New-look Red Knights may seem different but deep down they have changed little
2023 Berks basketball coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Everything about Reading High basketball is different this season: The coach, the top players, the expectations. It’s all new.
On the inside, where the real work is done – at the 4 a.m. practices, during intensive preseason conditioning drills, throughout the busy summer schedule – it all appears the same.
“Honestly, I feel like nothing has changed,” said senior guard Nico Sosa.
Rick Perez, the winningest coach in program history, is gone but the culture he built, said Sosa, remains strong. The year-round commitment, the team-building, the chemistry, it’s all still there, he said.
Former assistant coach Francis Camara is set to be a varsity head coach for the first time Tuesday night when the Red Knights open at Central York but even that, said Sosa, is really not much of a change.
“Coach Francis has been here (in the program),” Sosa said, “especially for the seniors. Since fourth grade, fifth grade he’s been pushing us like he is now.”
The Red Knights aren’t missing much from their PIAA Class 6A championship team: Just the 152 3-pointers and 49 points per game that All-Berks picks Ruben Rodriguez, Myles Grey and Aris Rodriguez provided, or the defensive excellence and steady presence of Amier Burdine, that’s all.
“It feels like a big change,” admits senior guard Nick Chapman, one of the guys being counted on to fill some of that void.
Fellow seniors Yadiel Cruz and Malik Osumanu, who essentially split the fifth starting position last season, are back and each will have a much bigger role.
Chapman and the 6-5 Osumanu were basically defensive role players last season. The only proven scorer is Cruz, who averaged 8.5 points and provided instant offense off the bench over the second half of last season. He scored 18 points against Wilson and 17 against Upper Darby in the PIAA Tournament.
The overriding question for this team is: Other than Cruz, who’s going to put the ball in the basket?
“Pretty much everybody,” Sosa said. “Not one person has to do it. Anybody can have the hot hand.”
The Red Knights opened last against Central York with an 87-68 victory. Aris Rodriguez knocked down four 3-pointers in the opening period and finished with what would stand as a season-high 30 points. Rodriguez, the two-time Berks Player of the Year now playing at Rider, scored 31.
It’s unlikely you’ll see anyone put up those kind of numbers anytime soon.
Who emerges as consistent scorers will be one of the most intriguing things to watch this season. Osumanu and Chapman, who averaged a combined 4.8 points, will certainly increase their totals; so will Cruz, who was feeling his way around the program in the early stages of the season after arriving from the Dominican Republic.
“I feel there were people waiting for their turn, and when that time came they were ready,” Osumanu said of the summer and fall campaigns, where the “new” Red Knights began to come together.
They expect to get key contributions from two younger players, sophomore Weshly Rosario and freshman Jeremiah Camara.
Rosario saw considerable time as a freshman and big things are expected of him.
“Weshly has the ability to run the show for the next three years,” Francis Camara said. “His unselfish passing and play-making ability will help us keep the up-tempo pace we like to play.”
The guy everyone’s been talking about is the younger Camara, who began creating a buzz a couple years ago on the AAU circuit. He could be the most impactful freshman Reading has had since Lonnie Walker IV a decade ago. In fact, he could be more important to this team than Walker was to his team, which already had several established senior scorers when he arrived.
“Everyone’s going to be surprised at what he’s doing,” Sosa said. “I know there’s not gonna be one game where he folds. Of course it’s going to be new to him but he’s gonna be good; he can do everything.”
The young Camara can play both ends of the floor. He father calls him a defensive “menace” and his teammates already trust that he can put the ball in the basket. They won’t be afraid to give him the ball.
“I expect a lot from him,” Osumanu said. “He’s one of the reasons we won some games in the summer, because of his energy.”
Game No. 1 won’t be easy. Central York is, to put it bluntly, loaded. The Panthers return all their starters from a team that went 22-8 and reached the PIAA Tournament.
They’re led by York County Player of the Year Greg Guidinger, a 6-7 senior who has scored over 1,000 points and is on the way to becoming his program’s all-time scoring leader. He’s getting Division I looks after averaging 16.9 points and 8.5 rebounds as a junior. He scored 16 against the Red Knights last season.
Ben Rill, a 6-8 junior, also had a big game against Reading last season, scoring 24 points. He averaged a team-best 19.5 points as a sophomore to go with 8.5 rebounds.
Combo guard Ben Natal returns after a strong freshman debut and Doug Layer Jr., a freshman this season, is already considered one of the top guards in the YCIAA.
No one is expecting another 30-win season or even a run at a district title but the Red Knights will continue to be a factor in the race for the Berks Conference title. That much hasn’t changed.
“This senior class has been overshadowed,” said Francis Camara. “They’re talented guys, they’re great leaders. We have a lot of players returning, guys who have been playing for a long time. They still have those same (winning) habits.”
