Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Terry Nolan Jr., a member of the Class of 2017 from Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex, scored a total of 1,278 points during his high school basketball career. He is set to become the first player from his alma mater to be inducted into the Baltimore Catholic League Hall of Fame in 2026. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Terry Nolan Jr. becomes Mount Carmel’s first BCL Hall of Famer, joins class of 12


By
Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Schools, Sports

Terry Nolan Jr. once doubted he belonged on varsity. On June 18, he’ll join a stage no Our Lady of Mount Carmel graduate has ever reached: enshrinement in the Baltimore Catholic League Hall of Fame.

Nolan will be one of 12 honorees at the 2026 BCL Hall of Fame banquet, becoming the first-ever Mount Carmel alum inducted – a distinction that caps a career that took him from BCL standout to Division I scorer at three schools.

Terry Nolan Jr., a member of the Class of 2017 from Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex, will be the first basketball player from his school to be inducted into the Baltimore Catholic League Hall of Fame for 2026. Since graduating high school, his professional playing days included teams in Portugal and Romania. He now mentors young athletes. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

At his Essex alma mater, Nolan earned All-BCL honors as a junior and made the Baltimore Sun All-Metro first team as a senior, when he averaged a career-high 17 points, six rebounds and five assists per game. But the numbers only tell part of the story.

“Terry came at a time where we were just moving into the Baltimore Catholic League,” said Mike Naunton, former Athletic Director at Mount Carmel. “He was one of our first go-to players in that time moving into the MIAA Conference of the Baltimore Catholic League. He wanted the ball when the game was on the line. He was a ferocious defender. And he gets up on the boards as well. He’s an all-around player and we were able to build around him and start a run of good teams.”

That trajectory wasn’t guaranteed. Nolan started on junior varsity as a freshman, then spent his sophomore year wrestling with whether he was ready for varsity, lacking the confidence to make the jump. A push from coach Tom Rose changed that.

“Coach Tom Rose believed in me,” Nolan said. “He saw a lot of my potential and really encouraged me to play varsity that year. And by doing so, we finished with the best record of Mount Carmel’s history. We went on to win 19 games in a row. Unfortunately, we lost in the championship, but that year allowed me to break down some of the barriers of confidence, of disbelief for myself that I can actually play at the A conference level and actually be a dominant force in that conference.”

Nolan graduated in 2017 and went on to play Division I basketball at George Washington, Bradley and Towson. Over 110 college games, he averaged 10 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists, finishing his career past the 1,000-point and 300-assist marks.

He’s stayed close to home since, founding and running the Impetuous Basketball Academy and coaching boys’ basketball at Rosedale Christian Academy.

“He’ll show up to two or three games a year and he brings his kids to the carnival,” Naunton said. “He keeps in touch with alumni. Two of his assistant coaches at Rosedale Christian Academy were his teammates.”

Nolan said he remembers the time he saw someone getting inducted into the Mount Carmel Hall of Fame, not fully understanding what “legacy” meant to him. 

“In retrospect, legacy was something that I always put at the forefront of my career,” he said. “My mom always told me to leave something better than you found it. So, for me actually going into the Hall of Fame and being the first one, kind of proved that theory to come true. I left Mount Carmel better than I found it. I was able to leave a lasting imprint that in turn led to more kids wanting to go to Mount Carmel, more kids having a relationship with God because of wanting to go to Mount Carmel.”

Also being recognized is six-year NBA veteran and current Chicago Bull Jalen Smith, who spent two years at the University of Maryland after graduating from Baltimore’s Mount St. Joseph High School in 2018. Former BCL commissioner and 1965 graduate of Mount St. Joseph Jack Degele is also a member of this upcoming Hall of Fame class.

Other inductees are Jamal Brunt, a 1999 graduate of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore; Lee Hicks, a 1986 graduate of St. Maria Goretti High School in Hagerstown; Vernon Hill, a 1984 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson; Darnell Hopkins, a 2002 graduate of Towson Catholic High School; Cory Hudson, a 2002 graduate of Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn; Marty Johnson, a 1983 graduate of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Baltimore; Malcolm McMillan Jr., a 2011 graduate of The John Carroll School in Bel Air; Bryan Moorhouse, a 1970 graduate of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Baltimore; and Lou Winston Jr., a 1984 graduate of Loyola Blakefield in Towson. 

read more sports

Copyright © 2026 Catholic Review Media

Print Print