City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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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 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Two years ago, Jake Sniras was a freshman at Garnet Valley, jumping right into a starting role on the defending Central League champions. Now an upperclassman and the Jaguars’ no-doubt star, he’s got to lead a young squad for GV to continue its winning ways. 

“We are an underdog because we did lose a bunch of guys,” Sniras said, “but we’re not an underdog because we’re so established in what we do.”

Garnet Valley’s boys enter 2023-24 on a run of eight straight seasons above .500, most well above that mark. It’s an even more impressive accomplishment when you realize it’s the same program that won a grand total of three games over three years (2009-10 through 11-12) before Mike Brown took over and turned it all around.

There have been several high-water marks since: in 2019-20, when Carl Schaller (Gettysburg) & Co. won 23 games and made it to the PIAA state tournament; in 2020-21, when they won the Central League in the pandemic-shortened season; and each of the last two years, which have seen them pick up first-round wins in the state playoffs.

Sniras, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, has been a big piece for the Jaguars each of his underclassman years. It was clear during the run-up to his freshman year that he would be immediately counted on to be an offensive presence, the athletic guard more than capable of getting own shot off from anywhere on the court, even if he was a little too shot-happy at first. 

A group of upperclassmen led by last year’s senior class — Max Koehler, Ryan Faccenda, Logan McKee and Drew Van Horn — helped him get up to speed in Brown’s offensive system and showed they had trust in him to be a scorer from the get-go. He blossomed over the course of his sophomore season, doubling his scoring average from his freshman year (8.5 ppg to 17.6 ppg), going off for multiple 30-point outings.

His high point so far during the first round of the 2023 state playoffs, when he hit the buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer to get Garnet Valley past Cumberland Valley, 46-45. 

“I came in and they gave me a chance, you know? So I really appreciate that and I respect all of them for that,” Sniras said during a phone call earlier this month. “For giving me the opportunity to come on at a young age and play. And to be honest, I don’t have all those points without those guys, I don’t have those big games without them setting me up. All the respect and props to those guys.”

Sniras enters his junior year with 765 career points, well in striking range of becoming the latest Jag to join the 1,000-point club, along with recent standouts Austin Laughlin (Kutztown), Carl Schaller (Gettysburg) and Andrew Louden, all who got there under Brown’s tutelage. To garner the Division I scholarship he covets, he needs to show he can handle more responsibility, and that doesn’t necessarily mean averaging 25 per game, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see his scoring tick up another notch this season.

“He’s typical of a lot of young scorers where he needs to improve the non-scoring pieces of his game,” Brown said. “He needs to defend better, he needs to rebound better, because we’re not a tall team. He knows that, and I’ve made that known to him.”

Continuing their basketball careers from last year’s team — which went 18-11 (10-7 Central League), got upset at home by Springfield (Delco) in the first round of the Central League playoffs but got to the state playoffs where it ultimately lost to Parkland in the second round — are Koehler (York College) and McKee (Phelps School), while Van Horn is playing baseball at Misericordia.

The Jags return Sniras and his backcourt mate, 5-10 senior point guard Quinn O’Hara; 6-1 senior Jack Krautzel will almost certainly slide into the starting lineup after serving as sixth man all last year. 

O’Hara went to elementary and middle school in the Garnet Valley school district but spent his first two years at Salesianum, beginning his junior year at the Delaware private school but transferring back to Garnet Valley on the first day of the season; he sat out for 30 days and started playing in January, though he was ineligible for district and state playoffs.

“I think I feel a lot more comfortable with the plays, a lot more comfortable playing with the guys, a lot more familiar with Coach Brown’s coaching,” O’Hara said, adding “I fell back in love with basketball coming back, it was just an all-around great experience coming back and I don’t regret it at all.”

After those three, the Jaguars will have to rely on some youth and inexperience to fill key roles right away. Krautzel’s brother, junior Brady Krautzel (6-0) seems primed to jump right from the JV starting lineup into the varsity starting lineup, playing big minutes for the Jags all summer and fall. 

Sniras will also now find himself playing mentor to the next bright youngster to come up in southwest Delco. Grayson Golek, a 6-4 freshman wing forward, is likely to take the fifth starting spot in the Jaguars’ lineup, replacing the size McKee brought to the floor, as well as his ability to step out and knock down an outside shot.

“Grayson, he reminds me of myself, a lot of myself,” Sniras said. “I see it out there, his hunger and his wanting to win the game. I see a lot of him. [...] He’s going to be a big factor for us this year, and he’s a welcomed addition.”

Though Garnet’s got a lot to prove in terms of getting back into the state playoffs and trying to get into the Elite 8 for the first time, it’s not going to be too far behind the eight-ball in the Central League. Defending champs Radnor graduated everybody, as did a strong Upper Darby; Lower Merion’s without Sam Brown (Penn) for the first time in four years. Springfield, Harriton, Conestoga and Marple Newtown all return a good bit of talent, and a very-young Penncrest squad from last year is a year older, but there’s no clear-cut favorite headed into the season.

Brown called the league “the most balanced that I remember it,” and his players also know it’s up for grabs. 

“It is wide open this year,” Sniras said. “It’s anyone’s game at this point because the last years have been very upperclassman-stacked, and it’s a different playing field now. [...] It is really anyone’s game, to be honest.”

If recent history is any indication, expect Garnet Valley to be right in the mix.