Month: November 2022

By Missy Dougherty

The names and faces have come and gone in the Haverford High School girls’ basketball program over head coach Lauren Pellicane’s six years in charge, but the expectations remain the same.

“We want to compete for a Central League championship, make a deep run in the district tournament, and qualify for states,” Pellicane said.

The Fords will once again look to make some noise in the Central League and beyond this season – some “big” noise that is.

Pellicane will have an overabundance of size as this year’s squad will be led by two four-year post players in 6-foot-2 Caroline Dotsey and 6-foot-1 Mollie Carpenter.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Josh Verlin

It’s a whole new Bonner-Prendergast. 

New coach, new stars, new attitude, new style. 

Billy Cassidy has already made a big impact on the Friars’ program in just the few months since his June hiring, the former Friends’ Central sharpshooter bringing in a ton of energy and a heaping dose of talent to create another team that has high hopes in the already-loaded Philadelphia Catholic League.

“You’re in a new environment, you’re surrounded with kids that have dreams and goals of playing at the next level and the highest level possible — being able to mesh all the different personalities, talents together, is the challenge that we’ve talked about since day one,” Cassidy said. 

(Click on this link for the full story)

By Mike Mayer, Webmaster

When we first began our audio Game-of-the-Week broadcasting back in 2013 we saw it as a way to bring high school basketball to players, families, friends and fans who could not get to the LIVE game.  There were only two ways to see or “hear” a basketball game back then and it was either in person or through our audio broadcasts.

With the advance of technology, band width, and hot spots (not to mention the Covid outbreak) virtually all Delaware County high schools now operate some form of video broadcast streaming of all of their boys and girls basketball games. It is a wonderful use of technology and will certainly enhance everyone’s ability to watch their teams.

The downside is that our listenership plummeted last year as very few people were interested in “listening” to a broadcast when they could watch it.  Granted the vast amount of broadcasts were simple single “automated” camera shots with no play-by-play but watching is better than listening and we found ourselves broadcasting to 10-20 people.

We have a broadcast crew and we have single camera video streaming ability so we are available to any Delaware County high school that would like us to come in a produce a first quality video broadcast (at no cost) for their special games and match-ups. If you’re an Athletic Director and would like our services just drop us a note at delcohoops@aol.com.

In the meantime we’ll working on putting together a list of all the You Tube sites for the various high school live game streams.

By Joseph Santoliquito

The memories are great. They’ll resonate through the years and will be great talking points at school reunions.

Marple Newtown head coach Sean Spratt knows there is more that can be derived from the Tigers’ historic 2021-22 season, in which they won their first two PIAA state playoff games in school history before giving eventual 5A state champion Imhotep Charter a major scare in finishing with an 18-11 overall record.

Nine seniors are gone from that team (Justin DiBona, Jordan Bochanski, Matt Cantwell, Joe Downs, Owen Mathes, Eric McKee, Nick Sanfrancesco, Christian Sessa and Jonny Small).

A strong core does return enriched by the experience of reaching the 2022 state quarterfinals, where Marple Newtown lost to the Panthers, 44-39, in the closest game they played toward winning their fourth state championship in the last five seasons (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

(click on this link for the full story)

By Jerome Taylor

After a deep playoff run, every high school team has to answer the same question the following year: How do we replicate last year’s success?

Haverford High School has dealt with this challenge since its 2020 Central League title run. Now, after reaching the Central League semifinals last year, the Fords must once again find out who the next crop of producers will be. 

A trio of all-Central league players led last year’s team, Nick Colucci (first team), J.R. Newman (second team) and Alex ‘Googie’ Seidman (second team). Only Seidman remains from that trio after Colucci (Scranton) and Newman graduated. 

Seidman, who committed to Catholic University this summer, will be stepping into a new role as the lead guard for the Fords. 

(click on this link for the full story)

By Joseph Santoliquito

They knew as a group what they belonged to, even though they did it behind the curtains of squeaking sneakers and the blowing whistles of practice. They had a few eyes on them, getting gritty with their older teammates, learning from the daily pounding lessons they received. They also knew that in sharpening the Cardinal O’Hara starters for the Philadelphia Catholic League (PCL) and another PIAA Class 5A state championship run that their time would come.

Well, it’s here.

The Lions’ big three—Maggie Doogan (Richmond), Sydni Scott (Marshall) and Annie Welde (Villanova)—have graduated, leaving a solid group that benefited from going against them every day in practice.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Josh Verlin

The bus rides were long. Too long, perhaps, for the Archbishop Carroll boys — but in a way, just long enough. A last-minute addition to the 2022 PIAA Class 4A state playoffs, Carroll found itself playing four games increasingly further and further from home, a group of 20-or-so teens and adults spending hours and hours together they hadn’t planned on spending, and enjoying every minute of it.

“That state run was phenomenal for us,” head coach Francis Bowe said, and it wasn’t because of the extra wins. “We drove three hours, so no one was like ‘I’m going home with my parents.’ We were all on the bus — and we got to know each other really well.”

Bowe learned, for example, that now-senior forward Blake Deegan can also serve as the team DJ, a crucial role on one long bus ride after another. He also found out that senior guard Dean Coleman-Newsome is not just a Division I basketball recruit but also a solid standup comic, not shy to take the proverbial mic and perform. 

(click on this link for the full story)

By Jared Leveson

Upper Darby finished last season with a 7-14 overall record, went 5-11 in Central League play, and finished in ninth place. 

It was a less than ideal 2021-2022 season.

The team added three new players last year, but their chemistry development and offseason workouts got hampered due to COVID-19 restrictions. The result was a roller-coaster-type year with big wins, disappointing losses, and “a lot of learning pains,” according to head coach Bob Miller.  

However, the 14-year head coach and his players believe this season will be different. The Royals had an uninterrupted offseason where their hardworking, talented and deep roster has grown together as teammates and friends. 

“With two years of Covid,” Miller said. “We weren’t able to get into our gym and get a lot of work.” 

(click on this link for the full story)

By Rich Flanagan

After the 2019 class of Jack Forrest, Steve Payne, Darryl Taylor, Matt O’Connor and Theo Henry had moved on, Gregg Downer went and did what any successful basketball coach does: develop the next crop of leaders to continue the legacy that he has established during his 33-year career at Lower Merion.

That group won three consecutive Central League titles, advanced to the district semifinals three times and won more games together than any class in Aces history. Downer knew it would take a bit of time as great players like the late Kobe Bryant, Ryan Brooks, B.J. Johnson, and others do not necessarily come into the program ready to compete for district and state titles right off the bat.

They have to be molded and taught how to deal with the increased expectations that come with becoming part of the Aces under a head coach who has won over 600 games. Downer has been preaching the same message to each new team since winning his first state title in 1996.

(click on this link for the full story)

By Josh Verlin

It was an injury that changed the course of not one but two seasons for Springfield (Delco.) girls’ basketball. When junior guard Lexi Aaron went down with a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in the fifth game of the 2021-22 season, the Cougars were left short-handed and without their leading scorer, a significant disadvantage for a team that didn’t have a single senior on the roster.

But instead of folding, Ky McNichol’s team rallied. The Cougars ripped off seven straight wins to begin 2022, went 13-3 in the Central League, won 19 games overall and made it to the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals, where they ran into Catholic League powerhouse and eventual state champs Cardinal O’Hara. 

“I think we all grew a lot last year as players and coaches,” said McNichol, in her ninth season coaching the Cougars. “We had to make an adjustment on the fly, we figured it out, how we were going to win basketball games […] We had a bunch of kids step up, fill some roles that we needed to fill, and they figured out a way to win.”

(click on this link for the full story)