentown, where he often competes in pick-up games against D-I players.

Now weighing 215 pounds, Kamwanga isn’t sure how Tennessee-Martin hopes to use him on the floor, and coach Ridder confirmed that evaluation is forthcoming.

“For him, right now his role is to come in and work his tail off,” Ridder said. “We’re excited to coach him. Everything we’re trying to build here is everything David has. He’s a great student, he’s a great person and he’s a great player. He checks all those boxes.”

Kamwanga plans to study business at Tennessee-Martin.

“Something in entrepreneurship,” he said. “I would love to create something as my own.”

Asked to put in perspective his latest opportunity given the many obstacles he’s overcome, Kamwanga said, “Nothing is impossible. The sky is the limit. You just have to work hard and stay true to yourself.”