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Prepping for Preps: Inter-Ac Preview

12/02/2015, 2:30pm EST
By CoBL Staff

Evan-Eric Longino (above) and Germantown Academy have won the last three Inter-Ac championships. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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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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It's shaping up to be a two-horse race in the Inter-Academic League, though Malvern Prep might have their say in that argument by the time it's all said and done.

Germantown Academy and Episcopal Academy finished 1-2 in the league last year, and though both lost a key pair of seniors, they each return a strong junior class plus several experienced seniors who will make them dangerous teams all year long.

Meanwhile, Penn Charter welcomes back a familiar face as the Quakers try to get back to their glory days of the past decade, while Springside-Chestnut Hill and Haverford School will have to replace lots of pieces from last year and will have an uphill battle against those top three.

CoBL Preseason All-Inter Ac
Nick Alikakos (Jr./F)--Episcopal Academy
Devon Goodman (Sr./PG)--Germantown Academy
Evan-Eric Longino (Jr./SF)--Germantown Academy
Will Powers (Sr./G)--Malvern Prep
Matt Woods (Sr./G)--Episcopal Academy
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Here’s how we see the Inter-Academic League shaping up:

1. Germantown Academy
Head coach: Jim Fenerty, 27th season
Last year: 22-6 (9-1 Inter-Ac), lost in PAISAA quarterfinals (Phelps School, 72-63)
Name(s) to know: Devon Goodman (Sr./PG), Evan-Eric Longino (Jr./SF), Kyle McCloskey (Jr./SG)

Breakdown: The Patriots have won the Inter-Ac championship in each of the last three seasons, and despite losing two key seniors Fenerty has plenty of Division I talent still left on the roster. They’ll be led by Goodman, a jet-quick Penn commit who averaged just over 13 ppg as a junior and is going into his third year as a starter--as are Longino, a thick-bodied 6-4 wing who averaged 9.0 ppg a year ago, and McCloskey, an athletic 6-4 guard who averaged 8.2 ppg. If 6-5 senior wing forward Gabe Alter can finally stay healthy after two years of injuries and junior guard Cole Storm adjusts well to major varsity minutes, Germantown Academy shouldn’t miss a beat.

2. Episcopal Academy
Head coach: Craig Conlin, 6th season
Last year: 17-7 (8-2 Inter-Ac), lost in PAISAA Round of 16 (Academy New Church, 52-49)
Name(s) to know: Nick Alikakos (Jr./F), Connor Delaney (Jr./G), Matt Woods (Sr./SG)

Breakdown: The Churchmen should really be labeled “1a,” because that’s how close these two teams are at the top of the league, with a good gap below them. They’re led by Alikakos, a 6-7 forward with Division I offers who was named the league’s MVP as a sophomore after averaging nearly 20 ppg. He’s terrific out of the high post and is working on expanding his range to the 3-point arc, though he’ll still get a lot of his production within 10 feet of the rim. The guards are strong as well, with the 6-0 Woods one of the best 3-point shooters in the area (66 triples last year, 11.3 ppg) and the 5-11 Delaney, a ‘Nova lacrosse commit, ready to assume point guard duties after serving as the team’s sixth man (5.9 ppg) a year ago.


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

3. Malvern Prep
Head coach: John Harmatuk, 3rd season
Last year: 12-14 (4-6 Inter-Ac), lost in PAISAA Round of 16 (Friends’ Central, 76-58)
Name(s) to know: Mike Hollingsworth (Sr./PF), Will Powers (Sr./G), Tommy Wolfe (Jr./G)

Breakdown: The Friars have taken small steps forward in each of Harmatuk’s first two years, winning three games in his first season and then four last year, and now it looks like his program is primed to take another step up in the rungs. Malvern showed they’re capable of competing with the top teams in the league, losing to Episcopal 78-75 in OT last year, though they did also suffer several other double-digit losses. Harmatuk’s run-and-gun attack, which graduated a trio of starters from a year ago, will be led by Powers (10.5 ppg), who’s part of a group of five contributors back from a year ago. They need Hollingsworth, a 6-6 forward, to be productive if they’re going to pull off an upset or two and challenge for a top-two slot.

4. Penn Charter
Head coach: Jim Phillips, 1st season
Last year: 4-21 (1-9 Inter-Ac)
Name(s) to know: Harrison Williams (Sr./G), Adam Holland (Jr./G), Evan Ferrell (Sr./F)

Breakdown: Phillips is back at the program that he had run as one of the best in the city a decade or so ago, when future high-major and pro players Sean Singletary (Virginia) and Rob Kurz (Notre Dame) wore Quaker uniforms. Now he’s back to try and resurrect it, though there aren’t any high-major players to lean on right away. What he does have, though, is a solid crop of athletes, with WIlliams (soccer), Holland (baseball), and Ferrell (football) among a number of players with college sports in their future. Williams (8.1 ppg) is the leading returning scorer, though look for Holland to chip in as well after a year off from the sport, along with sophomore wing Mason Williams.

5. Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy
Head coach: Jamie Chadwin, 4th season
Last year: 7-20 (1-9 Inter-Ac), lost in PAISAA Round of 16 (Westtown, 58-32)
Name(s) to know: Sean Simon (Soph./SG), Xavier Bell (Sr./G), Conor McAdoo (Jr./G)

Breakdown: Things were looking up at SCH, with a talented pair of sophomores that Chadwin could build his program around, and then one of them, shooting guard Justin Anderson, transferred to Academy New Church. Luckily for Chadwin he does still have the services of Simon, a talented 6-3 guard who can play either on or off the ball but projects as more of a ‘2’-guard. Bell and McAdoo both return on the wings from a team last year that featured a ton of youth, but it’s Simon that will surely need to step up and replace much of the scoring punch that Anderson brought as a freshman.

6. Haverford School
Head coach: Bernie Rogers, 1st season
Last year: 17-11 (7-3 Inter-Ac), lost in PAISAA semifinals (Phelps School, 88-71)
Name(s) to know: Jack Marshall (Sr./F), Josh Ridenhour (Jr./G), Kharon Randolph (Soph./G)

Breakdown: This is going to be a major rebuilding project for Rogers, who comes over after spending 15 years at Archbishop Ryan to replace former head coach Henry Fairfax, who stepped down to focus on his duties as the school’s admissions director. Gone are the most talented trio of prospects in the league in Levan Alston Jr. (Temple), Lamar Stevens (Roman Catholic) and Cameron Reddish (Westtown School), who despite being top-100 players in their respective classes were not able to finish higher than third in the league. Those three, plus Derek Mountain (Holy Cross, football), combined for just over 90 percent of the team’s output a year ago. Rogers will be leaning heavily on youth right away, and it’ll be interesting to see what he can do with a program that still hasn’t won an Inter-Ac title since the late 1990s.


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