City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2016-17 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 11. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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YORK — Even as several players bounced back inside the Grumbacher Center’s Charles Wolf Gymnasium to greet family members following their latest workout, others milled about in the hallway outside laughing, joking, even inhaling cupcakes.

Yet even with a good vibe circulating throughout the York College locker room, there’s still plenty of work awaiting a youthful club before things get started for real.

Everyone from fifth-year skipper Matt Hunter right on down to the Grumbacher’s crack custodial staff knows it. And all of them are plugged in and on board.

Not only to get ready for next week’s season-opening scrap with U.S. 30 rival Gettysburg, but also for the difficult Capital Athletic Conference slate that will get going later this month just a short drive up I-83 at Penn State Harrisburg.

Recent tough run aside — the Spartans have not reached the CAC’s postseason tournament since the 2012-13 season — Hunter’s fifth unit is upbeat. Flush with optimism, too.

While there’s a veteran presence on hand since seven of York’s top 10 scorers return from a squad that last season finished 10-15, 6-12 in league play — including all-league frontcourt standout Dalton Myers — the arrival of five talented freshmen has spiced an improving roster and perked up the mood considerably.

“We brought in a great group of freshmen and then [among] the group that came back everybody got better,” said Myers, the 6-7, 235-pound senior who last season averaged 16.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per. He also shot 57.4 percent from the floor.

“We worked hard over the summer,” added the Maryland native. “The chemistry’s really good. Overall, we should do really well and just get better each day and I think we’ll be a lot better team than last year.”

That’s the hope for a York squad that last season lost six times by five points or less.

Especially since 6-1 sniper Matt Scamuffo (15.2 ppg/59 treys), a junior from Central Bucks South, and 6-6 forward Blayde Reich (9.4 ppg/5.9 rpg) return to York’s starting five. A junior from Lebanon, Reich was the one dishing out the birthday pastries.

“Those three guys have really established themselves,” said Hunter (27-74), a three-year CAC regular at Salisbury who arrived in York following stints as an assistant coach at College of New Jersey and DeSales. “There’s a good group of returning players and it’s nice to be in that position really for the first time [since I’ve been here].

“It’s a core that understands a lot of vocabulary and terminology and played some very meaningful minutes,” Hunter continued. “It’s good to have that group and they’re awesome guys that set an incredible tone for our team and program, just the way that they carry themselves on the floor, yes, but off the floor as well.”

The rest of York’s returning core includes 6-0 senior guard Brad Wesner (5.3 ppg/24 treys), 6-7 junior forward Zack Galic (4.2 ppg/4.6 rpg), super-athletic 6-1 sophomore guard Jason Bady (2.4 ppg), 6-0 sophomore guard Mike Frauenheim (1.9 ppg/2.9 apg/8 starts) and 6-6 sophomore forward Jared Noble.

Wesner and Galic played in the Mid-Penn Conference at Trinity and Cedar Cliff, respectively. Bady is a West Chester Henderson product.

“In my four years, I can tell you this is probably the most talented group of individuals we’ve ever brought together,” Wesner remarked. “We’re trying to take advantage. I only have 25 games left that are guaranteed. I’ll never play another competitive game again, so I’m just trying to leave it all out on the floor essentially.”

Hunter and assistant coach Jon Showers also were busy on the recruiting front, corralling a talented class that includes local products Jared Wagner (Central York) and Darin Gordon (Spring Grove), a pair of guards.

Emmaus grad Joey Polczynski and Zach Novick, both 6-6, add depth to the frontcourt rotation. The final addition is guard Kevin Callahan.

In addition to talent — Wagner was all-state as a senior — there’s instant chemistry since Wagner, Gordon and Polczynski were AAU teammates with the York Ballers. All of them played in the state tournament, too, so they come from successful programs.

Wagner and Gordon also played last season before a packed house at the Grumbacher Center in the YAIAA championship game, with Gordon’s Rockets prevailing.

“We had some depth before this year and then we brought in five, there’s five really good freshmen,” Myers gushed. “All of them are good.

“Every big can play. Every guard has the capability of playing. It’s a totally different team in that aspect, because we can trust everybody.”

“That [freshman] crew just fits very well with the guys we have on the floor, off the floor,” Hunter continued. “On the floor, their abilities complement the guys we have already, so they’re naturally stepping into roles that they’re prepared to play.”

While being ready to get after it every time they hit the floor is one thing, fitting snugly into the collective approach Hunter espouses might be more important as the youngest Spartans ready themselves for the grind of regular-season play.

As for piecing together a successful equation, Hunter has some variables already in play.

“We’ve got to be elite defensively. That’s something that we focus on day-in and day-out,” Hunter said. “We’ve got to be really good defensively, that’s first and foremost.

“And then offensively, we’ve got to share it, space the floor, play at the right pace. We do those things and that should allow us to be fairly successful offensively as well and that kind of becomes the recipe,” Hunter continued.

“The backbone of everything is our guys and our team and how good we are collectively. How together the group is. That’s what we focus on more than anything.”

These Spartans will need to be together, since this group will face a grueling nonleague slate featuring encounters with regional rivals Gettysburg, Messiah and Stevenson. Trips to Franklin & Marshall and Randolph-Macon for tournaments up the difficulty level.

And then there’s a CAC schedule loaded with home-and-home dustups with second-ranked Christopher Newport and highly regarded Salisbury, among others.

“In my opinion, best conference in the country,” Wesner stated. “Every night there’s a test, no matter if you’re playing the team who is eighth or ninth or you’re playing CNU. It doesn’t matter. You’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

While Myers agrees with his teammate, Hunter shares those thoughts as well.

“It’s big time,” Hunter said of the demanding 25-game card he’s concocted. “It’s a big-time schedule, but that’s what we’ve got to do to play in the CAC.

“It makes no sense to play it any other way, so we just go swing.”

Factor all of the York’s variables together — the returning nucleus, the incoming freshmen, the demanding schedule or the positive vibes spilling from the Spartans’ locker room — and it’s easy to see that these guys want to win right now.

Hence, the lofty expectations for a basketball program that can’t help but see the banner hanging high above Wolf Gymnasium commemorating the CAC championships York claimed in 2005 and again in 2012, Jeff Gamber’s 35th and final season as coach.

While the Spartans last reached the NCAA Division III tournament in 2012 — Gamber also piloted the 2005 club to the Final Four — Hunter’s current group would be happy just to experience the excitement associated with postseason play.

“York College has a great tradition of breeding great programs and we want to continue that tradition,” Wesner said, “year after year if I’m here till when I’m long gone.”

“We play a really competitive schedule and the CAC’s the best conference in the country,” Hunter added. “We test ourselves every day, so what we talk about is being better tomorrow than we were today.

“Just keep focusing on that and kind of baby-stepping our whole way through the year. Yeah, being eligible to participate that last week in February and then just go in swinging and take our best shot at whoever is in the way [would be great].”