Aaron Anders’ history lessons serving Spartans well

Aaron Anders’ favorite class in high school was history.

It wasn’t so much that he was interested in the Revolutionary War or the inner workings of F.D.R’s Lend-Lease program as it was his love of basketball.

His history teachers at Antietam just so happened to be basketball coaches: Bob Wheeler and Gary Choyka, each of who had coached at Mount Penn. Suffice it to say there was more discussion of the Boston Celtics than the Boston Tea Party, more talk about boxing out then of the Boxer Rebellion.

What would you expect of a kid from Mount Penn whose father played on the Mounts’ 1972 state championship team and whose grandfather played for them a generation before that?

Anders was all about basketball at Antietam, where he was a two-time All-Berks center and led the Mounts to a district final in 1994.

He and his dad spent countless hours talking hoops when they worked together in Dennis Anders’ painting business. Aaron heard all about the Mounts’ glory days, when they had one of the top small-school programs in the state, winning five district championships and three state titles during the 1960’s and 70’s.

“That community, Mount Penn, that was their identity back then,” Anders said

Basketball’s still one of the main subjects at home, where Aaron and his wife Annie have three daughters, the oldest of which, Mary, is a freshman on Wyomissing’s league and district championship team. Megan, a sixth-grader, and Mackenzie, a fourth-grader, play, too.

The game runs through Anders’ veins, and it pumps wildly once the ball goes up. He’s as active as any of the players are on the floor, and that’s saying a lot considering the way the Spartans move and get after it.

Anders may be understated before and after games but when the clock’s moving so is he, pacing up and down the sideline, excitedly directing and encouraging his players, jumping for joy or pumping his fist after a big play.

“When the kids do well, he’s excited,” said Mike Mitchell, the former Wyomissing coach who hired Anders as an assistant in 2015. “That’s who he is. He’s into it, no doubt.”

“If I’m not enthusiastic, what would I expect from them?” Anders says of his players. “I want them to be all-in. I can’t ask them to give it their all if they don’t feel like I’m giving my all. I feel like I’m giving them all of me, and it’s worked so far.”

Boy, has it. The Spartans take a 10-game winning streak and 26-2 record into the PIAA Tournament. A win over Parkway Center City Saturday at home at 4:30 will set a program record for victories.

Within a 14-day span they won the Berks Girls League and District 3 Class 4A championships, each for the first time in program history. They knocked off Delone Catholic, the three-time defending champ, for that second honor.

The fact that perhaps the biggest win of Anders’ life came at the Giant Center was vindication, of sorts. He had never played or coached there, or at the old Hersheypark Arena.

He had his sights set on playing at the historic old arena when he was a senior on the first Mounts team to win 20 games in over two decades; a massive February snow storm disrupted the District 3 schedule and Antietam, playing in the smallest classification, had its title game moved to Elizabethtown College.

Anders was a captain and key cog on the only Alvernia men’s basketball team to reach the NCAA Final Four when he was a junior in 1997. It was a wild ride but the Crusaders came up short, losing in the national semifinals.

Maybe that explains why he gets so excited watching his Wyomissing team cut down the nets.

“I’m feeling very, very blessed about this,” Anders said.

If you never saw Anders play all you have to do is watch the Spartans and you’ll get an idea of how he approached the game. The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

Anders was all about defense, crashing the boards and hitting the floor for a loose ball.

“He was relentless,” said Mitchell. “You could box him out and you (still) weren’t getting the rebound.”

“He always gave it his all,” said Alvernia University coach Mike Miller, a Crusaders assistant when Anders played. “He overachieved. The guys who overachieve, when they become coaches, they’re used to working hard and becoming better. I saw that right away.”

Miller liked Anders’ approach so much he hired him as an assistant coach and kept him on staff for four seasons. Prior to that Anders spent eight seasons as an assistant at Antietam, the first six working for his high school coach, Chris Gery.

Wyomissing wins primarily with defense, a 3-2 match-up that opponents just can’t solve. It starts with Audrey Hurleman, a tenacious 5-9 guard, up top, and ends with 6-1 shot-blocking Amaya Stewart in the back. In between every pass and every dribble is fiercely contested.

The Spartans held Berks Catholic to a season-low 23 points in the district semifinals and Delone Catholic to 30 points in the championship. They’re allowing a league-low 28.3 points per game; only one team has reached 50.

“He teaches it really well,” Mitchell said of Wyomissing’s zone. “They look like they’ve been playing it forever. He has them moving on the pass; they’re almost at the ball when they pass it. That’s something you don’t see a lot.”

Anders draws daily on his basketball roots, which run deep. He’s been mentored by some of the finest coaches in Berks history. He played for Jack McCloskey at Alvernia; McCloskey’s staff included Wheeler, Miller and Chuck Carroll, each of them highly successful high school head coaches.

He credits McCloskey for his game preparation, Miller for his understanding of offensive sets, Wheeler for his understanding of zone defenses. His passionate approach to the game rubbed off of Gery.

“He was willing to push you, and yet was able to get across that he was behind you,” Anders said of his high school coach. “His passion for the game . . . it was unmatched. You wanted to play for him, you wanted to give him your all. You would run through a brick wall for him. I want my kids to feel the way I felt around him.”