Whitney Young’s Dalen Davis “Wants To Pave Own Path”, Chooses Princeton To Continue Academic and Athletic Career

By Michael Wojtychiw

**This is one of many Chicago Public League Student-Athlete College Commitments. The site will be updated with more stories as they come in.

The Chicago Public League sends dozens of boys basketball players to play college basketball every year. 

Small schools, Power 5 schools, mid-majors, all the way down to Division III, NAIA and Junior College ball.

One conference that seemed to be evading many of those players was the Ivy League. The Ivy League’s teams have recruited and signed a number of Illinois student-athletes recently, but none have been from the CPL.

That changed Wednesday, however, when Whitney Young’s Dalen Davis signed his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday afternoon to play at Princeton University starting next fall. 

But his sights weren’t always set on the conference made up of the most prestigious academic institutions in the country.

“Since I was a kid, the one thing that motivated me was going to Kansas, it was my dream school,” Davis said. “It wasn’t really anything from a basketball standpoint, I love the colors, blue and red. That always pushed me.”

So then what changed?

“I realized I am who I am and I wanted to pave my own path.”

Being a rare player from the Public League heading over to play in the Ivy League does come with its challenges though. And Davis isn’t one to shy away from those challenges.

“To be the first one, it’s grand, a life-time opportunity, but I’m glad to embark on it,” he said. “I feel a lot of pressure. It’s Princeton. That itself brings a lot of pressure.

“Being Black, going to Princeton, that’s a lot of pressure. Being the first one from the Public League, that gives me motivation though because I’m the one people look to. I get to narrate my own story, I’m my own identity.”

For Davis, he didn’t really think the opportunity to play at the collegiate level would come until his sophomore year, when he got his first scholarship offer.

His coach, Tyrone Slaughter, saw that the talent has been there since he saw Davis play as an eighth-grader and witnessed it over the past four years. Davis is a rare player for Young who will be starting for all four years of high school, but had the luxury of not having to do too much right away as a freshman.

“He’ll be a young man who’s started for us for four years, he’s the first player we’ve had to do that in our program on the varsity level,” Slaughter said. “When you look at that and put it in context with the level of competition we face, it’s pretty clear that this young man is someone who has incredible talent.“

One thing that Slaughter hopes to see after Davis’ signing, is that other players in the Chicago Public League realize that there is an option to play in the Ivy League and that the league also notices the quality of student athletes, both on and off the court, that the Public League has to offer them.

“Anytime we have a young person go to college, it’s exciting but I think this has a different level of excitement when you have a young man from our institution that goes to an institution like Princeton,” he said. “When you look at what Whitney Young is, it kind of embodies what Princeton is but at the high school level.”

“I tell people I would like to see more student-athletes in our system recruited from schools like Princeton, because we have students, not just at Whitney Young, but across our league that are capable of playing at a place like Princeton. But more importantly, are capable of succeeding at a place like Princeton academically. 

“For us, I’m not surprised that Dalen would be able to attend a school like Princeton, I find it fitting that a kid like him has an opportunity to play there.”

Covid played a major role in Davis’ commitment timeline. With colleges really not having been able to see much of his play for nearly over a year, it both expedited and slowed down his recruitment.

Davis’ first visit to the New Jersey-located university left him wanting more. Three months later, in September, he went back for his official visit and knew it was the place for him.

“Obviously the academics were a big draw,” he said. “And from a basketball standpoint, all the staff offered me was love and that’s not something I got from other coaches. They worked around everything with me, it’s obviously life changing.

“I wanted to commit on my birthday. I actually committed to them on my official visit, but to be able to commit on my birthday, October 15th, that was a big lift off my shoulders.”