Exeter set to bring in long-time college assistant as head basketball coach

Exeter is set to bring in an experienced college coach to replace Matt Ashcroft, who abruptly resigned after leading the Eagles to their first District 3 championship this season.

Jeff VanGorder is in line to be approved as Exeter’s boys basketball coach at Tuesday’s school board meeting, according to the agenda posted on the school district website.

VanGorder, who resides in Perkiomenville, is currently the national recruiting coordinator for Pro Skills Basketball Philadelphia.

He has been an assistant coach at Muhlenberg College, Ursinus College, Carnegie Mellon and Hamilton College over the past decade.

Ashcroft, 34, was named both Berks and Pennsylvania’s Class 5A Coach of the Year after leading the Eagles to a 27-7 finish, including 10 postseason wins. Their only postseason losses came to Reading High and Imhotep Charter, the eventual Class 6A and 5A PIAA champs, respectively.

Ashcroft said he resigned in order to spend more time with his family.

Ashcroft won 53 games over his final three seasons after a rough debut that netted just three wins in 17 games.

The Eagles reached the PIAA Tournament in 2022 despite playing without their No. 2 scorer and rebounder, Joey Schlaffer, over the final month of the season. Schlaffer did not play this season because he enrolled early at Penn State, where he is a promising tight end.

The Eagles were without their No. 2 scorer and rebounder Reece Garvin, who was injured for much of the postseason this year; he returned to play in the 67-53 victory over Manheim Central in the district title game.

VanGorder has experience coaching players at the high school level as head coach of the Cortland Basketball Club AAU team from 2007-2011 and as an instructor at multiple Ivy and Patriot League elite camps, along with instructing at Hoop Group, Hoop Mountain and The60Camp.

VanGorder is a native of Cortland, N.Y., and graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2010.

He was an assistant at Ursinus for two seasons, leaving after the 2020 season. He coached at Muhlenberg College last season.

Bears coach Kevin Small described him as a “seasoned and talented coach who brings a wealth of experience working with and recruiting (top) academic student-athletes,” on VanGorder’s Ursinus website bio.

VanGorder was the lead assistant at Carnegie Mellon from 2015-18.

Tartans head coach Tony Wingen said VanGorder “has a really solid background as a teacher and as a recruiter and is completely tuned in to the elite camp scene,” on the school’s website.

VanGorder was an assistant coach at Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., from 2011-2015.

He will inherit a talented roster that includes a pair of return starters and potential All-Berks picks, Garvin and Kevin Saenz, each of whom were all-division picks as juniors. Saenz, who had considered transferring to an out-of-state program, is reportedly staying at Exeter, according to a source close to the program. He has been playing with the Eagles during summer league.

Garvin averaged 11.3 points last season, second-highest on the team, and led the Eagles with 50 3-pointers. Saenz averaged 11.1 points and made 39 3’s.

They’ll be joined by key reserves Alex Kelsey, a rising senior, and Aiden Dauble and Jayden Ware, two of the Berks Conference’s most talented freshmen last season. Kelsey moved into the starting lineup in the postseason when Garvin was injured. Dauble was one of the league’s top sixth men and made a huge impact during the district the state playoff runs.

Exeter will head into the 2023-24 season as one of the Berks Conference’s top teams and is expected to again challenge Reading High for the title. The Eagles led the Red Knights throughout this season’s league championship game before Reading used a late run to secure a 70-63 victory.

Exeter reached the Berks championship game for the first time since 1984; its Division II title was the program’s first division title since 1984. It made its first district title game appearance since 1983. The Eagles had reached the PIAA championship game only one previous time in their history, 1974.