By Matthew De George
Tyler Norwood picked up right where he left off last year, scoring 33 points to lead Penncrest to a 54-50 nonleague win over Academy Park Friday.
The reigning Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year scored 14 points in the fourth quarter as the Lions recouped a deficit. Chris Mills added nine points.
Naseim Harley led Academy Park with 14 points, and Jalen Cassidy tossed in 13.
In other nonleague action:
Chester junior point guard Michael Smith puts up a shot during practice this week. Smith will be one of the leaders in Keith Taylor’s first year at the helm of the Clippers. (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)
By Matthew De George
As Keith Taylor slips on a knee brace and meets his Chester team for practice, he acknowledges how long he’s been out of the coaching saddle.A long-time assistant for the late Fred Pickett, Taylor stepped away in 2008, when his mentor retired after another state championship run and the Clippers’ head coaching job went to his fellow assistant and former teammate Larry Yarbray.
“I took a break, and I guess I started liking it,” Taylor said. “Being away from the game, doing what I wanted to do, didn’t have to worry about going to practice or anything, just spending time with my family.”
With a lineage like Taylor’s — as an All-Delco guard and a 1,000-point scorer — one can’t completely disengage. And through his work with the Chester Boys & Girls Club and the high school, Taylor stayed abreast of the program, enough to know that when the administration chose not to renew Yarbray’s contract in the spring that he wanted the chance to pilot his alma mater.
Now it’s Taylor’s show, armed with the imperative to return Chester to what many see as its destiny atop the state of Pennsylvania.
Garnet Valley’s Austin Laughlin tries to drive past Perkiomen Valley’s Justin Jaworski during the first half of a District 1 Class 6A game last year. Laughlin is back as the Jags hope to replicate their districts-qualifying feat. (Sam Stewart/Digital First Media)
By Matthew De George
After 33 wins in two seasons in charge, Dave McFadden abruptly stepped down in September from the helm of Strath Haven, citing family reasons.
In the quest to perpetuate their recent success, the Panthers dug into the program’s roots for a new coach who tracks back decades.
Dan Spangler takes charge, his latest role in a climb that started as a ball boy and extended through his playing days and stints on the freshman and JV team coaching staffs.
Spangler inherits a solid framework, though the biggest cog from last year is absent in All-Delco forward John Harrar, now at Penn State. Cooper Driscoll, who endured an injury-plagued junior campaign, will provide the height in the post to contrast the Panthers’ passel of guards. Ryan Morris, a Monmouth lacrosse commit, differentiated himself down the stretch last year by averaging six points per game; he, Jordan Graves and Chris Rosini all hit 20 or more 3-pointers.
AJ Santisi and Jeff Conner contributed significantly last year. Luke Mutz, Justin Morris, Ibo Pio and Brady Mutz fill out the spine of the team.
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Bonner & Prendergast’s Ajiri Johnson takes part in a recent Friars practice. The senior is among the leaders on a young but very talented team this season. (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)
By Matthew De George
Ajiri Johnson breaks the huddle at Bonner & Prendergast practice, then quietly steers clear of the post-practice frivolity to hoist up his required free throws at a corner basket Wednesday. That huddle, in the forward’s second year at Bonner, bears plenty of contradictions.Last year, Johnson was by far physically the biggest member of a perimeter-oriented Friars team. The rangy center powered a 16-win season, getting within a victory of states and inspiring a return to relevance on the court not seen at Bonner in some years.
This season, Johnson no longer presides as the tallest (that honor goes to Salesianum transfer Tariq Ingraham, who’ll play center with Johnson sliding to the four). He’s not the one garnering the most distinguished college looks; the Rider commit is supplanted in that regard by Notre Dame (N.J.) transfer Isaiah Wong, who counts Villanova, Temple, Connecticut and Miami among 13 offering schools.
By Jeff Griffith
Things started to unravel for the Haverford School in late January 2017.
The Fords had rattled off five straight wins to start conference play, including defeats of Germantown and Episcopal Academies, the first- and second-place finishers in the Inter-Academic League in each of the past three seasons.
After 52 minutes of basketball in its sixth conference game, Haverford took its first Inter-Ac loss to Germantown in a 100-98 five-overtime thriller. A blowout loss at the hands of Malvern Prep just over a week later doomed any chances of a league for the Fords.
“We went through kind of a meltdown last year near the end of the season,” senior guard Kharon Randolph said. “It’s just about us managing the game — don’t get too high, don’t get too low.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
