Geigle Complex remains the No. 1 stop sign for our boys basketball teams

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Another trip to Reading on Tuesday night and another end of a season for a local boys basketball team.

I've been covering local high school boys basketball since 1983-84 and I've had more "end of the season" interviews in the hallways of Geigle than at other place.

Oh, we've had a few good memories, too.

Like Central Catholic beating Steelton-Highspire 50-47 to win a riveting Eastern 3A semifinal in 2001 en route to the state championship game in Hershey.

Or like St. Patty's Day 2004 when Parkland beat York 54-50 to win the Eastern 4A championship and earn the Lehigh Valley's and District 11's first -- and only, so far -- appearance in the 4A boys state title game.

There was even a special night at Geigle ast March when Liberty beat York 58-54 in a second-round game to advance to the 4A quarterfinals, and eventually, to the state semis.

The Hurricanes will be hoping for a similar kind of night tonight when they play Council Rock North back in Reading.

But Geigle is usually the end of the road for our teams, sometimes in memorable games like Whitehall's quarterfinal-round loss to Chester in 2005 and Allen's loss to the might Clippers in the same round the following year.

Those games marked the end of the high school careers of Jay Greene, Terrence Roderick and Darnell Braswell and so many great ones took off their high school uniforms for the last time at Geigle.

Sometimes it gets very emotional in those postgame situations. I've seen my share of tears.

Not so tonight when Central's season ended with a 70-56 loss.

Very few people expected Central Catholic to beat Lancaster Catholic. Very few will be surprised by the final score.

Even CCHS fans and students probably didn't believe it would happen either and maybe that's why most of them stayed home. The representation for the Vikings was poor. Pathetic, really. Maybe there's a bit of CCHS fan fatigue after that great football run.

Bob Schlosser, the former CCHS coach who was there to root on his son, Will, who played for Lancaster Catholic, probably didn't recognize his old school.

When he was coaching, the Vikings had a large following. He told me on Monday how he fondly remembered the long lines for tickets for big games.

I would doubt if there were more than 30-40 people there rooting for CCHS in Reading tonight. I saw no students.

I don't know what it is, but this era of Vikings boys basketball has been troubling, void of excitement.

This is a program that has gone through a lot of strife ever since Ron Hassler resigned after the 2006-07 season. Counting Hassler, CCHS has had four coaches in five seasons.

No need to go back through that nasty piece of history again.

What is interesting is the future because if -- and it's a big word here "IF" -- the Vikings can keep this young group together for the next 2-3 years, the Vikings are going to win a lot of games and more championships.

Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman (below) and Jean Lee Baez are terrific young players. Freshman Jimmy Vaughan and sophomore Mike Kammerer are good ones, too. MAAR

Who knows who else is coming through, but with just those four guys, the future is bright.

But in the current state of high school athletics, who knows who will be where next year.

I don't think even Rich Fatzinger, the Central coach shown below at right, knows for sure who will be in his program next November when practice officially begins for the 2011-12 season begins.

High school sports has become such a transient environment with everyone looking out for what's best for them. The school, the program? Heck they are mere props to be used by the student-athletes and their parents.

I remind you that on Wednesday Justin Pacchioli will have his hearing before the District 11 committee on his transfer from Easton to Nazareth.

Here is the heart and soul of Red Rovers football, the very face of the program, and he's going to finish his athletic career as a baseball player at Nazareth?

Isn't there something wrong with that?

I don't think the District 11 committee will block him. It's nearly impossible to prove that a kid is transferring for athletic reasons. This transfer allegedly has a lot of layers to it and is not merely another coach/player conflict.

I don't think it's right at all, but it is certainly indicative of what's going on out there.

Back to CCHS boys basketball.

It would be nice to see what Baez and Abdur-Rahkman could do together for the next three years. I think they have developed a nice rapport and could be a dynamic duo.

But in this current volatile climate of high school sports where kids and their parents feel as though they are free agents and will change schools as quick as changing uniforms if they don't get their way, absolutely nothing can be etched in stone about the rising stars at CCHS, or anywhere else.

Finally, if there is going to be another batch of sad interviews tonight at Reading, at least I won't be the one doing them. I am going to the Allen-La Salle game at Council Rock South. where Andy "Weave" Weaver is predicting a 66-64 Canaries victory.

Here's hoping he's right and either Liberty or Allen, or both, will win so that tonight is not the end of our high school boys basketball season.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/