City of Basketball Love

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 2025-26 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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It could be cringing, looking at the 2024-25 Suburban One League Colonial Conference standings, if you are wearing Central Bucks West black-and-gold. Sitting at the bottom, with a 2-8 league mark and 8-14 overall, were the Bucks. Go a little deeper, and this is not exactly a case of the record saying who the Bucks were—and currently are.

What CB West could be primed to do is make a bottom-to-top leap this coming season, with a very strong core of players back, topped by legendary veteran coach Adam Sherman.

What makes the Bucks optimistic is, for one, CB West’s 8-14 mark is a little deceiving. Last year’s young Bucks were 0-8 in games decided by one possession with under a minute to play, including a 43-41 loss to eventual SOL Colonial champion Souderton. Secondly, CB West had one senior and that inexperience surfaced during the crunch times.

Count on the 2025-26 Bucks to be far more competitive, returning 5-foot-9 senior guards Max Milillo and Connor Chuo, 6-foot-4 junior forward Dan Pellegrini, 6-foot-4 sophomore forward John Vrettos, 6-foot-4 senior forward Gavin Reichner and 6-4 junior forward Isaiah Rubenstein. Sherman also has back 6-2 senior guard Eli Wolf, though lost an intriguing big in 6-foot-8 forward Harry Myers, who transferred to Germantown Academy and reclassified into the 2029 class.

On the flip side, CB West welcomes talented 6-foot sophomore guard Melo Aylmer, a transfer from Lansdale Catholic who is silky smooth with the ball, can score both driving the lane and pulling up, and plays with a poise that belies his age. He will be important to CB West’s drive to the District 1 6A playoffs this season, along with the added motivation to right what occurred last season.

“I think our record was worse than who were actually were last year,” said Milillo, a two-year starter who missed his sophomore season with torn ligaments in his ankle. “I did not think that we were that bad. We were better than our record. We had eight losses that were close, and four of those losses came against teams that were better than .500. We only had me and two other players who were back with varsity experience. I feel a lot stronger. Last year, I had to double tape my ankle, because I could not fully trust it. I do now. Looking at our schedule, and looking at our chemistry, we have a chance to be very good. I don’t think we’ll lose more than five games this year.”

Milillo bases that opinion on a selfless team that will not be relying solely on one player to score. The Bucks will also be deeper, with sophomores like 5-8 guard Ben Kondyra and Vrettos, who is coming off a strong summer, showing more consistency nailing threes, and more confidence driving to the basket.

Sherman is excited about this team, and its skill level. The Bucks will lack height. They compensate for that with a team filled with ballhandlers that can knock down outside shots and create their own shots.

Sherman’s priority is for this team to learn how to win in the tense moments.

“That was our problem last year,” he said. “We played a lot of sophomores and started a freshman. We were in every game last year, we just could not finish the close games, which I think had a lot to do with how young we were. We also played a lot of first-year varsity players. We can go nine, 10 deep this year. We have three sophomores that will be in the mix of big contributors, Aylmer, Vrettos, and Kondyra. We have some size in Pellegrini and Reichner underneath. We just have to find a way to win in the end. I think we will.”

This group feels it can play faster and do arrive with the experience gained from last season. What will make the Bucks tough to beat is their potential three-headed monster at guard in Milillo, Aylmer and Chuo. They are interchangeable, each able to handle the ball, look to pass first, and can score when needed.

“We took some lumps last year and I think we will be smarter at the end of games this year,” said Pellegrini, a two-year starter. “We were young. We should be better and that’s because our chemistry is better. We play good defense, because we communicate and because we know each other so well. We share the ball. What benefited us was what you can say was selective amnesia. We did not dwell on our losses. We were good when it meant pushing ahead.”

A concern could be on-ball defense, considering the Bucks at times were stagnant last season in man defense, and will be giving up some size to the better teams in District 1 Class 6A this season. The Bucks play primarily a zone defense, and they will rebound as a group. They will undoubtedly derive confidence from playing—and beating—some very good area programs over the summer.

Aylmer knows what losing is like. He knows what it is like facing adversity—coming from Lansdale Catholic, which carries a 62-game Catholic League losing streak on the court dating back to February 12, 2021 (a 44-43 victory over Conwell-Egan; LC was awarded a 2-0 victory over Neumann-Goretti in a forfeit victory for the Saints using an ineligible player).

“I want to make Max and Connor’s jobs easier, and learn from them,” Aylmer said. “When I was in the fire (at LC), I learned to take the game that is in front of you, not look behind you. These guys really welcomed me here. Being a freshman (at LC), I was not stressing too much. I learned that I could compete against the best. (CB West) can be good. I do not see many guards in our league that are as good as ours. I know every time I step on the court, I have four guys around me with high basketball IQs.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is an 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 BlueSky here.