View from the Mountain ’26 (Pt. 1)
Local sportswriter, Mason Smith, stops by The SportsTalk Shop today to give his view on the Mountain Valley teams in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
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The high school basketball season is more than halfway over, and the outcome looks very different for each of the seven boys’ teams in Monroe County.
Pocono Mountain West still reigns supreme over the Mountain as the Panthers will be the first area team to punch its ticket to the district playoffs. A large part of that the next-level play of Senior Guard, KJ Coles, who recently broke the program’s all-time scoring record and is quickly approaching the area’s all-time mark.
Surprisingly, the second-best player for Rich Williams’ squad has been sophomore forward Teddy Stiehler, who’s becoming a fearsome shot-blocker and reliable offensive release valve. Williams did say Stiehler could be an impactful player this season, but he’s approaching All-EPC status. The Panthers remain on the shortlist for conference and district title contention.
The next three teams, Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg North and Pocono Mountain East, are in a heated battle for a postseason berth, albeit in different fashions. For Stroudsburg, the Mounties are led by a young-but-growing duo of Tae El-Bassiouni and Jarel Jackson, who’ve shared the scoring load so far. Other pieces like Isaac Gibbs, Josh Ivers-Green and Kameron Knight have also made a lot of progress after taking their lumps last season.
As of now, the Mounties are in the 6A district playoff bracket while flirting with the EPC tournament, but their resolve as young players will be tested the final month of the season.
East is in a similar situation, but instead of young talent leading the way, the senior duo of Aiden Pierre and Dominic McManus have each shown moments of brilliance. The problem is that they haven’t been able to do it together yet, which is why the Cardinals haven’t been able to pull away offensively.
After them is a supporting case of Christian Varkanis, Anthony Tapia and Fred Allicock, who’ve excelled in their roles but are inconsistent. Hopefully the winter break provided a chance to reflect and tighten the screws.
East Stroudsburg North, the only Pocono team in 5A, won’t have the luxury of backing into the district playoffs like last year. Every team in the class is around .500, meaning if the Timberwolves want to guarantee postseason play, they must have the record to back it.
Wayne King is doing all he can to lead his team, with freshman Brandon Bowen showing he can be a reliable perimeter marksman. North continues to use a chaotic defense and balanced offensive production, and it’s worked. Will that be enough to get into the dance? It’ll have to play itself out.
The final three teams – East Stroudsburg South, Pleasant Valley and Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg, are all but virtually eliminated from playoff contention barring a miraculous second-half push. Notre Dame, being in a 1A class that isn’t strong this season, have the best chance to get into the top-4, and their recent win against Salem Christian showed a high-end version of the team’s potential. What holds the team back is too many turnovers and erratic offensive play. Unfortunately, we’ve seen more of the latter from Matt Gallagher’s squad so far this year.
South and PV already have double-digit losses, despite having arguably two of the best players in the area. Pleasant Valley’s Sebastian Sacci is good for about 20 points and 7 rebounds a game, but the team around him often struggles to show up. South’s Marcel Stapler and Jaiden Martinez-Tovar have shown flashes, but they each have their own flaws on top of the team’s overall anemic scoring that holds them back.
For them, the pivot towards the future is the more appeasing action at this point of the year.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
