Author: delcohoops

   

By Josh Verlin

As for a quick peek at what to expect in Class 5A, we’re going to pick up where we left off as reigning PIAA champion Archbishop Wood is going to start the season at No. 1 — Wood demolished Meadville 73-40 in March’s title game — especially since five players that were part of the Vikings’ nine-man rotation are back.

What made Wood’s first state title even more satisfying is John Mosco’s program had never been in a state tournament prior to last season. Now they’re looking to repeat.

As for Meadville, the Bulldogs graduated most of their starting lineup and will begin the season among our others to watch grouping.

Brief glimpses of our preseason top 10 appear below, with PIAA district and last season’s final record displayed in parentheses. Only those schools competing for PIAA state championships are eligible for ranking purposes.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Matthew DeGeorge

Dr. Juan Baughn sits forward in his chair, his erudite cadence acquiring a slight lilt as a smile curls up on the corners of his mouth. In his crisp black suit and orange paisley tie, even the orange crystal on his right ring finger seems to glint a little brighter.

“I think technology has changed,” Baughn was saying from his office in the renovated bowels of Chester High School. “I think America has changed. Even Chester has changed. But Chester basketball, expectations are the same today as when I started in 1970.”

The interim Superintendent of the Chester Upland School District had the occasion to share a conference table with the latest occupant of a Chester throne Baughn knows well — Keith Taylor, hired as the new leader of the Clippers boys basketball program. Many things have changed in Chester since Baughn helmed the Clippers from 1970-74.

But as Taylor assumes one of the most exalted and highest pressure jobs in Pennsylvania basketball, one thing hasn’t changed: What is expected of Chester High’s program.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Rich Flanagan

Since returning to the Bonner-Prendergast sideline in 2014, head coach Jack Concannon has put the program back into the thick of the Philadelphia Catholic League race.

That year, his team fell to Father Judge in the first round of the PCL playoffs, but Concannon was beginning to build the program back to where he originally had it when he was previously at the helm of the Upper Darby school from 1992-96. The following year, in 2015-16, his team went on a late run defeating West Catholic in the season finale then upending the Burrs again in a play-in game two days later to clinch a playoff berth.

Last season, his team took another step forward, defeating Conwell-Egan in the opening round, the second straight year they had won a playoff game. The Friars fell to eventual PCL champion Archbishop Wood, 65-43 in the quarterfinals. The season finally ended when they fell to Archbishop Carroll in a PIAA Class 5A play-in game.

(click on this link for the full story)

    

By Matt Chandik

Springfield coach Kevin McCormick has been around for a while, so when he recently said that this is the most unusual offseason that he’s ever seen since taking over as the Cougars’ boss, it’s somewhat jarring. Don’t believe him?

“Between the end of last year and the start of this year, we will not have played one game with the entire team there,” McCormick said. “Not one.”

That’s shocking in itself, considering the abundance of games available throughout the multitude of spring and summer tournaments available, but it doesn’t take long to see how that came to be. Springfield is a team loaded with multi-sport athletes, and those other commitments add up quickly.

Point guard Kyle Long, a two-time All-American lacrosse attackman committed to defending national champion Maryland, helped the Cougars win their second straight PIAA championship. After that, he came back to the football team after taking his junior year off, joining the likes of Ja’Den McKenzie, Frankie Durham and Kevin Deal on a team that made it to the District 1 Class 5A championship game before bowing out to Unionville last week.

(click on this link for the full story)

   

By Josh Verlin

There was a point late in the summer that Cooper Driscoll really worried about his senior season being an enjoyable one.

Strath Haven’s boys basketball team’s offseason was basically non-existent. The majority of the dozen-or-so players slated to make up the varsity roster were multi-sport athletes, who spent the spring and summer months playing lacrosse, or running track.

In the fall, when the Haven students returned to school, they encountered another problem: head coach Dave McFadden resigned in early September after two seasons, wanting to spend more time with his family. So there were no official open gym workouts that first month of school, only some individual work put in by a few members of the team.

The Panthers were quite behind, and Driscoll was nervous.

“We came in with a losing attitude in the beginning of the year,” he said, “and I was really afraid we were going to suck for the whole season.”

Saving the day was a man very familiar with Strath Haven basketball.

Webmaster’s note:  Penncrest vs Strath Haven is our first Game-of-the-Week broadcast on December 15th.  If you can’t make the game you can listen to it LIVE right here on Delcohoops.com!

