South Kent School is thrilled to introduce Elijah ‘Eli’ Gore as the Associate Head Coach of our globally renowned basketball program. Coach Gore brings a significant breadth of experience and knowledge about the game, from a variety of levels: including prep, NCAA, and NBA basketball. Gore begins his first season as Associate Head Basketball Coach at South Kent School in 2021-22.
The Oxon Hill, Maryland native, played two years at Seminole State College in Oklahoma, before transferring to Salisbury University for his junior and senior seasons. He helped Salisbury’s 2012-2013 team to 19 wins and a CAC Tournament semifinal appearance. Gore graduated with a degree in Communications from Salisbury University.
Coach Raphael Chillious, South Kent School’s Associate Director of Athletics, Director of Basketball, and Head Prep Basketball Coach shared, “I am very happy to have Eli join our basketball program as the Associate Head Coach. I have known and worked with Eli in the past and am excited for him to bring his knowledge, skills, abilities, and passion to our student-athletes on the Hillside.”
He was an assistant basketball coach at Salisbury University under Coach Josh Merkel. In his second year of coaching, Salisbury won their first conference title in over 20 years. He also served as an assistant coach at Georgetown Preparatory School for boys, and as assistant coach and administrator for the D.C. Blue Devils AAU Basketball program. While at Georgetown Prep and the D.C. Blue Devils, he coached over 15 future NCAA Division I players.
In 2015, he was the video & academic coordinator for Texas A&M Corpus Christi under Coach Willis Wilson. In his lone season there, they won a school record of 27 games.
At the University of Connecticut (UCONN), Gore worked alongside Coach Chillious for one season. He later took a one-year internship with the Portland Trailblazers front office and basketball operations staff. While in Portland, he was responsible for player intel, video scouting and managing the General Managers’ and Directors’ salary cap books and boards.
After moving from Portland, he, along with his childhood friend Nick Sparacino, founded a basketball academy – Solution Basketball Academy – which focuses on helping kids at all levels improve their skills and basketball-specific conditioning!
Coach Chillious added, “Eli has experiences from the Grassroots to the NBA level that will benefit our program and school in immeasurable ways. Skill Development is a major component of our program and I believe Eli’s history of working with elite level athletes will help us continue to develop high performing student-athletes.”
Please join me in formally welcoming Elijah Gore and his wife Skyy to the #Brotherhood!”
About South Kent Basketball
Playing hard, playing smart, and playing together is what South Kent School Basketball is all about. We create offense from our defense and look to score early and often. We run the floor and always look to make the extra pass. We play as a team and win as a team.
We prepare young men for the challenges of competing in collegiate level basketball.
Every aspect of our program is guided by these beliefs. The members of our program are provided quality instruction with access to excellent facilities. Practices, individual instruction and strength and conditioning programs are conducted at the highest levels. Our student-athletes are challenged daily and improve dramatically on and off the court. Our goal is to continue to produce premier-level student-athletes, who care deeply about the game, their teammates, and the world.