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Bethel High basketball players David Baroum and Ali Djim commit to colleges.

By Jason Jordan | jjordan@dailypress.com

Bethel High center David Baroum and forward Ali Djim committed to La Salle and Duquesne respectively on Monday.

"David wants to be a lawyer and he really liked their law school," Bethel coach Craig Brehon said. "He talked to the professors and students there and he liked the coaches. They want to make him the face of the program.

"The coaches at Duquesne really loved Ali’s tenaciousness on the offensive and defensive glass. He’s just a really hard worker, and his offensive skill has progressed a lot since he’s been here."

Djim, a 6-foot-8 power forward, and Baroum, a 6-9 center, along with Mbai Oliver, a 6-7 swingman, are three senior transfers at Bethel this season.

The trio originally hails from Chad, which is located in Central Africa.
They relocated to Ohio in May and ended up at Bethel in June.

Oliver committed to Clemson last week.

Both Baroum and Djim took unofficial visits to La Salle and Duquesne, and Baroum also visited Old Dominion.

Brehon said that he was surprised that Baroum and Djim didn’t decide to attend the same school.

"I thought they would want to go to the same school because they’ve been friends for a while," Brehon said. "But all of them have sort of spread their wings in different directions. It will be good for them."

College coaches began coming in to see the trio play in August, when Brehon began preseason workouts at Bethel.

All three plan to sign during the NCAA’s early signing period, which begins on Nov. 14.

[sportsguy71]

I am sure the Bethel players that are returning and coming up from jv are happy to see their playing time severely reduced by three new recruited players from outside the country that will be with them for all of one season. And don't tell me the players on the bench will be happy because they are winning games. The juniors and seniors that have worked their way through the system will be completely overshadowed by three tall kids that have been brought in by the new (returning) coach and some outside sources. What happened to the days of just coaching the players that legally come to your school and try to develop the talent you have? Recruiting high school kids in this area by high school coaches to come to their schools is rampant and the district administrators and the VHSL just turn their heads and pretend this stuff doesn't happen.

If Bethel doesn't win the state championship this year will it all have been worth it to the rest of the team?

[Oldschook]

Bethel had a state championship team a few years ago but COACHING lost the game... Why bring back the same coach when he left after that season?