Unionville Looks The Part As Longhorns Corral Manheim Central In Opening Round Of PIAA-5A Playoffs, Continue Dominance Over L-L League Opposition As Historic Barons’ Senior Class Now Departs
Written by: Andy Herr on March 9, 2024
In terms of sheer history, it’d be hard to try and supplant this senior group of Barons if one felt the need to do so. Yes, while there are surely some who in recent Manheim Central history would like to have a say in that regard –likely the 2016 and 2017 Manheim Central senior classes for starters– you simply can’t gloss over this 2024 graduating class without appreciating their contributions to the program’s collective history in totality.
Make no mistake though. And while it isn’t a sentence meant in any way to try and diminish those who make basketball their one and only sport while enrolled at Manheim Central High School, but the overarching fact of the matter is that basketball, as great as some may deem it to be, will likely always and forever pale in comparison to that of the Barons’ perennial successes found on the football field, wrestling mat, or baseball diamond too for that matter.
Yet while you could try and do a deep dive, turned senior thesis into why Manheim Central success on the hardwood during the winter months has been so hard to come by over the course of the program’s overall history even without trying to grade it on a curve, it is equally true to emphasize that this last decade has seen some of the brightest days overall in Manheim Central boys’ basketball’s history bar none. And for that, a large portion of the kudos does need to be bestowed upon these four Barons found on the 2023-24 roster in particular.
Sure, maybe they lack the pure firepower and stardom that could be found if you go back to the likes of Matt Walsh and Taylor Funk in particular, or the last-second heroics from that in Tanner Brenize who’s final shot over West York in the quarterfinal round of the 2014 District 3-AAA playoffs at the Giant Center set the table for a run that eventually vaulted the Barons not just into that year’s championship tilt right back at the palatial confines in Hershey for their third straight game during said journey, but Brenize’s shot also awarded Manheim Central with their first bid into the state tournament in the school’s long (sometimes very long) history in the process.
And while the Barons would come up short in both of those particular contests against Susquehanna Township in the District 3 title game and Archbishop Carroll in the opening round of the state tournament respectively ten years ago now, the groundwork had been laid for a solid and sturdy foundation of which Chris Sherwood, back for his second stint as head coach on the Manheim Central bench at the time, could work with over the ensuing few seasons.
In fact, their very next year, while the Barons may have failed to reach the District 3-AAA championship that time around, their overall body of work was deemed good enough to earn Manheim Central another chance to compete in the state playoffs. There, unlike the previous season, Manheim Central would taste victory for the first time ever in the PIAA bracket with a prototypical 35-32 Manheim kinda game over GAR Memorial — a school from Wilkes-Barre which has since shuttered its doors permanently in the years that followed — before the Barons fell to the eventual state champ, Neumann-Goretti, a Saints’ team that was found just a tick outside the National Top 25 rankings at the time that second round state game was held at nearby Garden Spot.
Yet again, while obviously upset that their run had come up short there and then against one of the better high school hoops franchises found along the eastern seaboard, departing Manheim Central senior, Matt Walsh, may have put it best when told LNP after that game, “I hope our senior class has left a big impact on younger kids.”
Now, maybe it’s not necessarily a straightforward and direct line given that it’s been almost a decade since Walsh uttered those words in the postmortem of his final high school game played, but it’s hard not to look at this particular group of Barons in that very same light, if not better than those groundbreaking Manheim Central crews quite frankly.
Over the last two years in particular, the Barons have ascended to heights they haven’t really seen before. Chief among them of course being the program’s inaugural visit to the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship game last season, a game that nearly went in the Barons’ favor had it not been for what felt to be some late-game, divine intervention working in Hempfield’s favor in said game. From there, a trip to the District 3 final at the Giant Center was in store yet again– this time in the 5A ranks – where the Barons fell to Exeter in that grand finale before tripping up against Mars from the WPIAL in the opening round of the state playoffs last March at Manheim Township.
Undeterred though, as Manheim Central kids seem to do so often, here the Barons came right back and eager to fight again this winter as well.
Yet while this season’s excursion into the league and district playoffs would come up shy in terms of either those two processions resulting in a championship bout waiting there for them at the finish line, the Barons’ were nonetheless worthy of receiving a second consecutive trip to the state playoffs this year too –albeit the very last seed–as District 3’s eighth-place finisher amongst the 5A crop. And if you’re wondering, this back-to-back trip to states in consecutive seasons marked the first such occasion since those aforementioned 2014 and 2015 swings in such a manner that seemed to tie everything back together. Well, that, and the fact that the Barons’ head coach found in the present day, Charlie Fisher, was right there serving as Sherwood’s top lieutenant during that earlier run as well.
But if the Barons were to find their second-ever win in the PIAA playoffs on Friday night, rest assured they had their work cut out for them and then some.
Granted, while it wouldn’t be as if Manheim Central would be trapped on a bus for the better part of three hours and change–such as the case that some L-L League teams found themselves in on Friday traversing all around the commonwealth for their opening round contests—their opponent was more than a worthy adversary, even if they only sat an hour and change away from the Barons’ campus.
To some in the Lancaster-Lebanon audience, they might already be more than well-versed on what the Unionville Longhorns are capable of.
Remember last year and their visit to Tornado Alley? A house of horrors for L-L conference foes both past and present? Yeah, well don’t find fault with the Longhorns if they now feel totally unphased by such surroundings going forward given their utterly dominant 71-45 win at McCaskey a season ago, the type of eye-catching result that surely turns heads and leaves a mark in this corner of the universe whether this be considered a “vintage” McCaskey team or not.
This year too though, Unionville had little appetite when it came to slowing down and showing mercy against the L-L foes found on their regular season slate.
In fact, their emphatic wins against the conference got started back on the second night of the season as the Longhorns topped last year’s 2A state champ, Lancaster Mennonite, in the final game of Unionville’s tip-off tourney by a 63-45 final verdict. And as far as McCaskey’s return turn down to Kennett Square in the back-end matchup of the multi-year series, it too didn’t go much better in Tornado’s favor this time around as the Longhorns left another imprint on Lancaster’s flagship public school with a resounding 75-58 win this season. All told, Unionville’s resume over the past three months had been nothing if not impressive as the Longhorns largely steamrolled their way to an eventual 22-3 overall mark heading into the opening round of states, undoubtedly highlighted by their commanding 63-36 triumph over Upper Dublin in the District 1 finale last week at West Chester for the program’s first such high-water mark since all the way back in 1981.
Suffice to say, while you can’t always treat the PIAA brackets like that of the NCAA’s version where the team at the very top line is necessarily deemed to be the “top overall seed” if you will, it’d be hard to argue if you had to counter such a notion when trying to dispel the Longhorns’ collective achievements accumulated this winter. Regardless, as Manheim Central was eager to prove on Friday night while just across the border and inside of Chester County, these games aren’t played exclusively on paper. And for a Barons’ senior group that contains the perfect hybrid mix of quintessential football players –All-Staters too on the gridiron for that matter – along with a fair share of purebred hoopers, what better way to make another lasting impact to help etch your legacy into stone than that with a win that would reverberate around the state?
In the end though, there would be no glass slipper worn by Cinderella when it came to this storyline. Instead, the clock struck midnight around 8:30pm on this Manheim Central carriage ride on the north end of Kennett Square on Friday evening.
But summing it up as simply as that would be doing the hosts a massive disservice. Simply put, the Unionville contingent deserves the bulk of the credit when it came to throwing the Barons well off their rhythm throughout nearly the entirety of the evening. Case in point, while buoyed by the bullying tactics posed inside courtesy of Unionville senior big man, Nick Diehl, and his pair of early deuces inside which prompted a Barons’ timeout with 5:35 left in the first, while it may have appeared on the surface to be fairly pedestrian 4-0 score, the terms of engagement had already been laid.
