Delcohoops.com

By Matt Chandik

As far as head coaching debuts go, Matt Lindeman’s rookie campaign as the Penn Wood boss a season ago couldn’t have gone much better.

Sure, the Patriots could have won the state championship, but consider this. Penn Wood posted an 18-9 campaign, a stark improvement over a 12-11 season in 2015-16, and reached the state tournament for the first time since 2011 before falling to Williamsport. In 2011, the Patriots reached the Class AAAA semifinals before bowing out to Mount Lebanon in overtime.

Lindeman’s first year also produced a Del Val championship with a 9-1 league mark, and a big part of that was a heavy reliance on a group of eight or nine seniors who’d been through it all before.

So, because of that, Lindeman and the Patriots will have to try to produce an encore with a blank slate.

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By Matt Chandik

Mike Doyle recently upgraded his players’ wardrobes with some championship shirts, but not in the way you might think.

Doyle and his Penncrest team fondly looked back at last year’s run to a District 1 Class 5A championship and a spot in the state tournament, but the longtime coach now needed them to focus on 2017-18, not 2016-17.

“I got them all T-shirts that said, ‘2017 District Champs – Penncrest’ on the front,” Doyle said. “On the back, they say, ‘Who cares?’”

The message was impossible to ignore. That was last year, and this is a whole new year. All last year’s hardware does is make the target on the Lions’ back just a little bit bigger, and they know it, too.

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By Rick Obrien

Dave McFadden stepped down as the Strath Haven boys’ basketball coach after two seasons on Wednesday, citing personal reasons.

“I have two young sons — Fin, who is 3 1/2, and Landon, who is 2 1/2,” he said. ” I need to do right by them and my family. The time commitment of being a coach was cutting into the time I was spending with them.”

Last season, McFadden guided the Panthers to a 14-9 record, the Central League playoff tournament final, and a berth in the PIAA District 1 Class 5A tournament.

“This was probably the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in my life,” McFadden, 32, said. “But I had to do what I had to do.”

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By Matthew De George

When the Ridley boys basketball job opened up in March, Kevin Kelly saw a chance for a homecoming.

For two-plus decades, Kelly has coached anywhere and everywhere in Southeastern PA. But the chance to return to Ridley, where he got his first job under legendary coach John DiGregorio in the early 1990s, was something he’d long prized.

“Ridley’s a job that, ever since I started coaching, I always wanted to coach there,” Kelly said Tuesday after obtaining board approval to be hired as Ridley’s new boys hoops coach. “It’s an extremely special place and a special program. It was just by chance that it opened up now, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to get back into Delaware County and back to Ridley.”

Kelly takes over for Mike Snyder, who led Ridley on its most successful era before retiring in March. Snyder won a pair of Central League titles and qualified for three PIAA tournaments in six seasons, posting a 104-53 record. The Green Raiders went 11-11 last season, missing the District 1 Class 6A playoffs.

Inheriting a program with such a track record particularly appealed to Kelly, challenges and all.

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By Neil Geoghegan

The first academic year using the PIAA’s expanded classification system recently ended. And even though we are only halfway through the initial two-year experiment, some interesting impressions have already formed.

“Change is always difficult and sometimes it takes a while to accept things,” said West Chester Henderson Athletic Director Ken McCormick. “In five or 10 years from now, most won’t even know we did this.”

What is ‘this?’ Well, in October of 2015, after 10 months of debate, the PIAA Board of Directors voted to expand the district and state playoff classifications for a total of 11 sports starting with the 2016-17 season. Football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball was increased from four to six classes. Boys’ and girls’ soccer and volleyball was expanded to four, field hockey to three, and boys’ and girls’ lacrosse to two.

The primary stated goals for the change were twofold: to create a more even playing field, and to give more teams an opportunity to participate in the postseason.

“One of the goals was to give teams more of an opportunity, which it certainly did,” said Chris Lunardi, the athletic director at West Chester Rustin.

It also addressed some of the enrollment inequities, according to Lunardi. For example, the previous 4A classification for District 1 football, he pointed out, included Rustin – which has an enrollment of just over 1,200 – to North Penn, with over 3,000.

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By Matthew De George

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.

Predecessor Larry Yarbray seemed to fulfill many of the qualifications that Baughn and athletic director Andre Moore listed for Taylor. A pedigree of Chester basketball. A familiarity with the district and the program’s storied history. A commitment to advancing student-athletes and placing them in college classrooms, not just gyms.

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