City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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After mining all sorts of championship gold during three sparkling stints covering 10 memorable basketball seasons, Rick Binder has decided to retire and yield his seat at the end of Steel-High’s remarkably successful bench.

“Well, it takes a tremendous amount of energy,” Binder admitted during a late Thursday afternoon telephone call. “It’s a year-round thing. When you coach at places like Reading or Steelton or Harrisburg, it’s 24/7/365. There’s always something going on. I just don’t have the energy to do that.

“My health is OK, but I think it’s time for a new voice or a younger coach to get in there and let them do it. I’m a dinosaur. I’m from the old school,” added Binder, who grew up in Reading and began his coaching career in 1976-77 as an assistant at his alma mater under legendary Red Knights skipper Jim Gano.“You’ve got to start the open gyms, and I just want to give them enough time to get somebody in there to keep the program going.”

During his three stints at Steel-High — Binder’s first stretch ran from 1997-2001, his second from 2002-2005 and his last from 2014-2017 — Binder piloted the Rollers to a 222-73 record, collared seven District 3 Class AAA championships and pocketed PIAA Class AAA titles in 1998, 2000 and 2005.

Binder also served as head coach at Reading, Erie East and Ashtabula (Ohio) Lakeside High Schools during his lengthy career, amassing an impressive won-loss record of 369-138.

Binder also chalked up 100 victories during head-coaching stints at Kutztown and Alvernia, a pair of Berks County college programs.

His final Steel-High squad finished 9-13 and missed the District 3 Class 3A playoffs.

“All the teams were special,” Binder recalled. “You always had something to work with. You have to have some players and we always had something to work with, and the town’s always been behind our teams. It’s just such an honor to be able to coach at both Reading and Steelton, the two toughest jobs in the district.”

While Binder did not really want to single out a particular team or a particular moment that stood out, guiding Steel-High to the 2015 District 3-AAA championship likely will go down as one of his top coaching jobs.

Possessing little size and not much depth — the Rollers typically used six players — Binder’s bunch worked primarily out of a 3-2 zone that enabled Steel-High to conserve energy on the floor and keep his team out of foul trouble. Yet the Rollers had a pair of wings out front in 5-11Dee’quan Fleming and 5-11 Jaqui Jenkins that could pop out of the zone at any moment and torment opposing ballhandlers.

Malachi Young, just 5-9 and a freshman, was the other member of Steel-High’s backcourt. Bullish 5-11 Jaron Grayer was the workhorse underneath, while 5-11 Kavon Jackson was a dependable threat from the arc. When Binder summoned someone from the bench, it was usually 6-4 senior Jaki Bowman.

Although that 2014-15 Steel-High group gained all sorts of confidence by defeating host Reading (55-33) to win the Red Knights’ Holiday Tournament, an overtime loss to Harrisburg and three-time all-stater Jahaad Proctor in a Mid-Penn Conference postseason skirmish before an electric gathering at Milton Hershey’s Spartan Center renewed the Rollers’ resolve heading into the District 3-AAA playoffs.

After hammering Lancaster Catholic in the round of 16, the Rollers subsequently took out West York and Susquehanna Twp. before downing Bishop McDevitt 70-67 in the 3-AAA title game at Hershey’s Giant Center. While Steel-High would go on to win one state tournament game, the Rollers’ season soon ended at 23-6 once they ran into a powerful Archbishop Carroll club featuring Derrick Jones.

“It’s hard to pin it down to one thing. Most of the time, we had pretty good players,” Binder said. “Two years ago, when I first came back and they won that district title and beat Susquehanna [Twp.] and [Bishop] McDevitt to win the district title [was really special]. The state championships are always special, but we actually had better players and we should have won. I actually thought that [2014-15) team overachieved to be able to have a week like that and I think we got the program back [to the point] where we were well in District 3 again.

“Going into the season, I felt like if we could qualify for the playoffs and get to the Final Four, that would be good. To win it all, it was pretty special — even though it wasn’t a state championship.”

While Binder has endorsed one of his assistant coaches, former Rollers great Tristan Crawford, to be his successor, the tiny school that sits just a few minutes from Pennsylvania’s State Capitol wants to see if there’s any outside interest before turning the program over to one of its own.

Crawford and former Steel-High skipper Tramayne Hawthorne — Hawthorne preceded Binder — each piled up more than 2,000 career points while leading the Rollers to the 2005 state championship. Crawford went on to play at Cleveland State and Valdosta (Ga.) State, while Hawthorne played for Bruiser Flint at Drexel.

“I’m 63 years old and it takes a tremendous amount of energy. I didn’t want to short-change them,” Binder admitted. “I felt I could have done another year. We have a lot of players coming back, but I’m hoping Tristan gets the job and I want him to start off with a good team. I think the key when you start at any job, and I started at Reading and Steelton, is you get off to a good start and you’re not rebuilding.

“I could have done another year, but then he’d have to rebuild. If he gets the job, I want to him to be able to have some experience and come out with a team that can play a little bit.”

Binder also looked on with glee last March when Reading finally won a state boys basketball championship and cut down the nets following its win at Hershey’s Giant Center over Pine-Richland.

Binder also knows he had some quality instructors who taught him the game in former Reading head coaches Pete Carril and Gano. And those lessons served him well wherever he sat on the bench.

“I started in 1976-77 coaching at Reading under Gano,” Binder said. “He was my mentor, he and Petey Carril. That’s my tree there. I tried to take what they taught me and mix it with Steelton — and that turned out OK.”

Sure did.