City of Basketball Love

By Tom Robinson
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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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Dustin Hardy-Moore is not so sure his Engineering & Science boys team took a step back last season.

What he is certain of is that the Engineers are determined not to let it happen again.

“Our goal, and this is coming directly from the kids, is that they want to experience all three championship games,” Hardy-Moore said. “The Public League Championship game, they want to experience a district championship game, and they want to experience a state championship game.”

The presence of six highly experienced seniors and some additional help leads to that ambitious outlook.

“Their goal always is that they want to do better than the year before,” Hardy-Moore said.

Last season’s team went from 21 wins to 15-9. A large part of that can be explained by the bump up to the top division of the Philadelphia Public League after a ‘B’ division title the year before. What was clearly missing, however, was a return trip to the PIAA playoffs after a state quarterfinal appearance in 2023-24.

“Last year, they felt like they regressed after the state playoff run as sophomores,” said Hardy-Moore, who is in his second season as head coach after six seasons as an assistant at the school located at 16th and Norris, right off the campus at Temple University. “Our senior guys are ready to be one of the top teams, not only in our league, but in our city, state and region.”

The Engineers are loaded with experience.

“We currently have six seniors and all six of our seniors will be playing valuable minutes and will be key to our program this year,” Hardy-Moore said. “Three of them have been varsity players since their freshman years.”

The four-year players are all guards in 6-foot-3 Sahin Rodriguez, 6-foot Matthew McField and 5-9 Fareed Brown. All three started a year ago.

Taydon Lewis, a 6-2 guard, is another player who was part of the varsity during the state tournament run.

Samir Roberts-Mouzon, a 5-9 guard, is a two-time District 12 singles champion in tennis. He is back with the team after a year away to concentrate on that sport.

Ziyan Hemingway, a 6-4 volleyball player, is a first-time player in his senior season.

Hemingway is one of three taller additions that alter the look of the team.

Malcolm Musgrove Jr., a 6-5 junior forward, missed almost all of last season because of injury. 

“He’s back and 100 percent healthy and ready to go,” Hardy-Moore said of Musgrove, who has been active with the team throughout all summer and fall action.

Billy Henighan, a 6-5 junior wing player, transferred in from Germantown Friends.

“We have a lot of length with a lot of our unknowns, but we can also speed up a game, too,” Hardy-Moore said. “I’m loving the versatility that we have. We can play up-temp. We can slow a game down. We’re going to be able to win games multiple ways. 

“That’s going to be the marketability for our guys. College coaches want to see can you adjust and adapt to different games – go through adversity. Our kids are absolutely going to be able to do that this year.”

The sophomore class may even add to that with more length from potential role players coming up.

Treyvon Deadrick, a 5-10 junior guard, is another player with experience while Chase Bonner, a 6-1 sophomore guard, is also expected to be part of the rotation.

Hardy-Moore is challenging his team early in the season, hosting Springside-Chestnut Hill and playing Berks Catholic at a neutral site along with Dock Mennonite, Abington Friends and a couple games at Shamokin Area’s holiday tournament. They face one big Pub test with a Dec. 4 home game against Audenried but don’t take on most of the ‘A’ Division until 2026. 

Three big dates to circle are a Jan. 10 trip to Imhotep, a Jan. 15 visit from Samuel Fels and a Jan. 24 trip to Plymouth Whitemarsh, the three biggest tests of their closing month. Pass a couple of them, and that goal of three championship games might not be so far-fetched. 

“The part that I’m banking on here is last year, moving up to the top division, the unknowns, I believe they handled it well,” Hardy-Moore said. “In the record, it shows regression. I don’t think there was any regression. But I know they know what the day-to-day is like. I believe we’re going to be extremely successful this year.”