Hear from Coach in this 2024 Rising Coaches Podcast, and view his Thought Leadership Series in the Chillzone discussing the world beyond basketball.
Coach Raphael Chillious’s first term at South Kent School was from 2003-2008, during which time he was the architect of the School’s basketball program and the driving force behind its rise to national prominence. Coming back during the 2020-21 school year, he is a leader in both the prep school and international basketball communities, as well as being a driving force behind the successes seen across South Kent School.
Coach Chillious led the early Prep Basketball teams to national rankings every year of his tenure, reaching as high as #4 in the ‘03-’04 school year. Chillious has a proven track record of recruiting and developing high-performance talent, with 23 of those players making it to the NBA, including South Kent School alumni Jack McClinton ’04, Dorell Wright ’04, Andre Blatche ’05, Isaiah Thomas ’08, and Dion Waiters ’10. He also coached Josh Boone and recruited/developed #1 draft pick Markelle Fultz, Dejounte Murray, Terrence Ross, Marquise Chriss, Quincy Pondexter, CJ Wilcox, Matisse Thybulle, Ryan Archidiacano, Darrun Hillard, and Justin Holliday as a collegiate assistant coach. This year, Coach Chillious has the chance to increase that number to 24 if UConn guard Tristen Newton gets drafted, as he coached him while he was at East Carolina.
After South Kent School, Chillious held several high-profile collegiate coaching positions, including the University of Washington from 2009-2012 and 2013-2017. He helped the Huskies earn the 2010 and 2011 Pac-10 Tournament Championship and 2011-2012 Pac-12 Regular Season Championship. In addition, he helped them advance in the NCAA tournament in 2010 and to a Sweet Sixteen berth in 2011.
Between years at Washington, he spent one season at Villanova under Head Coach Jay Wright, where he helped recruit several players that would eventually win the 2016 NCAA Title.
From 2017-2018, he returned east to work with the University of Connecticut as the Associate Head Coach, where the 2018 recruiting class was ranked #22 in the country. Most recently, Chillious was the Associate Head Coach at East Carolina University until he returned to the Cardinals at South Kent School in 2018.
Coach Chillious’ coaching pedigree is exemplified by the fact that each collegiate Head Coach he has worked for has either won the NCAA National Championship as either an Assistant or as a Head Coach.
Learn more about the History of South Kent Basketball
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