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Schools

Haverford School Welcomes Nearly 7-Foot Tall Chinese Basketball Player

Tao Xu is a student at the Haverford School and is ready to play for the Fords.

Everyone looks up when they first see him. Tao Xu (pronounced Towel Zoo) is tough to miss. He’s 6-foot-11, 264 pounds and towers over everything and everyone he’s around.

And he’s only 18 years old.

Xu is the newest senior at Haverford School, and in this day and age of young basketball talent switching schools, and in this case countries, under the guise of “academics,” this move is legitimate.

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The Haverford School is not exactly a basketball powerhouse, and ironically, the last time the Fords won anything was when new coach Henry Fairfax played for the school in 1999, the last time the Fords won the Inter-Academic League title in basketball. Before that, it was more than 25 years since the Fords last won a league title. 

The chances of the Fords winning this year seem much greater, but more importantly, Haverford School has literally opened its doors of opportunity to someone who passed all of Haverford School’s stringent admission requirements.

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“That’s why I am here,” Xu said in halting English to the Haverford-Havertown Patch. “I want to get an education in America. United States has best education and best basketball. That’s why I am here.”

The real reason why Xu is at Haverford School is actually because of a friend of Charles Monroe, a Haverford School assistant coach. Dozie Mbonu is from the Philadelphia area and has played on the same playgrounds and courts as Monroe and Fairfax. Mbonu has been working internationally on player development when he came across Xu.

At first, Mbonu was going to steer Xu to Oak Hill Academy, a national basketball powerhouse prep school, but Monroe broached the idea of Haverford School, which couldn’t be more opposite than Oak Hill. Monroe passed the information on to Fairfax.

“I was really, really cautious, given my role and I wanted to talk to Tao and gather his academic information,” said Fairfax, a Drexel graduate with a master’s from Penn and the Haverford School Director of Admissions from junior K to 12.

“It’s an extremely fine line I walk and I’m sensitive to it as to my connection between the administration and athletic program here,” Fairfax continued. “Admissions is something near and dear to my heart, because of my personal experience here and the opportunity this school gave me. When we got involved with Tao, we began looking at his data.

“I knew looking at his information that we had to find the right host family. They’re very private people and anonymous. But with someone like Tao coming in, it was a concern and an important piece to the connection. We’re keeping the host family quiet right now—but they had to OK in taking him in before we began the process. Once that happened, we were able to look into Tao being a Haverford School student, if he qualified from an academic standpoint, and securing a host family first. It all worked out.”

Fairfax picked up Xu on Friday. His first day of school was Monday. Xu, from Qingdao City, China, five hours south of Beijing, has assimilated quite well. He’s extremely soft spoken, affable, and is grasping English by the second, it seems. He can also play, with exceptionally fast hands and feet for someone his size. He had played for the Chinese Nationals basketball team.

Georgetown and Utah have already extended college offers. Others should come soon—like another Big East school down the street from Haverford School, Villanova. For the time being, Xu is setting his focus on Haverford School.

“The main thing here is to gain knowledge and grow as person,” Tao said. “I’m grateful for opportunity to be here. Education is much more important here than China. That is why I am here.”

Then Xu smiled, nodded his head, and asked Fairfax if he could go to the gym to be with his future Haverford School teammates.

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