It’s a season full of change in Berks boys basketball: 10 Things To Watch in 2023-24
2023 Berks basketball coverage presented by
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Change is the operative word for Berks boys basketball in 2023-24.
The top scorers will mostly be new names. More than a third of the head coaches are new. There’s even a new rule change which affect every game – possibly a lot.
The season tips in less than a week. Here are 10 Things to Watch:
1. The Red Knights
Reading High is always a team to watch but never more so than this season after the departure of head coach Rick Perez – architect of three PIAA championships in seven years – and the team’s top three scorers, including one of the greatest players in program history, All-State pick Ruben Rodriguez.
The cupboard isn’t completely bare – in fact, it wouldn’t be a tremendous surprise to see the Red Knights bring home a third straight league championship.
Reading is among a group of five teams – along with Wilson, Berks Catholic, Exeter and Muhlenberg – with legitimate designs on a county title.
“This is the first time in 10 years people can say it’s (completely) open,” said Muhlenberg coach Matt Flowers. “There’s no Lonnie, no Stevie, no Ruben.”
Lonnie Walker IV, Stevie Mitchell and Ruben Rodriguez have ruled the roost over the past decade but there’s no one in that talent category and no team as stacked as Reading High has been in recent seasons.
After losing All-Berks picks Ruben Rodriguez, Myles Grey and Aris Rodriguez, along with defensive stopper Amier Burdine – each a part of three district and two state championships – the Red Knights must replace 72 percent of their scoring and 153 3-pointers.
The guys expected to lead the way – seniors Yadiel Cruz, Nick Chapman and Malik Osumanu – are playoff-tested, each playing key roles in a 32-1 season that ranks as the greatest in the program’s great history.
“This senior class has been overshadowed,” said first-year head coach Francis Camara, an assistant in the program for six seasons. “They’re talented guys, they’re great leaders.”
The seniors will be aided by 5-10 guard Jeremiah Camara, the coach’s son and perhaps the top player in what looms as a talented freshman class league-wide.
2. Rick Perez
Has anyone ever coached a team to a state championship, then taken a job the next season as an assistant coach – at a division rival?
Rick Perez is unabashedly happy to be the first.
He did all that could be done at Reading High. Now it’s back to his home district, where he played, where his three kids now play and where he’ll be reunited with his former top lieutenant and lifelong friend, Matt Flowers.
While the move may be shocking to outsiders it makes all the sense in the world to those close to Perez. He has always been about family and in his mind this is no different.
“Family is what it’s all about,” he said. “That’s what it’s forever going to be about for me.”
The Reading High coaching job is one of the most demanding in the state – in any sport – and Perez held it down for a dozen years. He won and coached more games than anyone else in program history. His resume is littered with championships: Six Berks Conference, five District 3 and three PIAA.
He’ll slide over to a program modeled after the one he left: Flowers coached with him for 10 seasons and was instrumental in creating a culture that lifted the Red Knights to the top.
“I don’t care if I’m the chief or the indian, that’s not what it’s about,” Perez said of now being second chair. “It’s about family. I gotta go be with my babies . . . I gotta go be with my brother.”
3. The bench
The Berks Conference welcomes an unprecedented seven new head coaches, an astounding number.
Conrad Weiser, Exeter, Hamburg, Kutztown, Oley Valley, Reading High and Wyomissing all have new coaches.
Two of them came on board late: Camara and Chad Walters at Oley Valley weren’t officially approved until this month.
Two take over programs which played for state championships last season, Camara and Exeter’s Jeff VanGorder.
Only Walters and Conrad Weiser’s Mike Dooley has been a high school head coach before, though VanGorder has a wealth of experience at the college level.
Five of the seven are new to the scene: Only Camara and Wyomissing’s Garrett Etzel were with their current team last season.
The other new coaches: Will Wilson Jr. at Hamburg and Eric Luckenbill at Kutztown.
Add in the three first-year coaches last season, at Gov. Mifflin, Twin Valley and Tulpehocken, and more than half the league’s 18 coaches are relatively new to the scene.
There will at least one new coach for the 2024-25 season: Fleetwood’s Terry Sitler said this, his 30th season in coaching, will be his last.
4. The greybeard
The 17 Berks head coaches at programs not named Berks Catholic have combined for 829 varsity wins.
(Philmarphoto)
The guy at BC has 792.
Three of the head coaches in the Berks Conference weren’t born when Snip Esterly became Central Catholic’s head coach in 1989. Eleven weren’t born when he joined Reggie Weiss’ staff nine years earlier.
At least five, maybe more, played against his teams at Central. Good chance those who faced Esterly’s teams didn’t win.
Esterly has won more games in his 35 seasons than all but six coaches in Pennsylvania history.
With eight wins he will become the seventh in state history with 800 wins; later this season he should move up to No. 6 on the all-time PA list.
For the first time he’s considering an exit strategy: He’s thinking about coaching another five seasons, then playing a lot of golf. He’ll be closing in on age 70 . . . and win No. 900 at that point.
Might as well stick around a couple more years and go for 1,000, right?
