Talented, hungry — and with some unfinished business
Area basketball fans will remember that last March Allentown Central Catholic went on a magical seven-game run that carried the Vikings to first, the District 11 4A crown, and then the state championship.
But ACCHS didn’t enter the District 11 tournament as the top seed. Who did?
It was rival Bethlehem Catholic that entered the postseason with a record of 10-4 after recording an 8-3 mark. Central Catholic entered districts with a 7-3 league ledger and a 13-4 record overall.
There are those who felt Becahi could have gone on the same type of run that the Vikings did, except the Golden Hawks didn’t play well at PPL Center in the district title game and lost 57-42 to have their season come to an abrupt end.
A year later, Becahi won’t play a game of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” Instead, the Golden Hawks are primed to make their own run at district and state titles with a lineup that returns four of last year’s starters and is looking forward to the return of Jared Richardson, the football team’s quarterback.
“We graduated just one senior last year, my son Caden, and everybody else is back,” said Becahi coach Scott McClary. “Having Jared back will be a big thing for us. We’re excited to have him back because he would have been a major difference-maker for us last year, but he got a significant foot sprain in the last quarter of the football season against Central Catholic, so he’s still not ready to go. He’s a 6-foot-4 Division I level athlete who is going to make any high school team better.”
Until Richardson regains his footing, McClary has plenty of other experienced weapons on his roster. Edixon Gomez and Ryan Glassmacher combined for nearly 32 points per game last season as juniors and Alex Cercado chipped in just under 10 points per game as a sophomore. Steven Recchio and Louis Vidal, both major contributors last season as juniors, also return.
“We have six seniors and a lot of experience and that’s going to give you high expectations,” McClary said. “We were No. 1 seed entering districts and finished 12-5 and feel good about that, but we feel there’s a whole lot of unfinished business. We didn’t compete for an EPC tournament championship because of COVID protocols and we didn’t win a district championship, which also meant we didn’t advance to states because of COVID restrictions.”
All of the positives that didn’t happen have provided a sense of hunger for the players who are returning.
McClary said the team had a busy summer and fall and participated in numerous events outside the area.
“We went to both Philly Live events, we went to a team camp at Mount St. Mary’s, we played a bunch of Baltimore/ DC area teams,” McClary said. “We did four fall events where we played every other weekend outside of the Valley against some very high-level teams. I feel really good about that, but this is going to be a really competitive league.”
However, Becahi seems ready for the challenge.
“We have a group that wants to get better every day,” Gomez said. “We play in a tough division and it’s hard to win in our division, but we’re working hard to win those games.”
“We’re very experienced and we’ve played a lot together and I like how we’re playing,” Glassmacher said. “I can’t wait for the season to start.”