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Prepping for Preps: Malvern Prep (Pa.)

10/16/2015, 11:00am EDT
By Jeff Griffith

Tommy Wolfe (above) and Malvern Prep are hoping to turn up the tempo even more in 2015-16. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's "Prepping for Preps," our series of articles previewing area high school teams for the 2015-16 season. For the complete list of schools previewed so far, click here)

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When head coach John Harmatuk came to Malvern Prep entering the 2013-14 season, he had his work cut out for him. In an Inter-Ac that contained two strong programs in Germantown Academy and Episcopal Academy, plus a loaded Haverford School, the Friars were stuck in the middle of the conference pack in Harmatuk’s first two seasons at the helm.

Last season was a perfect representation of that: the Friars beat the two teams below them (Springside-Chestnut Hill and Penn Charter) twice each, while losing to GA, EA and Haverford in both of their meetings, finishing at 4-6 in league play.

There’s two main reasons to believe that this season will turn out better for Malvern Prep.

First is that Haverford lost all three of its Division I prospects, meaning new head coach Bernie Rogers has a lot of work ahead of him to rebuild the program.

Second is that, according to Harmatuk, this could be his most intriguing team yet.

“I’m pretty excited, this is year three for what we’re trying to do, and I think the kids understand what our expectations are, so I’m pretty excited about that,” he said. “I think we have a chance to be more athletic and better defensively than we’ve been these last two years.”

The Friars have been, for the last several years, one of the more up-tempo teams in the Inter-Ac, which is known for a methodical pace of play. The expectation for 2015-16 is more of the same, if not an even faster tempo.

Junior Ray Baran is expected to be one of the team’s best defenders in the high-octane system. The 6-foot-1 guard, who started every game last year, communicates well on defense, and can guard opponent’s top scorers, even if he needs to defend out of his position.

“He’s another glue guy defensively,” Harmatuk said. “He does all the little things, he’s really tough, and I’d like to see him step it up on the offensive end a little more. He’s got some defensive skills, I think he was just a little bit reluctant to shoot the ball last year, and we’re going to need him to do a lot of that as well.”

While Malvern’s attack has been largely guard-centric the last few years, Harmatuk does have some useful size at his disposal this season.

The inside presence of 6-6 senior center Mike Hollingsworth allows the smaller, quicker guards like Baran and senior captain Will Powers to excel on the perimeter, and the triple-threat can create opportunities to feed into the high-speed system the Friars will continue to employ.

“We haven’t had a rim protector much these last few years, and I think Mike Hollingsworth, who’s going to be a senior, is really starting to mature,” Harmatuk said. “He’s playing with a lot of energy. I think we’re going to get a lot more rim protection which will allow us to do some different things out on the floor defensively.”

The offensive side of the ball has Harmatuk a bit less excited, but still confident; where scoring will come from is his largest concern. Having lost a large amount of scoring from last season in graduated seniors like Joey Fitzpatrick (13.2 ppg), Jack Doherty (11 ppg) and Chris Anderson (7.3 ppg), Powers (10.5 ppg) and junior Tommy Wolfe are first in line to fill that void.

Wolfe, a 5-11 guard who played through mono for a few games before the illness knocked him out for the season, is expected to be one of several players who will need to step into bigger roles this season as a part of Malvern’s deep roster.

Some of the underclassmen have begun to catch the eyes of both Harmatuk and Powers and can add to Malvern’s bench depth. Billy Corcoran, a 6-5 wing, in particular has the ability to score well around the rim and will likely fill a sizable role off the bench in his sophomore season.

Despite the excitement and confidence levels that are rising heading into the upcoming season, Malvern knows full well the challenge that they face in the Inter-Ac’s top tier. Last year, the 1-2 punch of Germantown and Episcopal was felt by the Friars, who got swept by and lost heartbreakers to both teams.

There was a 78-75 overtime loss to Episcopal, a 68-64 loss to Haverford School, and a few other games that weren’t far out of reach.

“Those were our games to win, so we’re definitely coming back with a little bit of a grudge because we could’ve had those games,” Powers said.

There is still a deficit in the overall basketball talent, as Germantown Academy and Episocpal each have at least one Division I recruit on board. GA has Penn commit Devon Goodman, a speedy 5-11 point guard with a scorers’ touch, not to mention talented juniors Evan-Eric Longino and Kyle McClosky, all three-year starters. And EA has defending league MVP Nick Alikakos, a talented 6-7 junior combo forward, plus a very good combo guard in ‘Nova lacrosse commit Connor Delaney and more.

Malvern, which opens its season against Friends Central on December 1, may not have the firepower to reach the top of the Inter-Ac, but their newfound athleticism and depth is definitely cause for a bright outlook.

“I definitely think it’s going to take a whole team effort,” Powers said. “We’re not going to win by ourselves, we need everyone to compete, and we need to believe in ourselves that we can do it, I feel like maybe we’ve been lacking some of that in past years, but I really think we have it this year, we can knock those teams off.”


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