City of Basketball Love

By Matt Allibone (@bad2theallibone)
—

(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 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

~~~

Longtime Wissahickon coach Kyle Wilson learned a lesson years ago from legendary hoops savant Bob Hurley Sr.

Sometimes basketball isn’t that different than football.

“I study coaches and he would always say: ‘If a game is fairly even, the team with the better point guard that controls the game is going to win,’” Wilson said. ‘Plain and simple. If your quarterback plays much better than the other quarterback, there’s a good chance you’re going to win.”

Wissahickon went 9-13 last season. The Trojans missed the District 1 playoffs the last two seasons. They graduated three starters from last season.

But Wilson might have a budding star in junior point guard Nico Vacchiano. And that’s one reason Wilson believes his team has potential in the Suburban One League this season.

“Since this summer he’s been our guy,” Wilson said. “If everyone plays just ehh, we could still win if Nico had a big game because he’s just physically where he needs to be and he’s got the skillset.”

Vacchiano started last season but was largely a pass-first distributor. It was natural for him to take a backseat on a team led by his older brother. Dom Vacchiano averaged 20.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.3 steals and was named a first-team all-star in the SOL Liberty Division.

Still, Vacchiano showed off his ability to score on a handful of occasions. He led Wissahickon with 18 points in a loss to Methacton and had 19 points along with six rebounds, four assists and six steals in a win over Springfield.

The 6-foot Vacchiano put on 25 pounds of muscle this offseason to improve his ability to finish through contact. He’s also a capable 3-point shooter who can create his own shot and isn’t afraid to pull the trigger.

The key for him this season will be finding the right balance between scoring and distributing when the Trojans will clearly rely on his points more than last season.

“Last year he was strictly about getting it to his brother,” Wilson said. “It’s tough when you’re the point guard but you’re also the guy. Because there’s four other guys just standing around. It’s about finding the right balance of when to play like Russell Westbrook and when to play like Chris Paul.”

Wilson believes he has a number of players capable of emerging at the varsity level this season. Six-foot-3 senior forward Michael Maltin is the only other returning starter, but 6-6, 265-pound junior Delmar Taliaferro has intriguing potential in the post.

Wilson called Taliaferro a “project” who has stepped up his progression since another forward transferred out of the program.

Senior guard Mason Stelzer (6-1) will be relied on for shot creation and defense while Chris Lee (5-11) can shoot from 3-point range. And senior Ben Schwartz (6-0) has a chance to take people by surprise with his old-school game this season.

“He plays like an old YMCA guy but he’s effective,” Wilson said about Schwartz. “He’s got a slow step, a pump fake and stuff that a dad will use to beat his son. He would score 25 to 30 on JV last year and we weren’t sure it would convert to the varsity game. He had a great summer and it has paid dividends. He’s one of our top three guys out there.

“Other teams will say: ‘How is that guy killing us?’ He’s just very cerebral and he lulls you to sleep.”

Wissahickon went 3-7 in December and didn’t put together back-to-back wins until the second week of January last season. Wilson hopes his team can start faster and show more consistency this season.

He knows Plymouth Whitemarsh and Upper Dublin will be the favorites in the Liberty Division this season, but he thinks the Trojans could be a potential spoiler.

“We feel we should be in the mix with everybody else,” Wilson said. “The object is to play well with everybody else and maybe pick off one of those (top) teams. For us it’s going to be about getting our young guys to play consistently and as a unit.”