City of Basketball Love

By Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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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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After a deep playoff run, every high school team has to answer the same question the following year: How do we replicate last year’s success?

Haverford High School has dealt with this challenge since its 2020 Central League title run. Now, after reaching the Central League semifinals last year, the Fords must once again find out who the next crop of producers will be. 

A trio of all-Central league players led last year’s team, Nick Colucci (first team), J.R. Newman (second team) and Alex ‘Googie’ Seidman (second team). Only Seidman remains from that trio after Colucci (Scranton) and Newman graduated. 

Seidman, who committed to Catholic University this summer, will be stepping into a new role as the lead guard for the Fords. 

“He has a great feel for the game, he sees the floor well, gets the ball to open shooters on the court,” head coach Keith Heinerichs said. “And I think the biggest thing he got better at was getting to the hole. So I think that's going to be a big factor for us.”

“I think some teams have seen a little bit of [my playmaking], but mostly I've been playing off the ball in my career, so it's gonna be definitely new for a lot of teams to see and adjust to,” Seidman added.

In addition to his new offensive responsibilities, he’ll also have to step up as a leader. Luckily, he has a tremendous resource to pull information from in his older brother John Seidman (Franklin & Marshall), who was a key contributor on the Fords’ 2020 championship team. 

“Yeah, I've definitely been working on [leadership] throughout the summer. … My brother was a really good role model for me, so he kind of showed me the ropes,” Seidman said. “I'm definitely going to text him or call him and ask him [about his leadership style] because I know he had a leadership role going into his senior year as well as throughout his whole career.”

The Fords opened the Central League playoffs with a win over Penncrest last season before falling to Radnor in the semifinals. They entered the District 1 tournament with the No. 5 seed, lost their opener to eventual runner-up Norristown and went 2-2 in the playback bracket to reach states.

Haverford’s season ended with a 19-8 mark, falling in the PIAA first round with a 59-49 loss to Roman Catholic. It was the program’s second state tournament appearance since 1975.

If this year’s team wants to go on another deep playoff run, other players outside of Seidman will also have to step up, including fellow seniors Tommy Wright, Brian Wiener and Kevin Gannon. 

“Those guys definitely have to go from their role doing X, Y, and Z, to now, ‘I gotta do A, B, and C,’” Heinerichs said.

Wright, who plays quarterback for the Fords during the fall, gives the team an inside-outside presence. Defensively he has the strength to guard opposing bigs. 

Wiener, who dealt with an injury-ridden 2021-2022, will be getting back into the flow of things this year. He’s a three-level scorer who will pair well with Seidman in the backcourt, adding more potency to their offense. 

Gannon provides experience on the defensive side of the ball that he pairs with some off-the-dribble scoring ability. 

On top of their individual skills, these seniors have been developing their chemistry since middle school.

“We’re a really close-knit group, and we’re all going to have each other’s back,” Seidman said. ”Some games, Tommy will have 15 points, Kevin will have 15 points, so we’ll be picking each other up game after game. ”

On top of those returning seniors, Heinerichs and Seidman expect several players to emerge from the bench who didn’t get to play much last year because of last year’s depth.

One of the skills he knows most of his players have is the ability to shoot the ball from deep. Given their guard-heavy roster,  plus Seidman (a prolific perimeter scorer in his own right) running the offense,  the Fords have a set offensive identity based around their range from deep.

“Don't get me wrong, we’re a defensive-minded team, but we have the ability to get up the floor and try and score with you,” Heinerichs said. “We wanna play up-tempo, we wanna push the envelope… if we're playing in space it’s better for our guards too, less guys back on defense.”

Even though the Fords are a defense-first team, it’s what Heinerichs believes his team will have to work on the most early in the season. Considering several of his players play football, and Haverford is one of the few schools in the Central League that plays a Thanksgiving day football game, he knows his squad will be behind the curve to start the season. 

“If [other schools]  are knocked out of the [football] playoffs, they're starting basketball on Nov. 15,” Heinerichs said. “For us, it's a little different. We can't think like, ‘It’s the middle of December, we're just playing games now’ – No.” 

“At our practices we have to be putting more in, getting better at correcting our mistakes on defense, seeing what works, adding things. Until we get comfortable with everything we're doing on both ends of the court.”

To overcome the shortened training period, he’s instilling an everything with urgency approach. The Fords need that sense of urgency to stay competitive in a league with strong teams like Radnor and Lower Merion. 

“We understand we need to play with urgency,” Heinerichs said. “Play with urgency all the time and practice and compete all the time, then everything else kind of take care of itself.”