Alvernia men’s basketball program has come a long way since humble beginnings
By Tony Zonca — MikeDragoSports.com senior contributor
OK, Berks County sports trivia fans, you shoot to the top of the heap if you can identify the role Gerald Fulcher played in county sports history.
We’ll give you three guesses:
No, he did not start the bocce program at Victor Emmanuel’s; sorry, he did not coach seniors swimming at the Reading YMCA; good guess, but co-ed curling was not his specialty.
The coach was involved in something even more obscure: In 1974-75 he became the first men’s basketball coach at Alvernia. His team went 6-6 that inaugural season, and Fulcher apparently was swept into the dustbin of local sports obscurity.
He was followed by Don Davis, Reading cop Bill “Too Late” Hall and former Holy Name standout Bobby Reese.
Back then coaching the then-Crusaders was like water skiing behind a rowboat.
Things began to improve in 1981 when Rod Hand was hired as coach and athletic director. Hand, who had several glory years coaching at Exeter, featuring Charlie Booker’s marvelous skills, still had much to overcome. Foremost was the fact the Crusaders did not have a home; they played home games at Holy Name, practiced there late into the night or at nearby cramped Millmont Elementary School.
Some recruiting tool, huh?
Today’s players owe a lot to guys such as Steve Westley, Bryan Bossler and Larry Zerbe.
Cut to 1983. Westley, a Holy Name grad who did not play at Holy Name, at 6-5 was the school’s first legitimate big man. Bossler, a 5-10 junior guard who played for Hand at Exeter, was a terrific shooter. Zerbe, a backup at Reading High, was the assist leader. (Bossler went on to coach at Daniel Boone; Zerbe coached briefly at The ‘Vern’ for Mike Miller).
Those guys played because they loved the game. Playing basketball and hitting the books was a challenge. In the early days a bus stop attracted a bigger crowd.
After one embarrassing home game, a 109-63 spanking by NAIA powerhouse Shepherd (W.V.), Westley summed up his career.
“Hey, three years ago I think we set a county record when we lost to Spring Garden, 122-50,” he remembered. “You just have to forget games like this.
“The team we had four years ago was ridiculous. It was myself, (Dave) Samsel and four or five other guys. It was zoo ball the whole game. The problem is keeping players here four years. The school needs more to offer.”
“Money would be nice,” said Bossler. “For the size of the school we get good (student) support. My first year here we got only a handful of people.”
Both Westley and Bossler were early members of the school’s 1,000-point club.
Today, men’s basketball is the signature sport at Alvernia. Home games are must-see events. The local rivalry with Albright and playoff games are jam-packed and vocal.
Several events turned things around. Hand had stabilized the program in his nine years at the school (finishing with a 124-142 record). In 1987 funds were found for a new state-of-the-art fieldhouse, which still serves well today. Then the school went from NAIA to NCAA status and slowly upgraded its league participation.
Finally, Jack McCloskey, for whom the gym is named, showed up from Boyertown High in 1992. His teams went 227-111 until he stepped down in 2004; they qualified for the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference playoffs every season he was there and in 1997 went deep into the Division III national tournament.
Some of those best early players formed a group that consists of Seane Krinock, Corey Kemp, Damien Hunter, Ray Strickland, Tillman Sims, Tim Yanuskiewicz, Lonnie Walker and Dave Kapaona, along with Westley, Bossler and Samsel.
McCloskey turned his whistle over to Mike Miller, his assistant for 10 years, in 2005 and Miller has not missed a beat. Going into this season he had compiled a record of 277-168 including six MAC Commonwealth championships, six NCAA appearances and one ECAC championship.
“As Jack’s assistant I learned to coach with different schemes,” he said. “I also learned how to recruit student-athletes that fit Alvernia’s academic standards.”
He also never strayed from his Reading High roots, defense foremost in his many successes.
Miller, now in his 18th year as head coach, compiled a list of his favorite players: Zach Straining, Chris Talley, all-American Terence Shawell, Garret Etzel, Brian Parker, Harrison Deyo, Chris Davis, Marquis Marshall, Lamont Clark, Chuck Cooper, Mike Miller Jr., Keon Tayler and Malik Green.
Each name invokes a memory to Golden Wolves fans, but none more so than Westley and Bossler. And now, maybe, even Gerald Fulcher.
