City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2022-23 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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The memories are great. They’ll resonate through the years and will be great talking points at school reunions.

Marple Newtown head coach Sean Spratt knows there is more that can be derived from the Tigers’ historic 2021-22 season, in which they won their first two PIAA state playoff games in school history before giving eventual 5A state champion Imhotep Charter a major scare in finishing with an 18-11 overall record.

Nine seniors are gone from that team (Justin DiBona, Jordan Bochanski, Matt Cantwell, Joe Downs, Owen Mathes, Eric McKee, Nick Sanfrancesco, Christian Sessa and Jonny Small).

A strong core does return enriched by the experience of reaching the 2022 state quarterfinals, where Marple Newtown lost to the Panthers, 44-39, in the closest game they played toward winning their fourth state championship in the last five seasons (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

“This is a clean slate after graduating nine core guys, though I’m expecting these younger guys, even though they’re inexperienced, to continue the reputation that the previous group laid out for us in terms of work ethic and discipline,” said Spratt, who will be entering his sixth year as head coach of the Tigers. “What this group learned from the older group is something that they can hopefully carry on. This is a relatively inexperienced group, but they do have great experience of playing with one another.

“They all have high basketball IQs. What we do lose in physicality from last year’s group we gain in speed and IQ. We’ll look different, but the core values will remain the same that got us to where we went last year.”

At the eye of this team’s nucleus is 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Matt Gardler, the grandson of legendary Cardinal O’Hara coach Bud Gardler and son of former St. Joe’s point guard Chris Gardler. Matt came through in some crucial moments last season, like coming off the bench in the state quarterfinals to score a team-high 11 points against Imhotep.

He’s joined by 5-10 junior guard P.J. Esposito, 6-1 senior guards Corrado Fischetti and Bryan Bogan, and 6-3 senior forward Stephen Hamson, along with 6-1 junior guard Dave Bertoline, 5-11 junior guard Steven Tansey and 6-3 sophomore forward Ryan Keating.

“I like this team’s natural abilities, because we have some guys who can do a little bit of everything,” Spratt said. “We have some guys who shoot it. We have some guys who can put the ball on the floor. We have some guys who aren’t afraid to go after the boards. What I like most about this team is after last year’s run their expectations are higher than any incoming team that we’ve ever had at Marple.

“Inexperience will be the No. 1 concern and the speed of the game in certain situations. Some of these guys haven’t been exposed to that at the varsity level, and another concern is our physicality. Last year’s group was filled with a bunch of big, strong, multi-sport athletes that were willing to grind. We have more of a lean look this year. So, physically, we’re going to have to compensate for what we gave up. We probably lost about 500 pounds of weight last year. We had some big, strong kids.”

Marple Newtown finished 8-8 in the Central League, which this season will probably go through Radnor, a team that returns every key player from a season in which the Raptors finished 22-4 overall, before being blown out by Imhotep in the state playoffs 62-39.

“Overall, there are multiple Central League teams alive in the district and state playoffs, which says something about how deep our league is,” Spratt said. “Radnor is a very well-coached, talented, skilled team, but you can never overlook Lower Merion and Garnet Valley, and Haverford has Googie Seidman, who’s one of the best players in the league, if not the best. Every game in the Central League will be a dog fight.

“We’ve built a reputation at Marple that even though on paper we may not have the best basketball players, teams know that they’re going to be in for a dog fight, because they know our guys are willing to compete with anyone.”

Leadership, Gardler said, is what he took most from the graduating seniors. He also enters his sophomore year armed with a great learning moment. Trailing Penncrest, 46-44, with .08 left and a berth in the Central League playoffs at stake, Gardler made one of four free throws in the Tigers’ 46-45 loss in February.

“The crowd is what really got to me in that game, but I don’t think that will happen again. I learned you have to take the crowd out and take it like you’re in the gym shooting free throws by yourself,” said Gardler, who finished with 13 points against Penncrest, including a pair of crucial three-pointers. “This is a new team and we’re not really a big team, but we’re going to be a fast team. We all learned something from last year. The key for us is how we handle the ball. We can’t turn it over. I think we’re a young team that will get better as the season goes on.”

There are a handful of Marple players who have played with each other since fifth grade.

“That’s a big help,” Tansey said. “Based on last year, we know anything is possible, if we practice as a team and work as a team. Our team chemistry is probably off the charts. We all know each other. We all know our strengths and weaknesses. If there is a concern, it may come on the offensive side, rushing the ball. We’ll need to be patient. Last year’s seniors showed us what can happen when other teams look past us. We know we’re always going to be in games if we keep pushing.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here .