City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue
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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 took time last season for Tony Bacon’s West Chester Rustin boys squad to figure things out.

The former Golden Knights girls assistant began his tenure at the helm of the boys program with an 0-3 start and brought a 3-7 mark into January.

There were some growing pains, until eventually things started to click, working their way into the Ches-Mont League playoffs.

In Bacon’s second season, he has a group ready to learn from some of the lumps it took last year and make an even deeper postseason run.

“I think we finally got caught up with the things of how we have to play at the end of the season, but it was just too late,” senior 6-4 forward Timmy Batchelor told CoBL this fall. “Starting into this season, we know what we’ve gotta do now and we just gotta execute.”

West Chester Rustin went 8-15 in 2025-26, including a 6-4 mark in the Ches-Mont National Division. The Golden Knights finished No. 17 in the District 1 Class 5A power rankings — five spots out of the district tournament.

Rustin got its brief taste of postseason play in the Ches-Mont playoffs with a 60-45 loss to Bishop Shanahan in the first round. But Bacon was proud of how his team got there.

The Golden Knights had lost six of their seven games in mid-January before they rallied to win five of seven, including a three-game win streak that included key division wins over Great Valley and Unionville.

They were 2-3 the first time through the division before going 4-1 the next time through with the only loss against division champion Sun Valley in their final regular season game.

“We finally got healthy at the end, and the kids played their ass off at the end of the season,” Bacon said. “To our kids’ credit, we rallied toward the end and we put ourselves in a position. And that’s all I’ll ever ask of the kids. Once the game starts let’s see what happens, but at least put yourself in a position to experience that playoff experience.”

Rustin graduated a pair of all-league players in Vince Iacone and Ben Malley (King’s College). Senior point guard Chris MacNeal, an all-league honorable mention selection last season, and senior guard Ryan Ward (6-0) are the Golden Knights’ lone returning starters.

Batchelor and senior wing Mike Roccio (6-2) are two others with returning varsity experience.

“Credit to the seniors who left last year,” Bacon said. “When you have a new coach coming in, it’s difficult for the kids, so I totally understood that. It’s going to be a lot better for these guys this year because they’ve got to know myself and Coach Mike and Coach Chuck. … The returning seniors we have this year. They know what the expectations are because I have high expectations for these kids.”

Freshman 6-2 wing Jackson Bradley is a youngster to keep an eye on and junior 5-10 guard Willie Washington played well in front of the CoBL staff this offseason.

They’re part of an inexperienced group ready to make its mark at the varsity level this season and fill some of the holes left behind by last year’s departures.

“Coach Bacon’s a good coach and our expectations are to the sky and he only wishes for the best for us,” Washington said.

“(He wants) hustle, dedication. Every week we’re practicing and making ourselves better and just communicating with each other, trying to make ourselves better.”

Bacon believes his group has learned from some of the trials and tribulations of last season, when the Golden Knights were rarely at full strength.

The “next-man up mentality” he preached reared its head when he had to go deeper and deeper into the bench due to injuries.

Bacon’s expectation is his group will have to rely on his 8th, 9th and 10th man at some point this season and the hope is that they are more ready when called into action.

“Sometimes you have to fail at some things in order to find success,” Bacon said. “I think they see how important it is to work at practice everybody because you have to be ready to go. I think last year was a valuable lesson for all of us.”

Batchelor said Rustin’s seniors have heeded their coach’s call.

“We lost a decent bit of seniors this year, but we’ve all stepped up now and we all know how we like to play together,” Batchelor said. “We all know what each of us like to do, so we’ve learned how to play together now.”

Washington said the Golden Knights “want a banner on the wall.” Rustin last won the Ches-Mont in 2011. Bacon gathered his seniors to get their goals this fall, but wanted to keep those close to the chest.

His mission is to make sure the group has fun playing together and continues to improve every day, like it did last season.

If the Golden Knights can find their groove a little early than a year ago, who knows what kind of noise they can make.

“We’re ready. We’re here,” Batchelor said. “We’ve been practicing in the offseason and now we’re finally ready to show what we’ve been doing and bring it to the real games now.