March 9-13

The usually warm weather was still around on Wednesday, in the morning I was with Jenny for lunch in Quarryville. In the evening we convened at McCaskey for the trip east to Coatesville and the final game of basketball season. JPM lost to Simon Gratz 64-56 ending our season in the second round of the state tournament. For three quarters the game was just about even but in the fourth Gratz kicked it into another gear and we seemingly had no answer. Any season-ending defeat is disappointing but there is much to be proud of. The final mark of 22-8 brings Coach Powell's career record to 458-212, a .684 winning percentage. It was the thirteenth twenty-win season in his twenty-four years at the helm, the team won its eleventh division title and ninth league championship under his watch. Kobe Gantz finishes his high school career with 1589 career points, Randolph Speller ends with 1019 at McCaskey and 1218 overall including his freshman year at Lancaster Catholic. Kobe and Ran are two of six departing seniors and there is no question that they leave behind big shoes to fill but with three remaining starters eligible to return plus talent coming up from a 14-3 junior varsity squad the future is not bleak. In 2013 we had a group that went 26-4, the following year we had one player (that's ONE) back from that team. A lot of programs would be 4-18 or 3-19 under those circumstances, our club went a respectable 15-10 and laid the foundation for the success we had in 2016. We'll see how it all comes together when the new season begins in December. The weather turned cooler and more seasonable later in the week, outside of lunch with Jenny on Saturday the weekend was of little importance. The Royals played three games on the first leg of their road trip and won them all, they have two more to go before the next home date on the 23rd. Take care, thanks for reading.