The following article is sponsored by Bohler Engineering on behalf of the Central Bucks West boys’ basketball team. To learn more about Bohler Engineering, visit the web site at the following link: http://bohlereng.com/
(CB West seniors, from left, Luke Irons, Ben Riegel, Erich Hohenleitner, Cal Reichwein, Connor Lynch, Shane Harrison, Zach Paley and Bill Power. Photo provided courtesty of CB West boys' basketball.)
CB West seniors enjoy banner season after rugged offseason
By Jarrad Saffren
Basketball purists, who prefer 15-foot jumpers over one-handed slam dunks, love teams like Central Bucks West.
The Bucks play lockdown defense, rarely turn the ball over, and do not shoot until they create a wide open shot. They also start five seniors—Cal Reichwein, Luke Irons, Billy Power, Connor Lynch, and Erich Hohenleitner—who score between nine and 12 points per game.
CB West’s deliberate, Wisconsin Badgers-like style has frustrated more athletic opponents all season long.
“This group is probably the most fundamentally sound group I’ve coached. Skill-wise this team is the most polished. Definitely not the most athletic,” Bucks coach Adam Sherman said. “Our advantage against athletic teams is we play team basketball on the offensive end.”
The Bucks finished the regular season 18-4 overall and 12-2 in Suburban One League Continental Conference play, finishing second behind Pennridge. After the regular season, they beat Plymouth Whitemarsh and Abington, arguably the two most athletic teams in the SOL, to win the four-team SOL Tournament.
As the No. 7 seed in the District One Class AAAA boys basketball playoffs, CB West beat Downingtown East in the first round and Phoenixville in the second round, clinching a spot in the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament. They play No. 2 seed PW in the district quarterfinals Friday night. The winner moves on to the district final four at Temple University. 
None of this happened overnight. Success never does. In his 2008 non-fiction book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell devotes a chapter to the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve greatness in any field. Sherman’s offseason program may not have added up to 10,000 hours, but it was close.
The Transition
CB West was really good last season also, finishing the regular season 17-5 and earning the No. 8 seed in the district playoffs. But, in the first round, the Bucks were upset by No. 25 seed Great Valley.
“It was terrible. People were crying. It was really emotional,” Reichwein said of the locker room after the loss. “We were in shock - like, ‘Wow.’ Coach Sherman didn’t have much to say. He was shocked too.”
With eight juniors coming back - Irons, Hohenleitner, Reichwein, Lynch, Power, Ben Riegel, Shane Harrison, and Zach Paley, Sherman knew that his team could be just as strong in 2015-16. But it would have to look different. CB West started two forwards and three guards last season. Two starters, Second Team All-SOL Continental forward Nico Munari and Third Team guard Owen Cooney, graduated.
The two best candidates to step in were Lynch and Power, both guards, creating a four-guard lineup with Hohenleitner as the only forward.
“I knew without Nico, I’d have to step up as a big man,” Hohenleitner said. “I knew I’d have to lift a lot more. I saw the people Nico was going up against. They are big.”
The Offseason
To get his players used to the new lineup, Sherman entered the Bucks in every offseason league he could find.
Power said the Bucks played in “multiple summer leagues, Philly leagues, and William Tennent’s spring league.”
“I’d probably say we played more games than other teams,” Power said. “It worked.”
CB West played so many games in the offseason that the players lost count.
“I think we played over 60 games together,” Lynch said.
“Sherman had us play over 80 games,” Power said.
The Bucks played the best teams in the area, like Roman Catholic, Neumann-Goretti, and Imhotep Charter. They did not win many against those powers, but they competed.
“Sherm was working to develop players. He was subbing everyone in,” Lynch said. “We didn’t get blown out, and it gave us confidence going into the season.”
The offseason grind also allowed the Bucks to define their roles before the games counted.
“We were playing unselfishly in the offseason, doing what’s best for the team,” Reichwein said. “We were getting used to what we are good at.”
The Roles
Irons, the point guard, understands everyone else’s roles because he creates them.
“I like to get downhill, get to the rim. Shoot my midrange pull-up and get out in transition and find guys,” Irons said. “Erich likes to catch on the wing and slash in the middle of the floor. His post game has grown tremendously in the past year. He gets to the free throw line a lot.”
