New Twin Valley basketball coach: ‘I want us to be on the map’

Matt Herbener jumped right into coaching Twin Valley basketball.

He was approved as the boys coach by the school board May 16, met with his players three days later and ended up coaching some of them in a showcase event at the school that weekend.

“We got going right away,” said the 27-year-old former Ephrata guard, who began open gyms with the Raiders earlier this week.

Herbener, an elementary school teacher in the Ephrata district, is eager for his first experience as a high school head coach. He’s always loved the game and quickly realized the best way for him to stay around it was to coach. He got an early start there, too, signing on as a volunteer junior high coach at Ephrata when he was still a junior at Muhlenberg College.

He made the trek back to Lancaster County for almost every practice and game for the next two seasons, showing the enthusiasm and love for the game that he’ll now share with the Raiders.

“Since Day 1 he’s been invested,” said Charlie Fisher, who hired Herbener for his first Ephrata staff and brought him along to Manheim Central, where they worked together the last five seasons. “I couldn’t ask for a better assistant coach.”

Herbener coached the Barons’ JV team last season and went 22-0.

“He was so invested in the behind the scenes work with being a high school basketball coach,” said Fisher. “He dove head into our scouting, our practice preparation. I know he’ll be the most prepared coach around.”

Herbener is prepared for what’s in store at Twin Valley, a program that’s never been able take flight in the sport. The Raiders haven’t qualified for the District 3 playoffs in over a decade. They haven’t won a division title in 41 years. And they’ve never won a Berks Conference playoff game.

Herbener is hoping his positive energy and dedication will help change all of that.

“I knew coming in that this is something that wasn’t going to be easy,” he said. “At the same time, I saw them play a couple times last year so I know that there is talent there.

“They’re coming off 10 wins, which is a huge improvement from the year before (when they won four games). I know that they have some talent coming back.”

Twin Valley graduates four of its top six scorers but returns Kannon Zdimal, who averaged a team-best 15.1 points per game, and Josh Phillips, each of whom will be seniors. Zdimal was an all-division pick in Berks II.

The 10 wins were the most since the Raiders went 13-10 and finished second in Berks II in 2016-17 under Chad Walters. Walters resigned in March after six seasons as head coach.

For the 2022-23 season Twin Valley will be aligned in Division II with Berks Catholic and Exeter, which are moving from Division I to join Daniel Boone and Conrad Weiser.

Two-time Berks II champ Muhlenberg moves to Berks I, where it joins Gov. Mifflin, Reading High and Wilson.

Herbener knows what that will be like to compete against larger schools. At Ephrata the Mounts, who play in Section 2 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, had crossover games against Section 1 teams such as Manheim Township, Hempfield, McCaskey and Cedar Crest.

“When you’re playing teams like Reading and Wilson and Muhlenberg and Exeter, those are some powerhouses,” Herbener said.

The Raiders’ new coach has already rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work. He’s anxious for the summer season, when the Raiders will have teams in the West Reading Summer League and at Spooky Nook, and some players in the Pro Nelson League at West Reading.

“We’re ready to get going,” Herbener said. “I came here with the purpose to turn the program into a winning program. Twin Valley hasn’t won a district game since (1995), so this isn’t a school that’s known for basketball.

“I want us to be on the map. I want people to know Twin Valley is going to be a player in the Berks County League. We want to make some noise. We want to let people know that when they’re playing Twin Valley this isn’t going to be a cakewalk. We’re gonna give a tough game to whoever we play.

“The biggest thing is making sure we get our youth program, our junior high program and our high school program all on the same page. I’m not sure that was always the case. I want to make sure that there’s a continuity between all three of those programs.”

Herbener said its important for the program to add a ninth grade team, which he said it didn’t have last season.

“He doesn’t expect to go in there and turn it around in five seconds,” said Fisher, a 2005 Reading High grad who has had success at both Ephrata and Manheim Central. “He knows it’s going to be a slow process. He’s totally understanding of what he’s getting into and understands it’s baby steps.”