5. The Eagles
In an offseason of big news, none was bigger – or more jaw-dropping — than seeing Matt Ashcroft step down as head coach at Exeter just months after taking the Eagles to their first district title and first state title-game appearance in nearly 50 years.
Ashcroft, in just his fourth season, took the Eagles to a 26-6 finish that included a Berks II title and a pair of wins over eventual District 3 Class 4A champ Berks Catholic.
Jeff VanGorder steps into a good situation, what with the return of all-division picks Kevin Saenz and Reece Garvin and key bench players Aidan Dauble and Alex Kelsey.
The Eagles will again battle the Saints for the Berks II title and be a top contender for a league championship.
No transition such as this is seamless; the Eagles will have find ways to replace All-Berks picks Anthony Caccese and Zyion Paschal. They won’t have the league’s dominant big man – or any big man, for that matter – to lean on.
“This is a completely different group,” VanGorder emphasized.
(Jeremy Drey Photography)
6. The Saints
Berks Catholic took some heavy graduation hits, losing the program’s all-time scoring leader in Josiah Jordan, All-Berks pick Ryan Koch and sharpshooter Jack Miller from a team that won 23 games and a district championship.
Don’t fret for the Saints: They’ve still got plenty back, starting with the McKoy brothers, Josh and Kingston. They’re expected to be the league’s best duo. Maybe the best brother combo ever in Berks basketball? Time will tell.
Josh, a 6-3 senior, was a starter on Antietam’s district finalist as a sophomore before stepping into the Saints’ lineup last season. He brings length and an inside/outside game that will be tough to stop.
Kingston, a 6-1 sophomore, became the Saints defensive stopper last season and will emerge as one of the league’s top all-around players. He’s at the head of a very talented Class of 2026.
The key for the Saints will be senior Parker Nein, a top baseball prospect ready to break out on the court after a big summer performance. A consistent third scorer will make the Saints tough to stop.
A third straight District 3 Class 4A title is a possibility.
7. The Bulldogs
(PhilMarPhoto)
After graduating four starters Wilson did a quick re-load and figures to be right back at the top, batting for the Berks I and Berks Conference crowns.
All-Division guard Madyx Gruber, the lone returning starter, is joined by what could prove to be one of the league’s deepest teams. Matt Coldren can go eight to nine deep and has a lot of interchangeable parts and all-around athletes.
They’re young too; the Bulldogs might have just two seniors in their rotation.
Look for Gruber to improve his scoring now that he’ll be playing less point guard, for sophomore guard Correll Akings to step after a solid freshman debut and for senior Tommy Hunsicker to be a glue guy who makes it all work.
Junior post man Luke Levan made big strides and was the Most Improved Player in the West Reading Summer League; senior Kevin Twiford was a West Reading All-Star; and freshman Michael Glover will make an impact on the boards after an impressive football debut as a tight end.
8. Free throws
The one-and-one, long a staple of endgame strategy – and never more impactful than when used by Jim Valvano during N.C. State’s 1983 NCAA championship run – is no longer a part of high school basketball.
A nationwide change adopted by the PIAA will see players shoot two shots in the bonus, which will occur after a fifth team foul in each quarter. Team fouls will reset after each quarter.
You won’t see an inordinate number of free throws at the end of each half or trailing teams fouling like mad in the final minutes.
“It makes the end game so much different,” said Berks Catholic coach Snip Esterly. “Now the pressure’s off (of the shooter).”
How this rule will play out, no one’s quite sure. It wasn’t implemented during summer leagues so there was no trial period to experiment with.
That begins Friday.
The change may lead to a renewed call for a shot clock. With the strategy of increasing pressure on the free throw shooter now gone it will be even more difficult for trailing teams to close the gap.
9. Mounts going back home
A July flood that left Antietam Middle Senior High School uninhabitable means the Mounts are practicing and playing home games at the nearly 100-year-old Mount Penn Primary Center.
The Mounts haven’t played there since 1989, when they went by Mount Penn.
Mounts coach Mike Green said the move hasn’t been a logistical issue but that the team lost a lot of its equipment in the flood.
The Mounts play their first home game Saturday against Conrad Weiser. They’ll host their annual holiday tournament at Exeter Dec. 27-28.
10. Who’s got next?
Last year’s All-Berks team was comprised of seven seniors so there will be plenty of new names in the headlines.
Berks Catholic’s Josh McKoy and Exeter’s Reece Garvin and Kevin Saenz are among nine returning all-division picks.
Fleetwood is the only other team with two all-division picks back, seniors Aiden Soumas and Nate Herb.
Conrad Weiser should have one of the highest-scoring duos in juniors Donovan Gingrich and Brady McKee. They combined for 115 3’s as sophomores.
Daniel Boone’s Brendan Gaines is the top returning scorer; he averaged 15.5 points as a sophomore.
Oley Valley’s Ben DeBalko led the league in 3-pointers (65) as a sophomore.
Jayden Kantner would have been the top returning scorer in Berks IV had he not transferred from Brandywine Heights to Muhlenberg.
McKoy (730) and Soumas (706), each seniors, are the top returning career scorers.
