Wash High trying to weather basketball storm
Reaching the PIAA playoffs brings the challenge of unknown opponents and, often, long bus rides. But the biggest detriment for a team can be looking ahead to the spring sports season.
As the weather warms and eight WPIAL champions are crowned, it isn’t easy for players on a team such as Wash High, which fought its way through two consolation games to earn the district’s seventh seed in the state playoffs, from putting thoughts of baseball or track and field out of their minds.
Prexies head coach Ron Faust has seen it happen before. When the ultimate goal of a WPIAL title proves elusive, the week off between play-in games and the PIAA playoffs can lead to complacency.
This Wash High team is different. The Prexies, who are making their first state playoff appearance since 2010, want to play basketball well into March.
Their time in the PIAA Class AA playoffs begin Saturday, when Wash High (19-7) plays Greenville (21-5), the District 10 champions at Farrell High School (5:30 p.m.).
“We have a couple guys who run track or play baseball, but everyone in the locker room is all in,” senior forward Nate Swart said. “We want to win a couple games in the state playoffs. It’s an exciting experience. None of us has been here before. After this first game, everyone wants to keep doing it and we want to see how far we can go.”
The Prexies have played like a team not ready to turn in their uniforms. Despite trailing in the fourth quarter in all four playoff games, Wash High won three, including a first-round victory over Laurel, when it overcame a 24-point second-quarter deficit.
The magic continued in the PIAA play-in games, when the Prexies had come-from-behind wins over Seton-La Salle and Quaker Valley, gaining momentum for the first state playoff berth since Faust’s return to Wash High.
Faust, who has 554 career wins, found parallels between this year’s Prexies and his last playoff team in 2009, which lost in the WPIAL quarterfinals.
They were the district’s eighth seed in the state playoffs, where they lost to North Catholic in the semifinals, 58-54.
“It’s a matter of growing in confidence, finding your niche and staying with that,” Faust said. “You have to be careful not to overcoach and try new things because you want them to stay confident. I’ve seen that confidence grow with these guys just as I did with that group in 2009. It’s a different style of play, but what they do, they do well and we’re sure not going to change that.”
The offense runs through guards Matt Popeck and Markel Pulliam, but depth has been Wash High’s saving grace during the playoffs. Senior Anthony Popeck scored at least seven points in each of the postseason wins, junior forward Isaiah Robinson has developed into a solid defensive player off the bench and sophomore guard Jordan Swart has excelled as a role player.
Like their predecessors from 2009, these Prexies have become unselfish and players are filling out their roles while embracing an emphasis on defensive responsibility in Faust’s system.
“We’ve been fortunate in that we have some unsung heroes with people like Tariq Wilson, (Robinson) and Jordan Swart,” Faust said. “They are doing some things that can’t be overlooked. You have to have people who improve during the year and learn their role.”
The Prexies have been hard for opponents to stop, often driving to the basket before making a pass to the wing, where they can make a three-point shot or pass it back in. They’ll face a different, yet familiar type of opponent to open the state playoffs.
Greenville, which was the fifth seed in the District 10 playoffs, defeated seventh-seeded Fairview with 11 of their 17 field goals coming from beyond three-point range. Like Wash High, the Trojans, who are on a 12-game winning streak, have guards who can shoot and size in the post and are similar to the Prexies’ Section 3-AA rival Bishop Canevin.
Regardless of the opponent, Wash High’s players believe they still have a few more wins up their sleeve.
“I feel like the key is we play for each other and that’s what it really takes to win these games,” Nate Swart said. “Everyone likes each other and once you have five guys playing for each other, it’s tough to stop, especially when you have talent like we do. Everyone wants to still be here and wants to play in Hershey.”