City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@dan_arkans)
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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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Rebuilding is not in the vocabulary of the Phoenixville boys basketball team.

The Phantoms have been on a two-year tear that included a PAC championship and berths in the district and state playoffs. It’s been a historic run for Phoenixville.

Now comes the hard part. The Phantoms have lost 14 seniors the last two seasons, including All-PAC performer Deacon Baratta, who is now at Tufts. However, don’t use the word rebuilding or lower expectations around star junior point guard Keron Booth Jr.

“A lot of people are doubting us for leagues and districts,” Booth said. “People don’t have us in the conversation. Two years ago we won the league. For us this year it’s good not having a target. Coming in as the hunter, it will definitely be a different role for us. I want us to be league champs, district champs. I don’t think our school has ever won a state game. I want to win a state game. We can definitely win our league.”

Booth is the lone returner back for Phoenixville after averaging 15 points, four assists and two steals per game. He has gone all over the country playing AAU basketball for As Promised. He is more than ready for this moment.

“I have a big year coming up,” Booth said. “Pressure is a privilege. I am ready to take it on as a challenge. I feel through the first couple of games we are going to have to figure it out. It will take a couple of games of who is playing what minutes and who has what role. After that we will all be good.”

The hard-working Booth has already started getting college offers from some D-2 and D-3 schools including West Chester University. He might stand only 5-foot-8, but he has no shortage of confidence in himself.

“I am ready to take that next leap to my game,” Booth said. “I think I can win MVP. Last year I was first team All-League. I don’t know my ranking in the state. I want to be a top three point guard.”

Booth, who describes himself as an extension of a coach on the floor, will carry that leadership tag while also doing a brunt of the scoring at least as the season starts. The lightning quick point guard wants to be a pest on defense, while initiating the offense as well.

“I feel like AAU and last year I have been doing  this for a while,” said Booth of being a distributor and a scorer. “It’s nothing new to me. I have been working all summer for this. Throughout the summer and fall I have been doing it. We have been playing against different teams in the fall league. We played a lot of good teams. I have seen a lot of different schemes like box in one where I have to make reads quicker.”

Booth will have to do the brunt of the scoring and distributing because the Phantoms not only lost Baratta, but Brady O’Donnell, Jehoash Leo and all-league performer Trey Lear. It will be a new look squad certainly led by Booth, but the cupboard isn’t exactly bare. 

Booth has a solid shooter to pass to in senior Stephen Yurick, who saw some action last year.

There should be some other shooters as well in senior Chase Thorburn as well as sophomores Jayden O’Malley, Trey Warkala and Jayden Smith.

“We are really young,” said Phoenixville head coach Eric Burnett, who is entering his 12th season at the helm. “A couple of years ago we had a young team. They just need to  understand the journey of getting better every day. Two years ago we started season 2-7 with a lot of inexperience. We are not looking at winning and losing games, focusing on getting better each day and getting used to playing with each other. There’s a lot of underclassmen trying to find their way on varsity court.” 

What Phoenixville squad does have this season is size and plenty of it. The Phantoms will roll out 6-foot-5 sophomore Logan Kern, 6-4 junior Will Leinhauser, 6-3 junior Cadin Coleman and 6-3 senior Colin Coleman.

“We are much bigger than we have been,” said Burnett. “We have a lot of size. We are going to mix it up. We have always changed defenses. Specifically going with which defense it’s going to take some time. We have to adapt to that pace with guys that are inexperienced. We have some mismatches, we’ve got to rebound the ball. That’s a big point of emphasis – defense and rebounding.”

The Phantoms open up with Pennridge on November 25, but then delve into PAC play with the likes of Upper Perk, Pottstown and Owen J. Roberts. Mixed in later on the season is battles with Downingtown East, North Penn and Plymouth Whitemarsh.

The goal is to get one percent better each day and peak when the PAC playoffs come around. Last season the only regular season loss in league was to Pottsgrove before a semifinal defeat to Spring-Ford.

“Everyone knows we have our work cut out for us,” Burnett said. “We have a lot of new faces and they feel they have a lot to live up to. It’s their own journey and they have to write our own story.”