Unbeaten Spartans making memories ‘that will last forever’
2024 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
A huge February snowstorm prevented Aaron Anders and his Antietam teammates from playing at the historic Hersheypark Arena when he was a senior in 1994.
The Mounts’ district title game was relegated to Elizabethtown College when the playoff schedule was reshuffled, and it was there that they were turned back by Scotland in heartbreaking fashion.
Anders’ halfcourt prayer at the buzzer just missed and the Mounts lost by three points.
“We played our hearts out,” Anders recalled 30 years later. “We came up short.”
Anders was wearing a gold medal – the fruits of Wyomissing’s second straight District 3 championship last week at Giant Center — as he thought back to his Antietam days, when the Mounts were always playing the part of David, trying to fell giants.
Anders was the guy slinging the stone. He was a rugged 6-5 center and a relentless competitor. No one was about to outwork him around the basket.
He carried that same passion onto the court at Alvernia, where he was a captain for the program’s only NCAA Division III Final Four appearance, in 1997.
Watch his Wyomissing girls basketball team as it takes down opponent after opponent and you see them play with the same fire the young Anders once did: The Spartans lineup is stocked with gamers, athletes who are going to fight until you drop.
They’re not all full-time basketball players, mind you. Annie McCaffrey will play soccer in college. Audrey Hurleman will play lacrosse. Alexis Hardy will run track. Each will do it at the Division I level.
Combine their skills with 6-1 center Amaya Stewart, a Division I basketball recruit, and you’ve got a team the likes of which Berks girls basketball has likely never seen before.
You’ve got a team that is unbeaten in March, after 28 games.
When the Spartans knocked off longtime powerhouse Delone Catholic 45-32 last week in the District 3 Class 4A championship they became first Berks girls team to win a district basketball title without having a loss.
They’re now two wins away from the best start in Berks history – Daniel Boone won its first 30 games in 1990 – and from joining the Blazers and the 1991 Gov. Mifflin Mustangs as the county’s only 30-game winners.
“It’s amazing,” Anders said of his team’s success, “absolutely amazing.”
Wyomissing, which has more wins than any girls team in the state, goes for No. 29 Saturday at home against Carver Engineering and Science, the fifth-place finisher out of District 12.
The Pegasus have lost more games than they’ve won this season; they will be an even bigger underdog than young David was when he faced Goliath.
Anders won’t let that come into play. One of the hallmarks of this Wyomissing team is its incredible focus on the task at hand. As they piled up wins, closing in on an unbeaten regular season finish, the temptation to look ahead – at a perfect season, at another Berks championship, at another district title – never distracted the Spartans.
“We’re always focused on the next objective,” said assistant coach Pete Beck.
The Spartans will likely lead by 30 or more at halftime – they were up 25-3 after one quarter in last year’s state opener against Parkway Center City, the fifth seed out of Philly – but Anders won’t allow his players to think about that.
“You meet the challenge,” Anders said, “you don’t look ahead. Every day is just as important as the next. And they’ve demonstrated (the ability to follow) that; that’s why they’re playing their best basketball right now.”
Anders will be the first to tell you he’s been blessed to have a basketball talent as pure as Stewart come through his program, and to have her surrounded by disciplined athletes who have brought their various skills and winning experiences in other sports to the court. The odds of that happening are infinite, especially at a small school. It’s kismet.
Four Division I athletes in a five-player lineup? What other public school is ever able to do that?
Wyomissing has never had an assemblage of athletes like this before and may never again.
It also has a guy on the bench who’s been there, done that; he’s been able to bring out the best in this group. His players make it look easy – they won their three district playoff games by an average of 22 points – but it is not.
Anders has been able to mesh that talent, fuel their confidence and yet keep egos out of the way – always a danger when the team is built around an All-State talent who leads the team in point and rebounds almost every game and who garners the lion’s share of the attention.
“He’s fantastic at keeping them all on the rails,” Beck said.
As the final leg of the journey begins Anders wants his players to understand just how special these next few weeks will be to the rest of their lives.
When the Spartans played at Hershey last week several of Anders’ Antietam teammates – Jimmy Ettele, Matt Kellett, Ben DeBiec – were there enjoying it along with him. How special is that?
“These are memories,” Anders said, “that are going to last forever.”
