Lancaster-Lebanon League Seniors Lock In, Put On One Final Show In 2025 Edition Of Annual All-Star Showcase
Written by: Andy Herr on April 10, 2025
(Photos by Kate Levato)
On Wednesday evening, when those of whom were selected to partake in the Lancaster-Lebanon League Senior All-Star Game were asked to put their school’s uniform on for one final run, some things were different. Yet some things remained similar as they had all year long. Or year(s) long for that matter.
As far as the differences, the change in venue most notably as Conestoga Valley’s Rill Gymnasium — slated for a bit of a facelift of its own in the very near future — served on hosting duties for the first time in a long time as the game moved away from its age-old location of Hempfield’s Buchanan Gymnasium. Also, this edition of the 2025 showcase event marked the second straight year of a round-robin format that saw teams waging battle back-and-forth against one another throughout the evening, a perhaps much-needed reprieve from the “first to 140 points” logic that seemed to make up iterations of this game in prior years where defense, much less foul calls, were optional at best. At that’s putting it very mildly without any sort of extra kick in the way of added spice.
But as far as the similarities were concerned, those too remained equally as evident this year, nonetheless.
For those seniors who will soon be receiving high school diplomas in just a matter of a few short months now, Wednesday night at CV marked one showing to the general public as to why they were selected to participate in this annual showcase event.
Oddly enough, some of the rosters that were constructed gave way to interesting storylines.
There was instances of both Manheim Central and Manheim Township crime-on-crime with the likes of Ryan Kenneff and Mason Rodgers being split apart on separate squads despite both donning the Barons’ maroon and white, along with Ty Gray and Jordan Pettigrew going at one another while dressed in Blue Streaks’ garb.
There were also instances of teammates playing with one another of course. Oddly enough though, not necessarily of the high school variety.
If you fancy yourself a Bloomsburg Huskies fan, you had the opportunity to see two of the program’s 2025 high school signees play in the L-L Senior All-Star Game when referencing Donegal’s Sawyer Floyd and Lampeter-Strasburg’s Chase Smucker, and three of the program’s incoming L-L products altogether as Cedar Crest 6’7 big man, RJ Young, was also in attendance, although unable to suit up unfortunately.
For Lancaster Bible College, the same could also be said.
Suffice to say that the Charges have done quite well for themselves of late when it comes to securing and locking down the Lancaster County borders in making sure talent doesn’t wander far away from their own backyard. Not the least of which includes Manheim Central most of all as Lancaster Bible has now drawn two commitments out of the Barons’ program in the last three years courtesy of Trey Grube in 2023 and now the explosive Landon Zeiset, a 2025 Central grad, slated to head down Manheim Pike to begin his college career in due time.
Joining Zeiset when it comes to upcoming college orientation on the LCBC campus will be ELCO’s Micah Gray, an unsung hero of the Raiders’ outfit these last few seasons who thrived in doing the little things, rightly parlaying his heart and desire into that of a college basketball opportunity in playing for the Chargers’ program this upcoming fall for what will be five former L-L League players between those aforementioned three and 2022 Conestoga Valley grad, Luke Rumbaugh, along with 2023 Lancaster Mennonite state champion, Cam Hurst.
There were also of course the pure scorers there too on Wednesday.
Chief among them, a grand total of well over 6,000 career points scored over the last few years when spread across the likes Cocalico’s Camden Ochs, Annville-Cleona’s inside/outside duo of Jon Shay and Elisha Slabach, Solanco’s Noah Bailey, Garden Spot’s Jace Conrad, and the all-time leading scorer in L-S history, Chase Smucker, all of whom eclipsed the 1,000-point career threshold this past winter. Then, bump that up to players who were selected to play in the game but did not when talking about Warwick’s Caleb Johnsen and Penn Manor’s Michael Lower in particular, and you can then add two more seniors to that group of six who will forever have their names stitched into history (literally). Beyond those fellas, short of taking the time to add up everyone else’s totals for the sake of sanity, it isn’t farfetched whatsoever to suggest that over 10,000 points scored collectively had descended upon Conestoga Valley for their final curtain call for this event. No matter what league or what conference you fancy most, those are numbers that don’t figure to be all that commonplace. At least contained within one graduating class you’d venture to surmise.
There were the deep pullup triples, splashed home by Lancaster Country Day’s Chris Dukes and Manheim Township’s Jordan Pettigrew, who each made a living frustrating opposing coaches with their shared marksmanship and range, the knockdown, dead-eye treys sunk by Manheim Central’s Mason Rodgers and Lampeter-Strasburg’s Chase Smucker, the unbridled athleticism the likes of which posed by way of McCaskey’s DeAndre Jones and Manheim Central’s Landon Zeiset, and the overall prowess and ability to go and get buckets courtesy of Ephrata’s Marqus Hardin and Annville-Cleona’s Elisha Slabach to name a very select few within this esteemed group.
Yet as far as the games themselves, no one will remember the end result of those that took place over an hour and change on Wednesday night at CV as time inevitably drags onward. Shoot, maybe not even a few hours later even. But that’s not the underlying point of this night. Nor will it ever be.
For this group, Wednesday night offered these seniors, all of whom brought respective value to their programs, one final chance to lace em up wearing the school colors.
For some of them, this was nothing more than a glorified open gym where they probably wanted to walk that fine line of having fun, yet being equally cautious to make sure nothing foolish happened in sustaining any senseless and needless injuries considering the college-playing futures which await a good portion of them, no matter what sport they may have signed on the bottom line to play for.
For others, this was likely the final chance to play in a game with sanctioned referees that kept time and score, perhaps ever, in the event they don’t soon pop up in a men’s league at Spooky Nook for instance.
At the heart of it though, that’s really what this night is really meant to be about. A communal sense of shared brotherhood between both friend and foe alike that makes the close-knit community of the Lancaster-Lebanon League family that what it truly is and what is largely its greatest tangible asset.
Sure, there may be other leagues that put on a better show when it comes to a senior all-star event. That can of course be debated, albeit totally senselessly one might rightly argue. But what can’t be diminished or understated is that no matter what the venue, no matter what the format of the evening, and no matter as to where exactly on the calendar that this night happens to fall on an annual basis, it’s always a special treat to see those outgoing seniors get one last chance to shine. For this group, the 2025 soon-to-be grads, they can rest easy knowing that they fulfilled their mission in that regard as far as Wednesday night was most concerned.
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
