When Schuylkill Valley’s current batch of seniors were freshman, the Panthers went 3-19. The boys’ basketball program’s nadir came in head coach Taylor Grim’s second season at the helm.
A scant three seasons later, the Panthers are PIAA playoff-bound for the first time since 2004. Schuylkill Valley lost in the District 3 4A quarterfinals at Berks Catholic on Feb. 23, but fought its way through the consolation bracket, earning a state berth when it beat Littlestown 52-40 on March 1 in the fifth-place game to nab the final spot.
Three-and-19 seems so very long ago.
“This senior class has put a ton of work in over the last four years,” Grim said, “and this is kind of the payoff; not just for those seniors but the underclassmen as well. We’ve had some ups and downs at times but every year we get just a little better.”
The 17-10 Panthers will face Greater Johnstown in the first round of the PIAA 4A tournament on Saturday, at Richland HS.
The D-3 and eventual PIAA berths came on the heels of a successful Berks League regular season in which SV won the Section 3 title with a 9-1 mark by a game over Kutztown – Grim’s alma mater.
The head coach fondly recalled the season’s second encounter with the Cougars, held at Kutztown on Feb. 3, a 68-63 SV win that gave the Panthers control of the section race.
“That was the moment the kids realized we could make some noise,” Grim said. “We had lost to Kutztown the first game, which had put us a game behind in the section race.
“We went to Kutztown. It’s a small gym, and the place was packed to the rafters. They had to bring in temporary seating, turn people away at the door. It was everything high school basketball’s supposed to be. It was like a scene out of ‘Hoosiers’. From that point on, our kids’ confidence went through the roof.”
The program’s turnaround was a gradual build for Grim and his squad and it was not always smooth – from earlier days of using particular defenses out of necessity due to personnel shortcomings, to today’s confident ball-hawking approach, in which the Panthers create turnovers to fuel offense.
“Last year, we just missed the playoffs,” Grim said, “and this year our goal was to win the division, which we did, and make some noise in the playoffs, which we’ve done. Our mantra all year has been ‘next game up’ and that’s the most important game. That’s what I’m trying to stick to them at this point, not so much the big picture. I’m very happy that kids have seen this kind of success.
“It’s been a process. We haven’t been able to completely put in what we want to (scheme) until probably the last two years, because talent and physicality-wise we weren’t able to play full-court man-to-man. And get the ball up and down the floor. Last year, things started to fall in place. This year, we started 2-5 but things started clicking after the holidays. Between Christmastime and now, it’s like two different teams.
“Our defense has gotten infinitely better. We went from playing a mix of man and zone during the 3-19 year to last year, making a real concerted effort on defense. We spend at least half our practices on defense. We really drove home the fine points of defensive fundamentals and it started to take hold. When we’re playing well, it’s because our defense is playing well.”
There has been a feistiness to this band of Panthers, perhaps even a fearlessness, which has carried them to a 15-5 mark after that slow start. It was on display at Berks Catholic in the 4A quarterfinal. Despite falling behind 30-20 at halftime, Grim’s crew drained some long range perimeter shots throughout, bordering on NBA quality, which kept the favored Saints on edge. Despite a 53-39 final, it never felt entirely comfortable for the hosts. ‘Pesky’ might be the favored word.
“That’s how we’ve been all year,” Grim said. “We don’t go away. The Eastern York game (the D-3 consy game, after BC), we were shooting 3-for-20 at one point and had five points in the middle of second quarter. We kept coming back, caused some turnovers, didn’t go away. Those are points we count on.”
SV rallied for a 61-58 win against Eastern York to set up the win-or-go-home Littlestown game.
Cody Mish was SV’s leading scorer during the regular season. Mish was able to create his own shot as needed at BC, the visitors’ most potent weapon. He averaged 13.7 points during the campaign and hit that mark with 14 versus BC.
“He’s at the point where the other team has to come out and guard him,” the head coach said. “If they close out the wrong way on him in the paint, he’s always seen the floor well and finds the open man. Everybody collapses on him now.”
The long-range bombs are not Grim’s preferred MO, but he’s not afraid to play to play to his squad’s strengths. Ryan Worrell led the team in 3-pointers during the regular season with 66; Mish had 29, Isaac Horne and Tyler Worrell 23 each.
“It isn’t my mindset but it seems to be what works best for us this year,” Grim said. “We put them up and if we miss, we go after them and try to get some inside points that way.”
Grim does not have an end goal for the 2016-17 Panthers as Greater Johnstown awaits on the weekend. The PIAA berth was a watershed moment for his tenure, but the head man prefers to stay focused on the micro.
“Every day, we just talk about getting better,” he said. “And whoever is our next opponent on the schedule, that’s our most important game of the season. That’s kind of what has gotten us to where we’re at and that’s what we’re going to stay with.”
