City of Basketball Love

By 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 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Ryan Williams admits it. The Malvern Prep 6-3 senior guard has been a little spoiled.

The Northeastern-bound, All-Inter-Academic League standout has done nothing under Friars’ coach Paul Romanczuk but win. Malvern Prep has shared the Inter-Ac championship the last two years with Penn Charter in Romanczuk’s first two seasons at Malvern and in Williams’ initial two years as a varsity starter.

This year comes a steeper challenge.

The Friars lost Andrew Phillips, last year’s Inter-Ac MVP now at Lafayette, and Hayden Pegg, at UConn for football. It will be up to Williams, who averaged 17.6 points a game last season, and his best friend and backcourt mate Ryan Pegg, Hayden’s younger brother, to take over in their drive to three-peat as Inter-Ac champs this season.

“We still have an underdog mentality, and Penn Charter gets more pub than us. Everyone seems to pay more attention to Penn Charter and likes to say Penn Charter won the Inter-Ac, but we have had a piece of that, too, the last two years,” Williams said. “We don’t really mind. We just go out and play. We know what we’ve done. I’m pretty sure the banners in the gym have the last two years on them.”

“The past years have been great years for us, and we have had some great leaders, including my older brother, Hayden. It’s something Ryan (Williams) and I talk about,” said Ryan Pegg, a two-year starter. “People always look at us like we are the underdogs. We lost a lot, and we know some of these other Inter-Ac teams have loaded up. We are using that as a chip on our shoulders.”

The Friars finished 18-9 overall and 8-2 in the Inter-Ac in 2022-23.

This will be a very deep Malvern Prep squad. Williams and Pegg will be joined by 6-foot senior guard Achilles Tucker-Turner, 6-3 junior forward Andrew Davis, 6-6 junior forward Junior McFadden, 6-foot junior guard Taig McErlane, 5-10 freshman guard Marvin Reed, 6-4 freshman forward Nick Harken and 6-2 freshman guard Cade Cooper.

The Friars will also have two big additions from the football team, 6-5 junior forward Bernard Blakey and Brown-bound 6-2 senior guard Ennis Udo, a national level lacrosse player.

“And we have a really good coach in (Romanczuk),” Williams said. “We may not have one great player, but we have a great team. This team is not any different than the last two years. We lost some great guys like Andrew and Hayden, but we have a lot of guys back that can fill a lot of roles.”

Williams said he and Ryan Pegg are so close they know where each other will be on the court at all times and where to put the ball.

“Our whole team is like that,” he said. “We have the talent. We definitely have the coaching and the team attitude for us to win the Inter-Ac again.”

Romanczuk feels the Friars can compete for another league title, though possibly in a different way. He admitted this season will be a transition year after losing Phillips and Hayden Pegg. However, he believes the foundational piece of a solid senior class, mixed with new blood from the incoming freshmen class, will put the Friars right where they were the previous two years.

Romanczuk will have the luxury of a rotation that can possibly go 10 deep, but they still need to be figured out. He will be counting on the younger players to emerge in new roles.

The optimism comes from a successful summer, according to Romanczuk. He knows the Friars will carry a bullseye on their backs and intends on preparing them with a demanding non-league schedule. He takes it as high praise Inter-Ac teams feel that they must bring their A-game against Malvern this season.

The Friars’ interior defense will need to develop if they plan on stopping Penn Charter’s 6-10 Matt Gilhool.

“We have to trust each other on defense,” Ryan Pegg said. “If everyone plays their man the right way, helping help-side defense, deny the ball, it is going to work out great. If one guy jumps ship and doesn’t do it, then it’s not going to work out. It is a big team concept, and we buy into that concept. It’s how we have won in the past and how we will win in the future.”

Pegg said communication is key and something they pride themselves on. 

“If we are not communicating on the court, we know we will get an ear full from Coach Paul,” he said.

Rebounding is an area, Romanczuk stressed, that his team also constantly works on, considering its lack of height in comparison to some Inter-Ac teams. It’s why the Friars prioritize positioning, considering they have no one between 6-8 and 6-10. For the Friars to be effective, rebounding will need to be a group effort, Romanczuk said, to compensate for the loss of Phillips, their leading rebounder last season. It’s an area where the athletic Udo and Blakey, a promising Division-I defensive end in football, could help considerably.

Shooting and depth will be strengths.

And Williams will be in a new role at the point, but Romanczuk will allow him the green light to shoot anytime he wants. Williams also expects to take on more of a vocal leadership role rather than just “leading with action.”

“This is a new year,” Ryan Pegg said. “Nothing in the past matters. At the same time, we know what it is like to win. We know how to win and we are going to keep winning. It’s something we carry with us. We love the pressure. I’m excited for the year.”

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, 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.