Several of those athletes are so good they appear in a couple different places in the program. More than a few of them won’t need directions to the Ramada because they’ve been here before.
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So it wasn’t a big surprise when McBride made the All-Delco football team. But it was a surprise when McBride provided the leadership and did a lot of the dirty work under and around the basket so well for Chester’s PIAA Class AAAA runnerup that he not only made All-Delco in basketball, but was named the Player of the Year on top of that.
When it came right down to it, McBride averaged double figures in points and rebounds and got every loose ball, all of which made him tough to ignore. That an otherwise pretty young Chester team came within a point of capturing a state championship was a testament to the talent of its players and McBride’s will to win.
Strath Haven’s Dan Connor, just a junior, shows up on a couple of All-Delco lists as well. He was the driving force behind the Panthers’ run to a fourth straight appearance in the PIAA Class AAA football championship game. Haven fell for the second straight time in the championship game, 21-10, to Hopewell, but Connor seemed determined to change that next year.
Connor also shows up on the All-Delco boys track list after dominating several of the field events in a spring cut short by injury.
He also was an inside force for a Strath Haven boys basketball team that won its first Central League crown in 12 years. The team included Delco’s leading scorer, Rob Payne, who was an All-Delco pick.
That Haven boys hoop team also included another outstanding athlete not playing his best sport. That would be Scott Spangler, who was named boys soccer Player of the Year for the second straight year as the Panthers reached the PIAA Class AAA Eastern final before falling, 2-1, to West Chester Henderson.
The girls soccer team at Strath Haven had a little better luck last fall. Lauren Windsor’s goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 victory over Penn-Trafford in the PIAA Class AAA championship game, earning a state title for coach Kristen Barr, daughter of Mike, who’s won a few of these as the boys coach.
As for repeaters, well it’s tough to top a trio of girls swimmers, Upper Darby’s Lauren Urbanski, Penncrest’s Katie McCann and Notre Dame’s Brigit Barry, all of whom earned a fourth straight invite to tonight’s festivities.
Those standouts and their fellow All-Delco athletes are headed to the Ramada tonight to take one final bow for their achievements. The All-Delco banquet has become the exclamation point on the scholastic sports year in the county.
The highlight of the night will come when the identities of the Male and Female Athlete of the Year are revealed. The All-Delco athletes themselves will make that decision when they cast their votes earlier in the evening.
By casting their vote, the athletes will also make themselves eligible for a host of door prizes, including the grand prize, which is a trip for two to Atlanta to see the Phillies and Braves play a pair of games at Turner Field later this month. Marriott International has graciously donated housing for two nights free of charge at one its Atlanta hotels.
The featured speaker is Ed Hastings, a 1969 basketball All-Delco at Monsignor Bonner himself. Hastings is the director of the Center for Sports, Spirituality and Character Development at Neumann College. In a nice twist, Hastings’ niece, Maureen Goldhorn, will also be in the house after making the All-Delco softball team out of Archbishop Carroll.
The winner of the Bill Brown Scholarship will also be revealed.
But the beauty of the annual gathering is that it gives the sports community one more chance to relive the great moments from the 2002-03 sports year.
And there were no shortage of them:
- A tremendous fall postseason in both boys and girls soccer and football on Providence Road in Nether Providence. Windsor’s goal brought home a state championship trophy, but the boys soccer and football teams made strong bids as well. Kevin Clancy’s football team was denied by Hopewell, but still ended its season in Hershey for the fourth straight time. Mike Barr’s boys soccer team just couldn’t get past Henderson, which beat the Panthers in overtime in the District One final and denied them a berth in the state final.
- Two memorable postseason runs in Class AAAA by the Interboro and Ridley football teams. All Steve Lennox’s Bucs did was win two games on the road before finally bowing to North Penn in the quarterfinals while John Waller’s Green Raiders defeated defending state champion Neshaminy before falling to North Penn in the second round. As if that wasn’t enough, the teams then staged a Thanksgiving Day classic with Interboro needing overtime to hand Ridley a 35-28 setback.
