Boys Basketball Season Recap

Record: 14-11,

Postseason: Loss in first round of districts to Pennwood, who went on to lose to Coatesville, won its next two games, and lost its last, but did not make the state tournament.

Major Injuries: None

Graduating Seniors: Darryl Banch, , , , , Tyler Shronk

Awards/Accomplishments: First Team All-PAC-10 - Josh Dishman, Zameer McDowell; Zameer McDowell for Most Points in a Single Game; Team was awarded by PIAA Referees.

Overall Impressions of the Season: "Looking back, I thought it was a positive year, especially the way it started," said head coach Mike Young. "We started off 3-6 and people, including probably a lot of our own team, were like 'Oh gosh, what's going on here?' I think we really turned it around and made it a positive thing. Any time you make the championship game, it's definitely a positive accomplishment. Our one goal this year was to win it and obviously we didn't do that, so some people would say it was a failure, but as I said, I thought Methacton won that game. We really didn't lose it. It doesn't make us feel any better. Turning it around and the journey of getting back to the game was a positive thing. Districts was a tough draw. Drawing Pennwood, they're flat out the better team. So, we just had a tough draw again in districts."

Best Game: "I think the game that got us back on track that led us to winning a lot more games the rest of the year was the Perkiomen Valley game on the road. That was the first game after New Years. We had lost those Christmas games and we were 3-6. That was a must-win game. If we would have lost that game, we could have gone downhill pretty fast, but we won that game. I think the momentum really propelled us forward throughout the rest of the year. That was one of the most important games of the year for us.

"The Pope John game - both of those games were huge for us. The was the revenge of losing last year in the championship game, having it at home, and then the in the playoffs on our home court, wanting to get back into the championship game. Being neighborhood rivals, those games were good ones."

Worst Game: "I would say the worst game had to be the Methacton game in the championship just because of the way it happened. You think you're winning the game the whole game up until the last eight seconds. Even when we were down in the first half, everyone still thought we were going to come back and win. And we did come back. The way it happened, having a lot of chances to increase the lead there in the last few minutes and them dropping in that shot with eight seconds left on our home court. That was definitely the worst."

Story of the Year: "If you're looking at a game, maybe it would have been that first Pope John Paul game, because I think that gave us a lot of positive energy, too. Our guys just continued to fight through adversity throughout the year. We didn't win as many games total as I thought we may have at the beginning of the year. We never quit though and kept fighting through, trying to get the next win. It was the guys not putting their head down and sticking together to keep moving forward.

"Zameer's performance in that one game was big for us. It kept us together and gave us something to rally for. Everyone gave him the ball and was pulling for him."

Unexpected Leader/Player: "I would say, I'm not surprised by it, but a lot of people would've been surprised by it, was Ryan Keefe. The year he had and especially the last few weeks he had - he had some really good games coming down the stretch. In all of the playoff games - Pope John Paul, Methacton, even Pennwood - he played out of his mind. You can watch his performances the last few weeks, you could tell how bad he wanted to win a championship. He was really the only guy that hadn't one a championship in another sport. He doesn't really play another sport. A lot of those guys had won a soccer championship the year before, or a this year, but he had never won one, so you could see how bad he wanted a championship these last few weeks."

Thoughts About Next Year: "Next year, we're going to be inexperienced. A lot of these games this year, we played basically seven guys. We're losing five of those. Obviously we've got Zameer back, which is a great start, and we have Drew Kakareka back, who played some good minutes. Some other guys played some minutes here and there, but it's going to be a lot of new faces and making the transition from junior varsity to varsity. I definitely think we've got some talent coming up. It's not a rebuilding year, but there's going to be a different aspect. I'm looking forward to it, I think we'll be good again."

Seniors Next Year: Justin DeLuzio, Zameer McDowell, Matt O'Hara, Charlton Exley. [J.V.]: Steven Sharon, Mike Hifferty

Final Thoughts: "I'm proud of the guys throughout the year. Like I said, there were some times throughout the year where people could have put their heads down and quit. I think we persevered through and I think we got to the point where we gave ourselves a chance to win the championship game. We didn't get it done, but at least we gave ourselves a chance. It's something to be proud of. We've been there three straight years now and four of the last five years. We'll keep trying to get back so we can finally get over the hump."