10 things you might not know about the Berks Conference basketball playoffs
During the era of the expanded playoffs (since 1983), Wilson has beaten Reading High seven times in 11 meetings. Only one other team has a winning record against the Red Knights in the Berks playoffs: Tulpehocken (1-0).
John Silan won a record 13 Berks championships: 12 with Kutztown, one with Wilson. Overall, his teams were 13-2 in title games. (During Silan’s era, in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, the two division champs advanced to the championship game; there were not multiple rounds in the playoffs.)
Three schools have reached the championship game in eight consecutive seasons: Kutztown (1958-1965), Reading High (1989-1996) and Berks Catholic (2012-2019).
Only one coach has reached the championship game nine straight seasons: Snip Esterly. He did it with Central Catholic in 2011 and with Berks Catholic from 2012-19. Esterly has coached in the championship game a record 17 times.
Fleetwood has snapped the second-longest Berks playoff drought. The Tigers are in the tournament for the first time since 2003. Hamburg has the longest drought; the Hawks haven’t made it since 2000.
Antietam’s only Berks Conference playoff win came over Hamburg, in 1993. Aaron Anders was the Mounts’ leading scorer in the 64-62 win, with 23 points. He now coaches the Wyomissing girls.
Reading High has won a record 24 league championships since joining the Berks Conference for the 1979-80 seasons. Kutztown is next with 17. The Cougars’ last title came in 1967.
The last team to reach the championship undefeated and win the title was Reading High, in 2008. Only two other teams have done that in the last 50 years: Central Catholic in 1996 and Wilson in 1987.
The last team to get its first loss of the season in the championship game was Kutztown, which was 25-0 before falling to Reading High, 48-47.
In the last 50 years only one Berks champion has had 10 or more losses: Reading High, in 1984. It entered the title game vs. Central Catholic with a 15-11 record. That was Rick Binder’s final Red Knights team; it came one season after Reading went 32-2.