As it turned out, not even the early timeout to try and regroup seemed to work in the Barons’ favor considering how the Longhorns’ gap would only grow in size and stature in the immediate aftermath.
Ironically enough, immediately following that early Manheim Central stoppage, a pair of Longhorns’ trifectas knocked down in succession by way of James Anderson and James Brenner respectively would then up the hosts’ lead outward to double figures at 10-0 before that cushion would swell to a dozen before a much-needed 3-ball sunk by way of 6’1 Manheim Central sophomore guard, Chase Book, gave the Barons their first points of the evening at a 12-3 count with roughly three minutes still remaining in the opening stanza at the time.
In fact, Unionville’s lead would increase to as many as 14 had it not been for a last-second Sammy Witmer bucket just before the first quarter horn from point-blank range for the Barons which cut the Horns’ advantage back to a dozen at 17-5 following an opening eight minutes where it seemed as if Manheim Central was just a step slow when it came to gathering their footing.
Footing you ask? Unionville only continued to have plenty of that once the second frame got underway too.
Case in point, a pair of 3-balls sunk in rapid fire by way of Jack Robbins and Ryan Brown respectively, a collective six-point swing which propelled the Longhorns out to a commanding 23-5 lead and this one quickly slipping away from the Barons in relatively short order with Central burning their third timeout right then and there with still 5:58 left before the half.
Finally, certainly not a moment too soon for what they had to feel, Manheim Central able to stand their ground somewhat when it came to withstanding the ongoing Unionville onslaught being levied against them for a timely little spurt.
For that, one of those aforementioned Central seniors, Sammy Witmer, came away with a crucial bucket following this particular timeout before another member of the upcoming graduating class, Jackson Tracy, took his turn at bombing in a trademark triple of his own which had quietly cut the deficit back down to a baker’s dozen, 26-13, as the Barons were finally playing their best ball of the early evening up until that point.
Until Nick Diehl got involved, however.
As far as his metrics will lead you to believe, Unionville’s starting five man stands all of 6’7 while topping the scales at 230lbs. And while those numbers alone probably give you some sense of his physical prowess, the fact of the matter was those numbers are simply nothing more than digits listed on a piece of paper. If you want to recognize this member of the Longhorns’ collective group and his true impact which he can have on a game, just go ahead and ask Manheim Central all about his exploits that came on Friday night.
Rest assured, Diehl successfully played the role of schoolyard bully against the much smaller frontline offered up the Barons in this one. And while he looks the part of a basketball player that any local college would rightly be found swooning after, this future Tulane baseball player made his imprint on the game at nearly every turn on Friday evening. As far as the here and now was concerned, three straight buckets inside tallied by Diehl suddenly upped the Unionville cushion back up near the 20-point bubble at 32-13 before an easy bunny put home, this one courtesy of Ryan Brown inside of the final minute of the first half, eventually did helped to send the Longhorns into their home locker room with a commanding 35-15 lead following an utterly dominant display throughout the first 16 minutes considering it was the opening round of the state playoffs and all.
Here again though, just when Manheim Central was starting to take some steps, no matter how small they may have appeared to be given their current predicament, Unionville had no time whatsoever when it came to yielding any further ground.
In this study, Chase Book began the second half strong for his side as the Manheim Central underclassman began the third frame with his own personal 5-0 salvo which helped to chip that 20-point deficit back down to size ever so slightly.
Ever so slightly because James Brenner proceeded to retaliate in the immediate aftermath of Book’s latest exploits with a 3-ball dialed up on the Longhorns’ ensuing offensive trip down the floor which then made it a 40-22 lead in favor of the home side and their jam-packed stands with 4:14 left remaining in the third by that point to swing momentum back in their good graces.