- A couple of nice playoff runs in the Catholic League. Archbishop Carroll, after struggling early in the season, captured its third straight Blue Division championship with a 22-7 victory over West Catholic, avenging a regular-season setback. A talented Cardinal O’Hara team put up a fight against Red Division powerhouse St. Joseph’s Prep before falling, 38-13, in the semifinals.
- Cardinal O’Hara’s Jen Kosloski, the field hockey Player of the Year, dashed down the field and scoring the winning goal in the Lions’ 1-0 victory over Archbishop Carroll in the Catholic League championship game. It was the first Catholic field hockey title in school history.
- The Penncrest volleyball team gave departing coach Peggy Levesque the best going-away present she could have hoped for by winning a Central League crown.
- Frustrated in the Pennsylvania Cup Class A final a year earlier, Radnor, led by Daily Times hockey Player of the Year Chris Brennan, downed Westmont Hilltop, 2-1, to bring a hockey state championship to Delaware County for the first time since 1992.
- Chester made a dramatic run in the Class AAAA boys basketball playoffs highlighted by a double-overtime victory over Hatboro-Horsham. Junior point guard Andre Stewart scored nine of his 32 points in the second overtime of a 64-58 victory that they’ll be talking about in Chester for some time. The Clippers were frustrated in their bid for a fifth state title when they lost to State College in overtime in the championship game, but winning a second straightDistrict One title, their 14th overall, and reaching the state final made for a pretty entertaining scholastic postseason around these parts.
- Two county wrestlers came away from Hershey with medals with Glen Mills heavyweight Callahan Bright, still a relative novice at the sport, finishing sixth and Interboro’s Adam Parcell placing eighth.
- It was an Archbishop Carroll-Cardinal O’Hara classic in the Catholic League girls basketball final. The Patriots’ Andrea Peterson made a free throw with 5.3 seconds left that gave them a 36-35 victory. By all reports, nothing was left on the court.
- A couple of Delco divers, Garnet Valley’s Derek Schiller and Ridley’s Josh Bonner, swept the gold medals at the PIAA championships, claiming the AA and AAA crowns, respectively. Garnet Valley’s Ryan Reeser also struck gold in State College in the 200 freestyle while also helping the Jaguars capture the 200 free relay. Radnor’s Victor Johnson was golden in the 50 freestyle at the state meet. Not to be outdone, Cardinal O’Hara’s Bill Marcum swept the two freestyle sprints at the prestigious Eastern championship meet.
- Glen Mills’ Tyree Suber began his road to a Pennsylvania scholastic "Triple Crown" in the shot put when he won the event at the indoor championship meet. He would add gold medals at the Penn Relays and at the PIAA Championships in May at Shippesnburg.
- There were some other golden performances at Shippensburg with Upper Darby’s Jannea Bridgeford winning the 100 and anchoring the Royals to a first in the 4 x 100 relay and Strath Haven’s Phil Atkinson capturing the 300 intermediate hurdles.
- Another amazing PSLA playoff run by Ridley, the Green Raiders really turning it on to capture its third straight championship with an 11-4 victory over Central League champion Radnor just last Friday.
- Archbishop Carroll made it three straight Catholic League girls lacrosse championships with a 12-8 victory over Conwell-Egan.
- It was a year to remember in golf with Radnor’s Adam Cohan winning the PIAA championship in dramatic fashion on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff in the fall, Haverford School’s John Sawin claiming the Inter-Ac individual title and Monsignor Bonner’s Jim Robertson finishing second at the Catholic League tournament.
- It hardly stops there. Elsewhere in this section you’ll find an account of Cardinal O’Hara’s dramatic seventh-inning rally that earned the Lions a Catholic League baseball championship. Tomorrow night two county lacrosse teams, Springfield and Radnor, will battle for District One crowns in Class AA and AAA, respectively.
It’s been that kind of year. The All-Delco athletes we’ll honor tonight and their teammates produced a ton of magic moments since another scholastic sports year began late last August. Let the celebration begin.
Tom McNichol is the sports editor of the Daily Times.
