Boys LL teams in PIAA tournament: Coaches Quotes
Written by: Dell Jackson on March 6, 2019
PIAA Brackets
The PIAA starts its tournament this Friday – March 8th. Each district determines the seeding for the tournament. Each district provides the number of teams in each class based on the number of teams in the district in the classification. For example, if District 3 has more 6A teams than 3A teams, then District 3 will send more 6A teams to the tournament. This year District 3 is sending 6 teams in 6A and 4 teams in the 3A level.
Due to more bigger schools being in the East, sometimes teams must travel to the Western part of the state in order to compete. At other times, there are more sm allure schools in the West so teams must travel as more teams are out West in certain classifications. The PIAA usually keeps the top seeds closer to home. Sometimes this is an advantage to travel- Lancaster Mennonite has enjoyed some success on long trips to start their PIAA runs in the past.
The final games for all levels will take place in Hershey at the Giant Center starting on March 21st and running until March 23rd. There will be PCN cable broadcasting the games and also a live stream NFHSNetwork.com You must have a subscription to NFHSNetwork to view the games. (Eric Thomas, Warren Goodling for the boys and Bruce Badgley, Kevin Calabria will be calling the girls games. Anyone/company that would like to sponsor the games on NFHSNetwork, should contact Eric Thomas (byericthomas@gmail.com ). Starbright media is producing the games (same company that produced LL boys championship on LLhoops.com). They will have a hard wire into the internet so no technical issues.
LL top seeds, Lancaster Country Day (3-1 1A) and Lancaster Catholic (3-2), stay close to home: LCDay at CD East at 5pm as part of the triple header, and Lanc. Catholic plays at Conestoga Valley at 7:30 Friday evening.
The rest of the teams will be on major road trips. TWP and Etown have the longest trips, both heading out West. LS, Spot, and LMHS have shorter trips but still a longer trip than playing away in the LL 🙂
Check Mike Bullock’s PIAA rankings for some ideas on top ranked teams in the state. LCDay broke into the the top 10 last week at the 1A level.
Andy and Dell will be out this weekend (TBD). Bruce Badgley, Brian P and Jon K will be covering various games on twitter sites. Jon K (Northeast beat) will provide some print media of the games as well.
Each LL coach took the time to give us some thoughts about their upcoming games. As always, we appreciate all the cooperation we receive from the LL coaches. We are sure that our followers on twitter will keep us up to date on scores/finals during the weekend.We will try our best to re-tweet as we are covering games – sometimes tough to do.
Teams records are first, followed by District seedings. For example, LCDay is (3-1), which means they are out of district 3 and the top seed.
March 8

1A
Lancaster Country Day 19-4 (3-1) vs Sullivan County 13-12 (4-4) @ CD East. 5pm
“We are really looking forward to our game on Friday so that we can keep building on the success we have been having as of late. Winning the first District III basketball championship in Lancaster Country Day history was a tremendous accomplishment for our kids, but there is much more to do. We took a few days off after Districts and came back to practice on Monday. I was pleased with the effort and competitiveness we are still showing at practice, and I do not expect our guys to let off the gas now. We know that we do best when we just take things one game at a time, so our focus right now needs to be solely on Sullivan County out of District IV, our first opponent in the state tournament. Coach Porter and I went and saw them play last Friday night at Wellsboro High School and were impressed by what we saw. They have a nice mix of size, speed, and shooting and we expect to see them run a disciplined offensive system. “
Jon Shultz, LCDay
4A

Lancaster Catholic 16-10 (3-2) vs Northwestern Lehigh 13-12 (11-4) @ Conestoga Valley. 7:30pm
“I enjoy this week heading into Friday, we get a chance to work on some things that we have struggled with and I think that’s a great way to build confidence. First few days we worry about us, last day we will work on things we will need to do to give us a chance to win. It’s an honor to make the state tournament and we tell the kids that everyday. Having competitive practices and reviewing game situations with thoughts that they can be on the floor in a big game is great incentive to be focused and ready when they step in the gym.” Coach Joe Klazas, LCHS
5A
Garden Spot 16-12 (3-8) vs Sun Valley19-7 (1-1) @ Plymouth Whitemarsh HS (Plymouth Meeting, PA). 7:30pm
“We are all very excited with the opportunity to play this Friday! We are proud of our kids and the hard work they put in throughout the season. It is nice to see the focus and commitment pay off.
Sun Valley is a great team, obviously winning District 1 is quite the accomplishment. We went to Temple and watched them play last Saturday, it was a great game to watch, they have talent all over the floor and present mismatches everywhere. It will be quite the challenge this Friday.
The PIAA State tourney is a great honor, we represent one of the 32 schools in 5A to play! Our responsibility to the tournament is to play as hard as we can and have a blast while doing it! “ Coach Musselman, Spot

Lampeter-Strasburg 23-4 (3-5) vs Pottsville 23-3 (11-1) @ Blue Mountain HS (Schuylkill Haven, PA) 7:30pm
“Our game Friday will be a tough one. Pottsville is an excellent defensive team that looks to put a lot of pressure on the ball. Offensively they have great spacing and run a two guard front offense, they are disciplined and patient.
I feel our team is in a good place right now and looking forward to the opportunity to compete with the best 5A teams in the state.”
Coach Ed Berryman, LS

E-Town 16-12 (3-6) vs Johnstown 19-2 (6-1)@ Central Cambria HS (Ebensburg, PA). 7:30pm
“We are excited for the long trip, playing a team that doesn’t know us and having the chance to do something that has never been done at our program…win a state game.” Coach Rocky, Etown
March 9


6A
Manheim Township 20-8 (3-5) vs Mount Lebanon 22-3 (7-1) @ Peters Township HS (McMurray, PA). 6pm
“It’s going to be a long ride to a fast paced game. They play 5 out, shoot a lot of 3s and press all game. It’s going to be quite a challenge but everybody is somebody when you get to states.” Matt Johns, TWP
3A


Lancaster Mennonite 14-12 (3-4) vs Neumann-Goretti 19-7 (12-1) ( Father Judge HS (Philadelphia, PA). 5pm
“We are excited to have qualified for the state tournament again this year. Several publications have Neumann Goretti ranked as the top ranked AAA team in the state, so we know we have a big challenge ahead of us. Our team has grown tremendously this season, and have competed well with some very good teams. One of the things that I love about our guys is that they don’t back down from any challenges and they always step on the floor expecting to put themselves in a position to win. We will have the same mentality this weekend. “ Seth Buckwalter, LMHS
Enjoy the first weekend of the PIAA tournament.
~Dell Jackson
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