But as Unionville demonstrated time after time after time on Friday night, this is a group that simply knows how to play the game and how to play game together unselfishly. Full stop.
Sure, while you have the likes of Nick Diehl who would go on to capture game-high scoring honors pretty much inside of his own solar system with an 18-point performance to lead the way for the Horns with the next closest finisher being six points behind him, a well-rounded Unionville team across the board figures to pose a litany of headaches for the remainder of the fortunate soldiers now left standing in the 5A field from here on out. And if the masses needed any further examples, look no further than a gorgeous pass through traffic in transition thrown by James Anderson into the waiting of, you guessed it, Nick Diehl, as the big man’s bucket pushed the margin back up to 20, 45-25, prompting Manheim Central to burn one of their precious few remaining timeouts with time rapidly winding down on another Unionville-dominated quarter by and large. Then, once time ultimately did expire for good, the Longhorns were able to tack on four more to their existing lead as the hosts proudly carried the spoils of a 49-25 lead with them into the final period.
Unfortunately, for those who donned their best marooned-colored garb for the occasion and the trip down to Unionville on this night, even the fourth quarter lent itself little into Manheim Central being able to find some significant ground to try and make up against this formidable Longhorns outfit.
Yes, there was the tough take to the rack put home by way of one the key catalysts looking forward in the Barons’ immediate future plans, Ryan Kenneff, as the 6’0 junior guard’s take to the tin at the 5:31 mark made it a 52-27 affair before a bucket inside a short time afterwards chipped in by Unionville’s James Anderson –the second leading scoring Longhorn on the night in tossing in a dozen to aid in his team’s cause– allowed the hosts to double up their opposition at 54-27 with just 2:55 left.
But to go back to the Manheim Central senior group here, while it became obvious that the upcoming buzzer would cruelly signify the end of their Barons’ careers in a just few minutes worth of game time remaining, one could only hope that they could at least go out on some sort of high note all things considered with respect to the current situation unfolding.
And while the evening as a whole was certainly not what he or anyone in Manheim Central camp had been hoping for, nor expecting, a tough Aaron Enterline bucket through contact gave the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s unquestioned best all-around athlete –and the Barons’ leading scorer on the season as a whole– his first field goal of the night with 2:29 left remaining in his high school basketball career that whether now or in due time deserves to be rightfully appreciated as one of the best in recent memory when it comes to sheer meteoric rises by an individual player in such a short amount of time.
Yet in the end, once he and the other trio of Barons’ seniors were called upon by the Manheim Central reserves in the waning stages to exit stage right to a much-deserved round of applause by their fans who had made the trek, while this particular outing would conclude in the form of a purely resounding and dominating 56-31 Unionville victory going against them that vaulted the Longhorns into the second round of the state bracket where they now draw District 2’s Dallas upcoming on Tuesday night at a site and time yet to be determined, this lone performance does not nor should not be a true indication as to what this group of Barons truly means to the collective program.
The unfortunate part of this loss? Obviously being the end of line and the finality of it all sinking in rather quickly of course. And no matter how you shake it, with obvious kudos and respect needing to be heaped upon Unionville for simply not allowing Manheim Central to really get up with the chance to fight toe-to-toe against them right from the jump it seemed, this was simply just a difficult night for it not to be the Barons’ night given the magnitude of it all.
“I think the hardest part with the gameplan tonight was we knew that we would have to be very, very good,” Manheim Central head coach Charlie Fisher said afterwards on Friday night following his team’s final game of the campaign. “I thought we got some good shots early and a lot of our shots just didn’t go in,” he remarked with a bit of laugh laced in bewilderment. “It’s tough too because as nice as it is to have a guy in practice that can take the ball to the hoop and you’re holding up that broom to simulate a defender, you just can’t replicate a physical body that big and that long to deter any shot,” said Fisher specifically lauding Nick Diehl’s efforts in particular in trying to scheme against him in the days leading in. “That’s what it comes down to. We knew we had to take advantage of every opportunity…If you think about every 3 that we made, (Unionville) made one of their own right after whether it was a defensive breakdown, or they just found the open guy or made a play. Any time we felt like we could get any little bit of momentum in the third quarter, they were just able to make a play and push it away.”
