Meet The New Guys: Neil Koser (Lampeter-Strasburg)

Written by: Andy Herr on October 29, 2026

(Cover photo provided by Coach Koser)

We hope you’ve enjoyed our meet & greets with the new coaches who will begin their respective tenures inside the L-L this year. With that said, we’ll call this the season finale in our series. Fittingly, we’ll close the job that was filled last this offseason. 

Ask around, and it’s always one of premier jobs that will always peak anyone’s interest whenever it comes open — for a variety of different of reasons. Mostly though, it’s because they’re usually like really good. At pretty much everything. To put it bluntly, landing a gig at Lampeter-Strasburg is a pretty good deal for most anyone.

Now, for the third time in as many seasons, there will be a new voice calling the shots on the Pioneers’ boys’ basketball bench. Well, “new” being a relative term perhaps. 

As has seemed to become the drill at L-S, the Pios never have to look very far when it comes to selecting the new guy in charge. In fact, in just the 10+ years alone in circling back to the days of John Achille’s run in 2016, the next coach selected has always come from within-house when talking about Ed Berryman, Austin Smucker, and now, Neil Koser, who comes up from the junior high ranks to lead the entire program in totality as the new varsity head coach. And hey, when you’re rolling the way L-S has been of late, why mess with the formula?

We recently had the chance to catch with Coach Koser with the season just about ready to get rolling to discuss many topics. Chief among them, how he himself figures to handle the jump from JH to varsity specifically, what he envisions this program to look like now that he’s at the top of the totem pole, along with some points of dialogue.

We wish Coach Koser all the best as he and the program begin this new chapter. And if recent history is to serve as any sort of indicator, chances are that they’ll be just fine at L-S. 

Enjoy 

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