Historic boys basketball night for neighboring Norristown, Methacton and PAC

WORCESTER TWP. >> Tickets for Tuesday’s District 1 Class 6A boys basketball semifinal sold out in 15 minutes.

The home team Methacton’s supporters squeezed in next to the Norristown faithful who made the short trip up Germantown or Ridge pikes in a capacity gym because for one night the eyes of District 1 basketball resided in a small town called Eagleville where two bordering league rivals battled for a spot in the championship game.

The contest marked a big moment in two programs with strong basketball histories — one dating back to the 1920s and the other with most of its accomplishments in the last decade — and a monumental night for the conference they reside in.

On Tuesday night, No. 12 Norristown knocked off top-seeded Methacton 51-36 in a District 1 Class 6A semifinal that for many reasons felt like the most high-stakes boys basketball game in this area for many, many years. It was without question for the Pioneer Athletic Conference, which hadn’t had a matchup of league opposition this late in the postseason since 1998 — even if in some ways it was just a neighborhood game.

“It’s what you grow up on, going outside to the parks playing,” Norristown senior guard D.J. Johnson said. “I’ve seen some of them at parks growing up. We all went to camps growing up. … We’ve all seen each other before, so it’s like, ‘All right, what we did when we were little, now it’s show time. Now it’s time to really see who got it.’”

Both programs were on this district stage before, but their histories couldn’t be more different.

Norristown has a basketball history that can match most programs in the state and dates back to winning the first District 1 championship game in 1924. Methacton didn’t open until 1961.

The Eagles’ motto is “We play for those who played before us.”

Norristown won the first District 1 championship in 1924 and totaled 16 more championship game appearances  and nine titles (1924, 1947, 1948,1971, 1980, 1984, 1990, 2009). At the state level, the Eagles have one championship (1948) and four other finals appearances (1962, 1971, 1976, 2008).

“Basketball is a staple to this town, it really is,” Johnson said after a win over Wissahickon in the Eagles’ playoff opener.

Norristown returned to the district quarters in 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019, but Tuesday night’s game was the first semifinal trip for the program since Temple University legend Khalif Wyatt led the program to District 1 and PIAA runner-up finishes in 2008 and a district championship in 2009.

Johnson’s father and Norristown head coach Binky Johnson was on the 1990 Norristown district title team and in the stands for the 1984 championship team and knows seasons like those and the one his current group is in the midst of are not common, even at a program with such history.

“This is what we’re known for,” Binky Johnson said. “It’s a point that most people (in Norristown) expect to happen every year, but it doesn’t. It’s a really special moment and a special group.”

“We’re talking about rare air,” he added. “People don’t just get here. Schools really need to really embrace the fact that this doesn’t happen often that teams get to the Final Four of District 1.”

Methacton’s lone District 1 crown and title-game appearance came just two seasons ago.

The barometer for boys basketball success when Methacton Athletic Director Paul Spiewak —who noted he assumed Methacton was out in the middle of nowhere when he was in high school despite his alma mater Cheltenham being rivals with nearby Norristown — arrived at Methacton in 2001 was just to get to the district playoffs.

Two decades later the Warriors are accustomed to occupying one of the top seeds in the tournament and entering with eyes of a deep playoff push, not unlike some of those past Norristown runs.

“I’m lucky to be a part of a program where the winning bar is expected and everybody gets what they want in the end basically,” Methacton senior Brett Byrne said after the Warriors won their fourth basketball championship in five seasons earlier this year.

It started with the team’s first PAC title in 2012, then the school’s first state playoff appearance a season later. They were the second overall seed in 2015 before a second trip to the district quarters.

From 2013 to 2020 there were four district quarterfinal trips, breaking through for the program’s first championship in 2020 when no team in District 1 came close to matching the Warriors.

Now just two seasons later, the Warriors were right back in district title contention, finishing one win shy of another district title game.

“For them to be in position to go to another district title game so soon after it happened, considering the history of the high school, this is not just an impressive run, but a humongous, humongous game in terms of the legacy this whole run could leave on the program,” Spiewak said before the semifinal. “This is really the first time Methacton’s consistently been on the map for boys basketball.”

The Eagles and Warriors competed in the Suburban One League together for many years — although for the most part in different divisions despite their proximity. With Methacton a smaller school at the time, a postseason matchup between the two programs would have seemed unfathomable when Binky Johnson was at Norristown.

When he told some of his former teammates the Eagles’ semifinal opponent, they asked “‘Who are you playing?’” Johnson said, “because they haven’t been around the game in a while.”

“It was unheard of for Norristown to be competing against a Methacton (at this stage of the postseason) when we played,” he added.

The Warriors left for the PAC in 2007-08 before Norristown and Upper Merion followed nine years later in 2016-2017.

Their boys basketball programs maintained a non-league rivalry in the seasons they were in different leagues that has since amplified as they make the annual trek to each other’s gyms.

Tuesday’s matchup carried significance that extended beyond that division rivalry between two programs whose players often grow up playing with or against each other in various teams and leagues before getting to the high school.

For a league with many other sports competing for championships at the district and state levels year-after-year — namely girls basketball, softball, field hockey, wrestling and baseball — a matchup of two Pioneer Athletic Conference boys basketball schools at this stage is somewhat unheard of since the league was established in 1985.

Pottstown beat Lansdale Catholic for a Class 2A championship in 1993 and Phoenixville topped LC for a 3A championship in 1998 but neither were at the district’s largest classification.

“When things like this happen, it’s certainly something the league can really hang their hat on in terms of how competitive that sport is in the conference,” Spiewak said.

The Pottstown and Phoenixville boys basketball teams won consecutive District 1 Class 3A crowns in 2008 and 2009 and Upper Merion reached the Class 5A title game in its first season in the PAC in 2017.

But prior to Methacton’s run in 2020 the only large school representing the league to reach a District 1 title game was Owen J. Roberts in 1996. It was a groundbreaking occasion for the PAC and its boys basketball standing amidst the rest of District 1.

Two years later, Norristown and Methacton were part of another historic night.