Wild that was 20 years ago. Also, that 2004 Parkland team wasn’t even the D11 champs - they lost three times to Whitehall (regular season, conference championship, district championship). Whitehall got knocked out in state quarters, their best player was Jason Greene, who led the NCAA in assists when he was at UMBC, and I believe was on their coaching staff when they beat Virginia a couple years back. Easton also beat both of those teams within like five days of each other during the regular season (the Easton-Parkland game was one of the best I’ve seen in that gym), good year for Lehigh Valley basketball, with Parkland going on a run for the ages to go to state finals. The backbone of that team was current head coach Eddie Ohlsen, who is about 5’6, but was a four-year starter, who was just an incredible ball handler and floor general. