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Prepping for Preps '22-23: Dock Mennonite (Boys)

11/01/2022, 1:30pm EDT
By Owen McCue

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)

(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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A historic season ended with a bitter taste in the mouths of the Dock Mennonite boys basketball team a season ago.

The first undefeated Bicentennial Athletic League finish in program history was followed by an upset loss in the Pioneers’ BAL tournament opener. They eked out one more win before dropping the final two contests of their 2021-22 campaign. 


Dock Mennonite senior Nathan Lapp still holds onto the disappointing feeling from the end of last season. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

That disappointing end to last season left a feeling senior Nathan Lapp wasn’t able to shake this offseason.

“We want to win the BAL playoffs this year,” Lapp said. “Going out in the first round last year, that’s just a knife to the heart. That still sticks with me to this day. That’s one of our goals this year.”

Dock ended the regular season with a 19-3 record in 2021-22, including an unblemished 14-0 mark in the Bicentennial, which included a decisive victory over Independent Division rival Collegium Charter — one of just two regular-season defeats for the BAL Tournament and District 1-4A champions.

The Pioneers won 10 straight after dropping their opener to Upper Dublin, which finished as the No. 8 team in the District 1 Class 6A field a season ago, and Dock’s only other losses were to Class 5A Phoenixville and Class 6A North Penn — all three by single digits.

The Pioneers finished 20-6 overall after they ended their 2021-22 campaign with losses in three of their final four games. 

Following the early exit from the BAL Tournament against a red-hot shooting Faith Christian team, Dock won a double overtime game over Notre Dame-Green Pond in the District 1/11 3A Regional before being overpowered by Executive Education in the title game and facing a similar fate against eventual champion Devon Prep in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A tournament.

The Pioneers will drop back to the Class 2A field this season after two seasons in 3A. They won the program’s first District 1 title in 2020 — the last time they were in 2A.

“We have most of our guys back and they’re a year older,” said Dock ninth-year coach Mike Fergus, last season’s BAL Independence Coach of the Year. “I’d be disappointed if we’re not as good as we were last year. Other than that, I don’t usually like wanting to put pressure on our guys. I just want us to keep getting better every time we play, and wherever it takes us it’ll take us. I know that we have big upside.”

Lapp, a Millersville baseball recruit and first team All-BAL selection, leads a group that only lost one starter from last year in second team all-league selection Tomir Johnson.

Hoyt Bultje (All-BAL honorable mention), Tony Martin and Lane Bergey return with Lapp to the starting lineup and Zach Neff and Vaughn Martin are other varsity contributors back in the mix who should play larger roles this season.

The returners are being pushed by a new batch of expected varsity contributors led by junior A.J. Washington, who impressed this offseason after spending most of his time on JV last season.

“Our JV was very good last year and they’re all up now and they’re pushing for minutes too,” Fergus said. “It makes for a good competitive practice. We can go nine to 10 deep.”

Lapp led the team in scoring as a sophomore and was the team’s go-to guy once agains last season. Dock has a perimeter-oriented group that he said can ‘shoot the lights out’. Everyone besides the team’s 6-5 big man Bultje can light it up from deep.

“When we’re on, no one’s going to beat us,” Lapp said.

Bergey, a standout volleyball player, is the team’s other main forward alongside Bultje. Michael John, a jumper on the track team, will also help the front court depth.

The Pioneers’ front-court isn’t imposing, but in the BAL and 2A classification they should have enough size to do some damage inside as well.

“When you put those guys in the lineup with our shooters, we’ve got pretty good balance inside and outside,” Fergus said. “And defensively, we play tough, we take charges, we play hard. We scrap on the boards even when we’re undersized.”

Executive big man Moustapha Sanoh, who committed to Rider over the summer, presented problems for Dock in the Region 1/11 final last season. Devon didn’t have a huge roster, but it’s overall size and athleticism did the same in states.

They may not have to find a way to counter a 6-10 Division I big man at any point this season, but Lapp said the Pioneers will be ready should they run into some size during their hopeful runs through the BAL, District 1-2A and PIAA Class 2A tournaments.

“We were outsized last year by a lot,” Lapp said. “Rebounding was a challenge, so that’s going to be one of the challenges this year to with rebounding. We just gotta be tougher than the other team and box out.”

On offense, Lapp said to expect a lot of threes and a lot of transition baskets for Dock. That will be set up by a defense that intends to fly around the court.

Chemistry is key to their style of play, and with a large majority of last season’s squad returning and a ton of games in the summer and fall Dock doesn’t expect that to be an issue.

“This fall we gotta gel together, and once we do that, we’re going to be pretty freakin’ good,” Lapp said.

Collegium has its two first team All-BAL players back from last season along with a host of others that should put it right up with Dock as the league favorites.

The Pioneers are familiar with the majority of District 1’s Class 2A classification from the BAL, including reigning champion Church Farm. 

They won’t have to face Executive in the postseason for a third straight season or Devon Prep, but there are still some really good squads that will stand in the way of whoever represents District 1 in the state playoff field.

The Pioneers hope it is them who earns that opportunity — they hope to have a BAL championship already in hand as well by that time. But the experienced group can also look back on last year’s sour finish and remember just how quickly those plans can fall apart.

“We got a taste of it and now everybody’s back and we want more,” Fergus said.


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