Fast start makes for intrigue in Berks I
Gov. Mifflin, Exeter, Muhlenberg and Wilson are unbeaten
Life in Division 1 of the Berks Conference is all about keeping up with Reading High and Wilson, the division standard-bearers for what seems like forever.
Over the last 35 seasons the Red Knights or Bulldogs are the only teams to claim that division.
You’d have to go back to 1984, when Exeter won the division (the big schools were aligned in Berks II back then) to find someone else at the top.
Gov. Mifflin’s last division title came in 1979, before the Red Knights were part of the league.
The status quo is unlikely to change soon: Wilson is unbeaten and ranked No. 7 in the state in Class 6A and Reading High is a formidable team, with wins already over Chester, Williamsport and McCaskey.
What’s made the first two weeks of the season so intriguing is fast starts by Muhlenberg, Exeter and Gov. Mifflin. Each enters league play unbeaten, with the Eagles (5-0) and Mustangs (5-0) opening tonight in Shillington.
The top five teams in Berks I are a combined 211, which is pretty impressive given their non-league schedules. It’s likely the best composite record ever compiled by that group before the start of league play.
Mustangs coach Kyle Conrad is hardly shocked. The Mifflin grad and former Mustangs assistant coach knows how rugged life is in Berks I.
“Pretty much every night you’re gonna be in for a tough game, no matter who it is,” he said. “Wilson, Reading, Muhlenberg, Exeter … there aren’t any games where you show up to and don’t expect to have a tough time.”
The Mustangs are handing out tough times of their own.
They opened the season with a win over stateranked Southern Lehigh (No. 10 in Class 5A) and have W’s against solid programs from Lebanon and Dallastown.
The Mustangs have a big front line with 6-5 Justin Spotts, 6-4 Cam’Ron Stewart and 6-4 Josh Klahr, they’re playing defense (they have allowed 50 points just once) and off guard Bryce Harman has taken his game to a new level. He’s averaging 16.2 points per game.
Spotts, who transferred from Muhlenberg last spring, has given the Mustangs a post presence they sorely needed.
Harman is and one of just two seniors in the rotation.
“I know we’re young, but I have high hopes for this group,” said Conrad. “It’s a good group. They get along. They play hard. If you’re well-prepared and play hard, good things will happen.”
Good things have happened quickly at Exeter under first-year coach Matt Ashcroft.
Senior guard Matt Davidheiser has emerged as one of the most improved players in the league and teams with Alex Javier to give the Eagles the most prolific backcourt in Berks.
Volleyball star Tyler Goldsborough returned to basketball this season and has been a huge addition.
All those shiny, unbeaten records won’t stay that way for long but it’ll be fun watching these teams bang up against each other for the next two months.
•••
Like the good ol’ boys at NASCAR, who open the season with the Daytona 500, the Berks Conference begins it’s season with the biggest event: Reading High vs. Wilson.
The teams expected to finish things at Santander Arena two months from now open it Friday at the Geigle.
The Bulldogs have been as good as advertised, winning their first three games by an average of 20 points.
The Red Knights have been mercurial, but at their best are imposing, and their bigs will test a relatively undersized — at least for a state-ranked Class 6A team — Bulldogs front line.
Wilson won the first meeting a year ago, in
West Lawn; Reading took the next two, including a Berks semifinal.
The programs have met 105 times; Reading has won 72.
Reading has taken 13 of the last 14, nine with Lonnie Walker IV on the court.
Wilson’s Matt Coldren has 14 wins over Reading in his 18 seasons.
••• Speedy Morris announced earlier this month that this, his 52nd season coaching basketball, will be his last.
He has won over 1,000 games, with the LaSalle University men’s and women’s programs, and at high school stops at Penn Charter, Roman Catholic and St. Joseph’s Prep, where he’s been since 2001.
With 744 victories as a high school boys coach he is tied for eighth all-time in Pennsylvania, with Eddie Gayeski of Northwest.
Morris and the Prep were scheduled for a trip to Reading this season, to play Berks Catholic, but the Philly school backed out of what BC felt was a homeand-home agreement.
The Saints won 50-31 at Prep last December.