Brian Wrobel ready for weighty challenge as Gov. Mifflin’s new boys basketball coach

Brian Wrobel knows the Gov. Mifflin boys basketball job he was approved for Monday night will be a demanding one.

Not because the Mustangs face Reading High, Wilson and Muhlenberg twice each this season, and Berks Catholic once.

No, it’s bigger than that.

The 32-year-old Antietam graduate steps into the difficult, if not impossible, position of replacing the late Kyle Conrad, who succumbed to cancer last month.

“There’s days when you sit there and think about it and say, ‘It’s not right,’ ” Wrobel said of replacing Conrad, who courageously remained on the bench throughout his long illness. ” ‘It shouldn’t be this way, I shouldn’t be here.’ “

He gets past those moments by knowing people are counting on him — and that Conrad, whom he coached under for four seasons — wouldn’t have any of it.

“If he knew I was thinking this way, he would curse me out,” Wrobel joked.

Wrobel, the Mustangs’ JV coach the past four seasons, knows the program and the players and how Conrad would want things done. They clicked almost immediately, he said, when they first talked about the job after Conrad was hired before the 2018-19 season.

They had never played or coached together and had no basketball connections, Wrobel said, but they saw the game the same way and working together became a comfortable fit.

“You heard it every day at practice: Keep the ball out of the middle,” Wrobel said of their shared defensive philosophy. “Offensively, it was ‘move the ball.’ “

Conrad, a star player at Mifflin, was used to living in the large basketball shadow of Reading High, and Wilson to some extent, and played and coached like an underdog. The message to his players was to leave it all out on the court and never lose faith.

Wrobel, who played at Antietam, the smallest school in the Berks Conference, understands that mindset. The teams he played for were out-manned by division rival and neighbor Central Catholic but he was inspired by his coaches at Antietam to accept the challenge.

Wrobel was particularly moved, he said, by Antietam coaches John Rizzo, who gave him his first job in basketball, and by Aaron Anders, his JV coach with the Mounts. He wanted to coach the game after being coached by them.

Wrobel hopes to provide his Mifflin players with the same kind of preparation and inspiration.

Wrobel has coached since graduating from Antietam in 2008. He started as a junior high coach at Antietam and moved up to coach on the Mounts varsity staff, where younger brother Andy was the leading scorer.

Wrobel moved to Delaware for a few years and coached at Cape Henlopen High School before returning home four years ago. When Dan Haughney resigned as Mifflin’s head coach and his top assistant, Conrad, took over Wrobel thought there might be an opportunity for him.

His first Mustangs team will be an underdog; only two starters, Gerrell and Delsin McNeil, return, along with top reserve Tyler Minnick, from a team that went 11-11 and missed the playoffs.

“We’ll have good leadership with those three guys, and that’s what we’re gonna need, because we’ve got a lot of younger guys trying to make their way,” Wrobel said. “We have some talent, we have some shooters, we have some high IQ kids; it’s just a matter of how quickly they can get used to the varsity speed.”

The message they’ll hear from Wrobel will be no different than the one they’ve heard in recent seasons.

“It’ll be the same as Kyle said every year,” Wrobel said. “Give everything you have between the lines, stay focused, control what you can control. If you can walk off that court and say you gave it everything for those two hours there’s nothing to hang your head about. That’s how Kyle approached everything.”

In late August, Wrobel said, Conrad asked him if he’d be willing to take over the team this year if Conrad couldn’t go. Wrobel understands the weight of accepting that challenge.

“I want to put forward my best effort,” he said, “not only for him (but) for the kids, for the team, for the community. It’s my responsibility now so I want to make sure I do it the best I can.”