Boys basketball joins the party among dominant Spring-Ford athletics

ROYERSFORD >> The rise of Spring-Ford’s athletics over the past several years has been a spectacle in District 1.

By now, Spring-Ford’s gym is cluttered in championship banners — 82 in Pioneer Athletic Conference competition, 17 in sectional/district/regionals and three state titles in the preceding 27 years that coincided with the tenure of former athletic director Mickey McDaniel.

McDaniel still coaches Spring-Ford’s girls basketball team, which is routinely a state contender and is pursuing its sixth straight PAC crown. Most recently there are state championships in softball, girls’ tennis and wrestling, which consistently qualifies for the state duals in Hershey.

But as Spring-Ford’s athletics have amassed hardware in the trophy cabinets over the years, its boys basketball team hasn’t consistently been a part of the club.

Tuesday marked time for a change.

After a 74-55 win over No. 2 Upper Merion in the PAC championship, the top-seeded Spring-Ford boys basketball team won its first conference title since the 2015-16 season in its own gym after missing the tournament altogether last year, marking its resurgence among the school’s ranks of area dominance.

“It’s just great to go to a school like this. You have everybody in every different aspect who can go out and compete in any of their respective sports,” senior guard Caleb Little said. “And to go out and win it is just great.”

The win marks Spring-Ford’s sixth PAC boys basketball title (1998-99, 99-2000, 03-04, 13-14, 15-16), and its third in the current format of the tournament.

FINAL — No. 1 Spring-Ford 74, No. 2 Upper Merion 55

Cool moment at the end, both teams help Upper Merion’s Cole Gemmill hit a buzzer beater.

After not making the PAC tournament last year, the District 1 top-ranked Rams are your 2022-23 PAC champions. pic.twitter.com/pgxpSCAc2g

— Evan Wheaton (@EvanWheaton) February 15, 2023

The Rams are in the midst of an unusually dominant year in which they’ve ridden a 20-game win streak through the regular season, wield the top defense in the PAC at just 44.7 points per game allowed and locked up the No. 1 seed in the District 1-6A tournament.

A PAC title to boot is yet another treasure in a growing wealth of riches.

“Everybody in this program works very hard. I wanted to win it for the seniors. That’s really it, I love them,” said sophomore point guard Jacob Nguyen, who led Spring-Ford with a game-high 25 points in the PAC championship. “I wanted to win it last year for the seniors, but we couldn’t.”

Spring-Ford’s current senior cast includes Caleb Little (12 points), Michael McKenna, Alex Lewis and Tyree Banks.

Joe Dempsey took the reins of the program last year when former coach Chris Talley stepped down to take on an administrator role. Dempsey coached the La Salle High School boys basketball team from 2004-18, reaching the PIAA tournament four times with a 4A state title game appearance in 2014.

Dempsey was also named the 2010 Catholic League Coach of the Year and was an assistant for District 1 power Lower Merion, having won the District 1-6A championship in 2021.

Last year saw six new boys basketball coaches in the PAC, Dempsey being one of them. Fast forward to 2022-23, in a year in which the league was wide open from the start, Dempsey flipped last year’s 13-9 overall record to sit at 22-2 heading into districts.

“The league is pretty tough. Every night you gotta be ready,” Dempsey said. “I think the district rankings sort of suggest that. Four or five of our teams (in the PAC) are in the top 15 or 16, so it’s held up pretty well.”

But solid coaching can only take a program so far. It comes down to players buying in.
Fortunately for Spring-Ford, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

“It’s definitely a huge step (for our program). I think Coach Dempsey has definitely helped us,” senior guard Zach Zollers said. “He pushes us every day and really gets on us. He can be hard on us, but we all know he’s just trying to get us better.”

With the No. 1 seed and first-round bye in the District 1-6A tournament, Spring-Ford will host the winner between No. 16 Pennridge and No. 17 West Chester Henderson on Feb. 21.

The Rams have been a well-oiled machine, and look to keep driving forward from the middle of that metaphorical road as they have been all winter.

“This is huge, winning the PAC championship. Now we have to move forward to districts,” Nguyen said. “That’s what should be on our minds.”