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Bernie Rogers leaves Archbishop Ryan for Haverford School

05/04/2015, 11:15pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Bernie Rogers is leaving the Catholic League after 15 years at Archbishop Ryan, as informed his team on Monday night that he will be taking the same position at The Haverford School.

"I'm honestly shocked," Ryan rising senior wing Austin Chabot said by text. "It still hasn't fully set in."

The news was first reported on Twitter by the @RyanBBallFan account.

Rogers, a first team All-Catholic selection at Ryan back in 1992, had been at his alma mater since 2000, after a starring college career at Ursinus. He was the first alumnus coach in the school's basketball history.

Whoever takes over the job at Ryan should have a solid core to work with, with four starters from last year's 10-13 (4-9 Catholic League) squad returning.

That includes a trio of seniors, point guard Austin Slawter (7.6 ppg) and wings Chabot (13.5 ppg) and Freddie Killian, but the leading scorer and best prospect on the team is 6-foot-2 rising junior Izaiah Brockington, who led the team in scoring last year at 14.8 ppg.

Rogers, meanwhile, is going to have quite a rebuilding job on his hands at the helm of The Haverford School, whose former coach Henry Fairfax stepped down after a 17-11 (7-3 Inter-Ac) season to focus on his primary duties as the school's admissions director. The Fords lose their top four scorers, including Temple-bound Levan Alston (19.6 ppg) and forward Derek Mountain (6.7 ppg) to graduation, but the transfers are even more devastating.

Without Fairfax and Alston, both rising senior wing Lamar Stevens (18.4 ppg) and rising sophomore guard Cameron Reddish (12.5 ppg) have announced their intentions to transfer; Stevens to Roman Catholic and Reddish to either Friends' Central or Westtown. Stevens, a 6-6 wing, and Reddish, a 6-5 point guard, are both high-major Division I prospects.

CoBL will have more on this story as it develops