5 Sentinel-area storylines from 2024 Mid-Penn boys basketball media day
The high school sports calendar still says fall, but a flurry of discussion surrounding the winter season took place Wednesday.
Mid-Penn media day was held at the PennLive headquarters in Mechanicsburg, and 13 Sentinel-area boys basketball teams fielded questions, presented outlooks and talked goals for the upcoming 2024 campaign.
Here are five local takeaways from Wednesday's media session.
Ready to run it back
The Cumberland Valley and Mechanicsburg programs rewrote history last year with District 3 Class 6A and 5A titles. The Eagles earned their first in program history while the Wildcats captured their second overall and first since 1995.
Neither team is satisfied. CV and Mechanicsburg each return four of their five starters from last season while batches of underclassmen expect to fill in the gaps.
"We talked about it," CV head coach David Vespignani said, "this group hasn't accomplished anything yet. That was last year's group. It's starting all over. People talk about defending kind of like you're standing with your back against the wall, and people are coming to you. We're not going to be that. We want to be the aggressor. You want to be the hunter still. So this is the last opportunity for these guys to do that. They want to go out and finish their senior year the right way."
Mechanicsburg is in the same boat, albeit with a switch to 6A play this winter.
"We just don't want to be complacent this year from what we did last year," Wildcat senior Justin Bardo said. "Obviously, we're still gonna continue to take it one game at a time."
Bulldogs have the same bark
Big Spring shocked the District 4A bracket last winter when it forged an unprecedented run to the title tilt as the sixth seed. The Bulldogs rallied in a quarterfinal against Littlestown, regrouped from an 11-point deficit in the final two minutes of a semifinal at Fleetwood and settled for silver in a 55-50 setback to Eastern York.
The District 3 final appearance was Big Spring's first since 1963, and the Bulldogs qualified for their first PIAA tournament as a program.
"Obviously, we did amazing things last year but we're still dogs," senior Aidan Sallie said. "We're still underdogs in a lot of different scenarios, so we still have that fight, and we don't think it's gonna go away anytime soon. Even though the teams we play are different and we've already accomplished a lot, we want more and more."
Sallie, an All-State select last winter, headlines a returning crop of talent. He's joined by fellow seniors Brexton Heckendorn and Alan Walker and sophomore standout Ayden Martinez. The Bulldogs lost starting point guard Jake Knouse to graduation but replace his role with freshman Landon Sallie.
"If it follows the history that our program has been trending," head coach Jason Creek said. "Ten years ago, it was just trying to win some games. And then it was trying to crack double-digit wins. And then it was trying to crack districts, and it was trying to crack states. So it's just going to keep building."
Second-year surges
Boiling Springs and Cedar Cliff experienced the highs and lows of new regimes last winter under first-year head coaches Brett Sheaffer and Kevin Rutherford. The Bubblers reached the District 3 Class 4A quarterfinals while the Colts came a few spots shy of the 6A postseason.
Amid the success, both programs endured their struggles. Boiling Springs, after a 7-0 start, lost its next five games. Meanwhile, Cedar Cliff suffered skids of five, four and three games in an 8-14 finish.
"We were in a lot of close games last year, and we didn't win as many as we could have," Rutherford said. "So I think going through that adversity, learning how to win those close games, is going to be key. Because the Keystone, it's competitive, and it doesn't matter if you play the first-ranked team or the last-ranked team every single night. So to be able to win those close games and learn from our mistakes is going to be key."
Helping the Bubblers and Colts traverse hard-nosed Capital and Keystone schedules will be a veteran outfit. Boiling Springs retains six seniors while Cedar Cliff touts depth.
"Through the years of coaching, you have seniors realize this is the first time you don't have somebody playing against you that's older than you," Sheaffer said. "So a lot of times that senior year, you see that collective buy-in."
Carlisle's charge
Jaydon and Parker Smith were revered as the "Smith Brothers" or the "Smith Twins" in Carlisle circles last year. Jaydon, who led the Thundering Herd in most statistical categories, graduated in the spring and is pursuing a college career at Shippensburg University.
The good news: Parker is back for his final waltz. The senior has a strong supporting cast around him, including fourth-year players Lucas Ream and Spencer Griffie.
"Our identity is we have a lot of seniors that have logged a lot of minutes," head coach Andre Anderson said. "These guys, hopefully they play well together. They come together as one unit. We're going to be a special team. And losing Jaydon is a big thing, but in the offseason, I feel like we did really well in that, in replacing the things he does."
Carlisle has a hunger to address after falling a win short of a 2023-24 PIAA 6A berth. The Herd have knocked on the door the last few seasons, but it's a hurdle Anderson's assembly is prepared to clear this winter.
"These guys haven't, this class hasn't experienced that state level yet," Anderson said. "Us as coaches, we've experienced that before, and man, there's nothing better than that. There's nothing better, and we preach that to these guys all the time. When they get there, they're gonna understand that once we do get there, I think they're gonna fight, fight, fight, to keep it going."
"I feel like everyone in our town, everyone in our school is always talking about those (four PIAA championships)," Parker Smith said. "So it's just a fire under us, and I feel like we just use that as motivation."
East Pennsboro and West Perry jumped to Class 5A in the offseason realignment. For two programs that have navigated the ebbs and flows of 4A competition in recent years, the promotion adds another challenge.
"We just want to push ourselves to be the best we can," West Perry senior Mason Sanno said. "There's a lot of games that could go either way, especially in basketball. It's how it is. We just want to be the best version of ourselves and push (through it)."
The Panthers face additional change with a shift to the Colonial and the loss of starting guard Dayrell Everett to a torn ACL. East Penn aims to overcome the trials with the leadership of senior Ali Alami and junior Haydn Lay.
In the Mustang locker room, West Perry is leaning on restored talent — the Elliottsburg group graduated two seniors — and a family atmosphere to rebound from a 3-19 season.
"I think when teams look at us," East Penn senior Ali Alami said, "they're gonna say, 'We have to play those gritty East Penn boys.' It's always gonna be a very physical, hard game. That's what we're shooting for."
Christian Eby is a sports reporter for The Sentinel and cumberlink.com . Love
