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Garnet Valley's Laughlin happy with path to get to Kutztown

05/21/2018, 1:30pm EDT
By Anthony Dabbundo

Austin Laughlin (above) helped Garnet Valley to several of the biggest wins in program history. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo)
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At 14 years old, Austin Laughlin had to make the biggest decision of his life.

His two older brothers, Ryan and Brandon, transferred to Cardinal O’Hara for high school to play football. The two faced some of the toughest competition in the state in the Philadelphia Catholic League. Both were successful, and paved the way for Austin to follow along three years later.

Austin grew up playing basketball on the side of the Laughlin house, getting pushed around by his older brothers, according to his father, Chuck. He said that Austin idolized his older brothers from a young age.

“He learned toughness from them, they pushed him around a lot,” Chuck Laughlin said. “Getting pushed around and banged around, that helped him the most.

So when the decision came to choose a high school, Austin had the same opportunity as his brothers. He could stay at Garnet Valley, to play for a team which had won just three of its last 55 games, alongside his childhood friends and teammates. Or he could follow his brothers to a Catholic League school.

Laughlin knew both the St. Joe’s Prep coach, and Bonner-Prendergast coach well. He had workouts with both during his 8th grade year before deciding what to do for high school. O’Hara offered him a spot on the basketball team.

His parents wanted him to go to O’Hara, Austin said. But he didn’t listen. He bought in to Garnet Valley and new head coach Mike Brown, a family friend of the Laughlin’s.

“I was really close to going [to O’Hara],” Austin Laughlin said. “My parents kept telling me that they wanted me in a better league.”

Four years later, Laughlin walked off the court for the final time at GV as the all-time leading scorer in school history. Surrounded by his closest friends, Laughlin broke the school scoring record as a four-year varsity player, scoring 1,479 points.

He committed to play Division II basketball at Kutztown last week, where he will continue his basketball career. Loughlin is the second-ever GV player to receive a Division II basketball scholarship, after Brandon Starr (USciences) last season.

As Laughlin transitions to college life at Kutztown, he joins a team that is replacing two guards from its backcourt, in Ethan Ridgeway (17.4 ppg) and Rafiq Marshall (10 ppg). The Golden Bears featured the second highest scoring offense in the PSAC last season, averaging 87.6 points per game.

Laughlin is a more natural shooting guard, Brown said. But his size dictates that he may be forced to play more of a point guard role at Kutztown. By his own admission, Austin said his ball-handling skills need work.

Laughlin has always been small, his father said. But that hasn’t stopped Laughlin from being one of the best scorers in District 1 basketball for the last three seasons.

From a young age, Brown saw potential in Laughlin and knew he would have to fight to keep him in the GV district. He watched Laughlin display his potential, then a 5th grader playing CYO basketball at St. Thomas.

“He was always the best player on the court,” Brown said. “As a fifth grader he was better than the sixth graders and most of the seventh graders and eighth graders.”

While Austin’s two older brothers played basketball in middle school and early in high school before quitting to focus on football, Laughlin always attended his siblings’ games. Austin would bring his own basketball, and shoot during halftime.

In eighth grade, Austin won a state championship in CYO basketball. Brown attended dozens of Laughlin’s CYO games, and he would hang around afterwards to talk to Austin about sticking with Garnet Valley. Brown told Laughlin that his coaching staff was changing the culture at Garnet Valley. At GV, Brown said, Laughlin could play as a freshman, something he likely would not get in the Catholic League.  

Laughlin attended open gyms and played with the high schoolers that would be his future teammates. Every week during the offseason, Laughlin practiced with them and felt right at home, he said.

He wanted to be a part of the group that turned Garnet Valley into a winning program for the first time in its history. He had watched his older brothers play under Brown in CYO, and trusted him and the older players that the culture of GV hoops was changing.

“I knew most of them in middle school,” Laughlin said. “The older guys convinced me that the culture was changing.”

Laughlin’s dad said that Austin embraced the underdog role, and wanted to rescue the program and create his own legacy. As a freshman, Laughlin played part of the season. He attempted nearly twice as many 3-pointers as two pointers, part of his adjustment to the high school level.

By sophomore year, he started every game. Garnet Valley made the district playoffs for the first time in school history. The Jaguars lost in the opening round, but that berth meant everything to a program that had once won just three games in three years.

After two years as a quiet underclassmen, Laughlin blossomed into the leader his team needed, carrying them with his elite shooting and scoring ability. When the team had summer showcases and shootouts, Brown said that Laughlin never missed anything. When other players missed for work, vacation, and other sports, Brown knew he could count on Laughlin to always be present at any summer game, workout, or open gym.

“The first rule in life to succeed is show up, and he’s a show-up guy,” Brown said.

On the court, Laughlin’s dynamic scoring ability propelled the Jaguars to new heights as an upperclassman.  Against Lower Merion on January 24, 2017, GV trailed Lower Merion by two in overtime.

With four seconds left, Brown drew up a play. But that wasn’t Laughlin’s plan. He took the ball off the inbound, dribbled twice, then double clutched a contested, half-court heave. It went in. Three of his 36 points on just 18 shots delivered an overtime win against the future Central League champions.

Later that year, the Jaguars won their first ever district game, beating Methacton on their home floor, 49-45. Leading by 2, Laughlin scored the basket to ice the game with 12 seconds to play. They came within minutes of the state playoffs, losing back to back overtime heartbreakers to Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford.

As a senior, Laughlin became the sixth player in Garnet Valley history to reach 1,000 points, when he scored 18 against Upper Dublin last December. A month later, Laughlin broke the overall school scoring record against Chichester with a 36 point performance in another win.

The Jaguars were stunned in the opening round of the 2018 playoffs on their home floor. After Laughlin walked off the Jags floor for the final time, Brown thanked him.

“I thanked him for sticking with us, for all his hard work, and how much I appreciate the effort,” Brown said. “He’s as driven of a kid as I’ve coached.”

Laughlin’s drive to turn GV into a winning program kept him in the district.

Now, he’s the most decorated player in the school’s history.


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