Colin Payne, Eagles determined to make this a banner season

Colin Payne thinks the signage inside Exeter’s gym needs upgrading. He points to the wall opposite the Eagles’ bench.

“See that banner over there,” he said, pointing to a mostly blank blue canvas that lists the Eagles’ boys basketball accomplishments, “1974 is the last time Exeter ever won anything in basketball. So we all want to change that.”

The Eagles make their home in a tough neighborhood. There’s Reading High, a PIAA champ twice in the past five seasons; Wilson, a district champ in 2020 and finalist in 2021; and now Berks Catholic, a perennial county and district power.

It’s no revelation the Eagles haven’t won a division or league title since Richard Nixon was in the White House and “Happy Days” was a hit TV show.

It’s not shocking they limped into the postseason with a 10-11 record and as the No. 10 seed in the District 3 Class 5A Tournament. They took their lumps against their Berks I rivals, going just 2-6.

It’s also no surprise — at least not to the Eagles — that they’re still alive in the district tournament after taking out No. 7 Milton Hershey 62-49 in the opening round. They played the toughest schedule of any team in District 3 this year (they had a .700 opponent’s winning percentage) and that prepared them well for the postseason.

They’ll play at No. 2 West York (23-2) Thursday at 7 in a quarterfinal with their sights set on getting deep into the tournament.

Despite their marginal record, despite ending the regular season with seven losses in eight games, despite losing their No. 2 scorer — Joey Schlaffer, a 6-6 forward and Penn State tight end recruit — they believed in themselves.

“It’s frustrating,” Payne said of competing in such a tough division. “You’re playing all these awesome teams.

“I hate losing, but you know, sometimes you gotta lose to learn a lot of lessons. And I think that’s what we’ve done.”

If anything the Eagles (12-12) have learned about resiliency, teamwork and believing.

Coach Matt Ashcroft keeps pumping them up, reminding them that they’re far better than their record, telling them that anything can happen in the playoffs, and so far it has.

They knocked out favored Wilson in the league playoffs, took BC to the wire in the Berks semifinals, then played perhaps their best all-around game of the season at Milton Hershey.

“The last two games of the regular season and into the county playoffs we’ve playing our best basketball,” said Payne, a 6-3 senior. “Everybody’s felt that. It’s the most unselfish basketball I’ve been around my four years here. Everybody believes in each other. We’ve felt all year we’re a great team, we just haven’t shown it.”

Payne, an All-Berks pick who’s second in the league in scoring at 18.8 points per game, had 21 points in the win over Wilson and 21 against Berks Catholic. Points have been tough to come by for the Eagles this season and even harder since Schlaffer went out with a wrist injury.

Still, Payne says he hasn’t felt pressure to do more or score more.

“No, I believed in everybody around me,” he said. “I don’t care about my numbers; I don’t care about anybody else’s numbers. All I care about is winning. It’s all I cared about for every sport I’ve played.”

Payne plays center field and shortstop in baseball and quarterbacked the football team to the District 3 Class 5A championship last season. He draw parallels between that season and this one. No one expected the Eagles to add numbers to the blue football banner but they did, upsetting Gov. Mifflin in the district title game.

“It’s been similar,” said Payne, who shares the court with football teammates Schlaffer, Anthony Caccese and Carter Redding. “Not a lot of people believe in us. They look at our record and they think that defines us.

“We know it does not. We want to make a district run and every one of these guys knows that we definitely can. We can put another number up on that banner.”

Payne was so down after last season, when the Eagles finished 3-14, that he didn’t want to think about basketball. He didn’t pick up a ball for months; the thought of not playing this season crossed his mind.

“I hate losing,” he said. “(But) I realized I don’t want to give this up. I wanted to be out there and playing in front of the home crowd; I didn’t get that my junior year (because of COVID-19).

“And I knew we had a good team (coming) back. I wanted to play with ‘Cheese’ (Caccese) and all those guys. I knew we had a good shot at making a run.”