Yet as Fisher knew, especially given the damage that the Longhorns have inflicted upon squads more closer found in the Barons’ backyard in the L-L League especially to help gauge some sort of comparable metric, topping the Longhorns figured to be a tall task to overcome both literally and figuratively. In reality though, Unionville might have even surpassed those preconceived lofty notions from afar as it turns out after seeing the Longhorns up close and personal.
“I think the biggest thing is, and I told (his players) in there, you truly don’t know how good that team is until you play next to them,” the Barons’ head man said praising Unionville. “I was at the district final at West Chester. You’re watching (Unionville) thinking, ‘How is this team beating teams by 20, 30 points like they are?’ But then you look and they just go on these bursts of runs, stretches of like a minute, and they’ll score eight, ten points in a minute. We knew that. But then (the run) came early combined with the rebounding, physicality, and everything else.”
“I’ll say this,” Fisher continued after recognizing the team that had just knocked his squad out before offering, “When you win that first round (5A) game in districts and it qualifies you for states, lose a close one in the quarterfinals, have to play those playback games, and then you have those eight to ten days off or whatever it was, you don’t fully understand what the experience is that you just accomplished,” he shared harkening back to last year’s trip to state playoff game compared to this most recent one that had just concluded. “Last year, us playing Mars in an empty gym at Manheim Township, it sort of like didn’t do the state tournament justice. When we came to this gym today, I mean, this is what it’s supposed to be about. Playing a team that is phenomenal in their gym at a packed house in a real-life basketball game,” he said. “We competed. We weren’t great in stretches, but we competed. We just made the mountain too high to climb going down 20 after the first half.”
Beyond that, the proverbial elephant left standing in the room at that point was of course that this setback marked the end of the line of what should surely be one of the more celebrated casts of Manheim Central boys’ basketball ensembles ever assembled. Yes, throughout the entirety of the program’s history if we’re speaking the truth here.
“I talked about this after we lost to Greencastle in districts. In terms of basketball playoff games played, these seniors played more than any other group of seniors in Manheim Central history,” said Fisher. “Straight up playoff basketball. Now, in terms of playoff wins, we had 10 and we just needed one more,” he then said with an aw-shucks sort of expression trying to find levity in the somewhat heavy moment. “They tied for the most playoff wins. Made it to a district final. Made it to a league final…I think it’s one of those things where you look back and you can truly see the importance of, ‘You don’t need to all be basketball players. We just need you to compete.’ When they were in junior high, I just sort of had a feeling,” Fisher said rewinding the tape back in his head. “The only question was, were we going to be able to keep them together? When we knew that we were going to keep them together, we were able to maximize our efforts. I thought all four of them were incredible this year. I really do. I really do.”
So, who knows? If history — albeit in relatively short supply compared to some other L-L League outfits specifically speaking in regard to Manheim Central – is to serve as a precursor looking forward, perhaps the 2024 senior class of Aaron Enterline, Zac Hahn, Jackson Tracy, and Sammy Witmer can rightfully be placed alongside some of the very best the Barons have ever had. And while maybe they never quite got one of those “big” banner-type achievements that will someday hang inside of their alma mater’s brand-new gym set to open its doors next season, the senior group that made Doe Run Elementary their homecourt for a few short years during the construction process may just end up helping to change the long-term, sustained trajectory of the Barons’ program over time. Either way, whether you remember you them from their quasi “home away from home” days, or for their achievements in general, it’s undoubtedly a group of four that will be nothing if not hard to forget. To be sure, they grew up and can now go out knowing the legacy they now leave behind.
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