City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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The whole gym at West Chester East knew it was coming even before it left his hands.

When Ryan Betley, a senior at Downingtown West, rolled off of a screen and drilled a 3-pointer near the end of the first quarter, the reaction was likely one of the biggest he’s received in that long career.

It’s the kind of play he and his teammates have run over and over in practice. So, early on a night when his team notched their fifth straight win, 66-51 over the Vikings in a Ches-Mont National division game, why was that shot so much more important than the hundreds he’s made as a Whippet?

Just as his pin-point jump-shot often is, it put him right on the mark in bringing his career scoring total to exactly 1000, a milestone only the best players at a given school can say they’ve achieved.

The first emotion Betley expressed regarding such a thrilling occasion? Relief.

“Everyone at school’s been coming up to me and asking me about it, I just wanted to able to get it over with, and I’m just glad we got the win,” he said.

“It’s just another step on our journey and our goal of winning the district and making a deep run in states, it’s just another milestone,” added the Penn-bound guard. “It means a lot now, but I think us winning in playoffs is going to mean a whole lot more.”

Betley, a three-year varsity starter for the Whippets, was mobbed by his teammates and met by a wave of sound from a large road contingent, including his entire family and closest friends. He dropped a game-high 21 points on the night.

“A bunch of those guys are friends with my family, it was great to have a bunch of people there who care about me and support me like that, it just shows that there’s a lot of people who care about me and are going to be there for me,” Betley said. “It was really cool to see that.”

Jason Ritter, West’s head coach, was prepared for such an occasion, as his senior leader entered the night with 989 points. Before the shot fell, he was already preparing to call timeout to allow for such an aftermath.

“It feels great, it’s just a rush of adrenaline, that’s the best way to describe it,” said Betley. “When the ball fell through the net and I heard the crowd, it just brought relief, and it was just a celebration of the hard work that I put in and how everyone supported me to get there.”

Ritter saw the potential for such a career defining milestone long before Betley’s days as a starter. During his sophomore year in a game at Downingtown East, Betley displayed the kind of talent and potential that panned out right before the coach’s eyes over the ensuing two years.

“You wish for it, you never know what’s going to pan out over the years, but you wish for it," Ritter said. "I saw it in his sophomore year, on the road at Downingtown East, in a tough environment, Ryan had a great game, and he’s kept improving, growing and growing, maturing helps, and having great teammates helps a lot."

As for Betley, he saw this as a possibility even before his coach did, when he dropped eighteen points in his first start sophomore year against Collegium Charter.

“I just remember being like, ‘wow, I think I can score the ball a little bit,’ said Betley. “I finished off that season, improved a lot over the summer after sophomore year, and things started taking off from there.”

While this game meant a lot for Betley, it held a little extra weight for Ritter for a lesser-known reason.

That reason was the man on the other side of the court, coaching the Vikings.

Chris Cowles, Ritter’s assistant coach in 2014-15, received the job at West Chester East after Eric Anderson retired this past offseason, and had his team prepared to take on a team whose tendencies and abilities he knew full well.

It worked up until the fourth quarter, when the Whippets pulled away after leading by as few as two in the third.

“I hated every minute of it, I absolutely hated going against him,” said Ritter. “He knows everything we’re going to do, he took us out of everything we were going to do, we just had better individual players tonight. Had the roles been reversed and we swapped teams, he probably would’ve beaten me by more, that’s how good of a coach he is.”

Just six years ago, Cowles was on the court leading West Chester Rustin to a conference title, and now he’s the head coach at the age of 24.

“I expect him to be in the same position I’m at right now in three years,” added Ritter.

All in all, this night was just another milestone for Ritter--who has been preaching the “one game at a time” mentality for the last several years--and his team, but it will definitely be one to remember Ryan Betley, for whom an entire high school career’s worth of hard work came to fruition.

“It takes a great player to score a thousand points,” Ritter said. “It also takes great teammates to get him there. Tonight was the hardest fought game we’ve had in this building. Ryan is just an exceptional player. I hope it’s not the last one I coach. But as for Ryan, all the hard work, all the hours in the gym, all the shots he puts up, this is the end result.”