(click on this link for the full story)

    

By Josh Verlin

It’s a fresh start for Ridley basketball.

Gone are 10 seniors from last year, representing the vast majority of the experience, scoring, rebounding — you name it — from the Raiders’ roster. That group in itself only really got one year to shine, after a 2016 class featuring current small-college players Ryan Bollinger, Julian Wing and Brett Foster led Ridley to back-to-back Central League championships, plus a District 1 semifinal and PIAA state tournament appearance in their senior season.

Also gone is Mike Snyder, who stepped down after 20 years at Ridley, including the last six years as the boys’ head coach after also serving as a boys’ varsity assistant and the girls’ head coach in his time there.

Taking over is Kevin Kelly, who was at Oxford the previous two years, but the 49-year-old has plenty of experience. He was head coach at St. Joe’s Prep before Speedy Morris, and has also been at Sun Valley, Archbishop Carroll and Williamson Trade School.

(click on this link for the full story)

    

By Matt Chandik

Everything has changed for Craig Conlin, and he’s perfectly fine with that. As a matter of fact, he’d prefer if you just assumed that his Episcopal Academy team will take a nosedive this year and let the Churchmen sneak up on teams.

It’s not easy to lose the manpower that the Churchmen lost to graduation, not with post presence Nick Alikakos (Hill School post-graduate) and outstanding guard Conner Delaney (Johns Hopkins) leading the charge. EA lost five seniors, all of which are playing a sport in college, and none bigger than the All Inter-Ac duo. Of course, that’s also from the first EA team to win the Inter-Ac for the first time in 11 years. Conlin is acutely aware of that, and he understands any trepidation toward the Churchmen this year.

“We have a lot to replace and I’m hoping that a lot of teams will overlook us and write us off,” Conlin said. “We’re going to win some and we’re going to lose some, but the standard that we’ll judge ourselves on is, ‘have we played as hard as we possibly can? Did we play smart? Did we play together and play for our brothers?’ That’s going to be a great barometer.”

(click on this link for the full story)

   

Welcome to the fifth year of Delcohoops.com, the one site you can check for all the news on all the Delaware County high school basketball teams!

We are pleased to announce a new master sponsor, Sports Legends of Delaware County.  Sports Legends of Delaware County is a museum located in Radnor which features histories and memorabilia of the greatest names in sports from Delaware County.  Sports Legends of Delaware County is please to support the promotion of high school basketball through the Internet pages and LIVE and archived game broadcast available on Delcohoops.com.

We also will continue with our very popular Game-of-the-Week featuring some of the best high school basketball our county has to offer broadcast LIVE over the Internet and available 24/7 after the game is completed.  There is no charge to listen to any of our games; live or on archive.

We are delighted to have the great voice of high school sports, Dave Burman to lead our broadcasts for the second year in a row as our play-by-play announcer.  Pete Fulginiti and Mike Mayer will continue with their color commentary. Our broadcast team is excited and looking forward to another great year of high school basketball for Delaware County

We are upgrading our game archives.  Our hope is to bring every game broadcast of the past four years into our own archived area. Until then you can find game archives at EZStream.com (check on the links on our pages) and all games for this season and beyond will be available on our Archived Broadcasts page. 

Check back with us frequently for article, stories and photos as the season progresses.

Like to become a sponsor?  Drop us a quick email at delcohoops@aol.com and we’ll get back to you with all the information. You can sponsor this web page and/or our Game-of-the-Week broadcasts.

 

By Josh Verlin

This is a great series of articles by COBL prepping for the new basketball season.  We promote their pages regularly and suggest you mark their site as a “favorite” to get all the continuing articles in this series.  There is no better local hoops source than COBL!

Garnet Valley –

Garnet Valley basketball has come a long way in a relatively short period of time.

Head coach Mike Brown knows there’s a little further still for his Jaguars to go.

When Brown took over the Jags six years ago, it was a Garnet Valley program that had won three games in three seasons, total. With southern Delaware County experiencing a population explosion in the last 15 years, Garnet Valley’s student population had necessitated a move up to the Central League and the “large school” classifications of the PIAA, and the athletics needed some time to catch up.

Last year, Garnet Valley celebrated a state title in girls’ volleyball and a second-place finish in the District 1 football tournament; the Garnet’s girls’ lacrosse team has won three state championships in the last five years.

This could be the year the basketball team joins that group of Jaguars teams who have made it through to PIAA state tournament competition.

(click on this link for the full story)