“Billy is tenacious going to the rim. He’s fearless. Not many guys can stop him,” Irons said. “Connor and Cal are our two best shooters. Both can knock down from the outside but are also capable of getting to the basket.”
Sherman, as coach, knows the roles as well as Irons, and goes even deeper in defining them.
Irons is West’s best defender.
“He usually guards the opponent’s top scorer, especially if it’s a guard. He takes on the Dan Longs or Tracy Simsicks or Griffin Schmidts or whoever the leading scorer is on the other team. Against PW he covered Xzavier Malone,” Sherman said. “He does a real good job watching film and learning tendencies. If a kid’s strength is shooting a pull-up going right, he’s going to make sure the kid can’t go right.”
Power is West’s leading rebounder.
“Even though he’s only 5’10, as crazy as that sounds,” Sherman said. “His timing for rebounds is really good. He’s not very athletic. He’s not going to out-jump many people. He just reads the ball off the rim and determines where it’s gonna go.”
Power grabbed eight rebounds against Abington even though the Ghosts have three players who are at least seven inches taller and 50 pounds heavier.
Reichwein leads the Bucks in scoring at 12 points per game. But Sherman lauds another part of his game.
“Cal is our best passer. He has unbelievable court vision. He’s almost too unselfish,” Sherman said. “He’s been the leading scorer of every team he’s ever been on. Because we are so balanced it definitely takes away from the amount of points that he scores.” That does not bother Reichwein.
“I’ve thought about it before, but all I care about is winning,” Reichwein said.
Lynch leads the Bucks in three-pointers made and “lets his shot set up his drive,” Sherman said. Hohenleitner is West’s go-to post player and leading rebounder along with Power.
“He has a very quick first step,” Sherman said.
Riegel, Harrison and Paley give the Bucks minutes off the bench.
The Season
With their roles defined, their toughest opponents out of the way, and the three and four-game weeks a fading memory, everything slowed down for the Bucks once the season started in December.
“We were only playing two games a week now,” Lynch said. “Sherm did a real good job.”
“You can tell teams that weren’t playing together in the offseason. When we played preseason games, other teams weren’t as polished as we were,” Hohenleitner said. “It seems like we didn’t take a step down in the offseason. We just went straight through since the end of last season.”
The Bucks started 14-2 before Reichwein sprained his left knee and missed the next four games. West went 2-2 without Reichwein, treading water for a high playoff seed but dropping one game below Pennridge in the conference race. The Bucks have won six straight since Reichwein returned.
The Lafayette recruit will need surgery on the knee once the offseason starts. But for now, he’s trying to keep it healthy enough to play on. Reichwein goes to physical therapy every day and the doctor three times a week, either to have the knee examined or drained. At home, he ices the knee and takes Ibuprofen.
“The doctor said if it was a normal person, not a high level athlete, we’d have to have surgery right now,” Reichwein said. “But since it’s in the middle of your senior year, you can either play on it or have season-ending surgery. I chose to play on it at 75 percent. I didn’t want to miss this.”
The season is a dream come true for Reichwein and his four best friends, who are “with each other 24/7,” Lynch said, whether it’s playing golf, X-Box, or going go-karting. They grew up together, and now they are starting on varsity together, representing their hometown, making everyone proud.
Area coaches knew Reichwein and Irons would be varsity starters from their middle school days.
Reichwein played on the freshman team as a seventh grader and started on varsity as a freshman. Irons was the second guy off the varsity bench as a sophomore.
Hohenleitner, Power, and Lynch traveled longer roads. Hohenleitner and Lynch were on the practice squad at Lenape Middle School. Power barely played in middle school and got cut in ninth grade. But the trio lifted and worked on their games every night at the YMCA near West and Lenape. They also never missed an optional offseason workout, which Sherman hosted twice a week.
By 10th grade, Hohenleitner, Power, and Lynch were starting on JV.
“We had a really balanced team,” Hohenleitner said. “Me, Connor, and Billy led in scoring. It was similar to now. We began the chemistry that carried over into varsity.”
If Reichwein appreciates this season because he almost missed the end of it, Hohenleitner, Power, and Lynch appreciate it because it seemed so unlikely three years ago.
“Crazy to think we’re at this point now, starting on one of the best teams in the district,” Power said. “I always dreamed about it. After sophomore year, I saw it could shape out the way we wanted it too.”
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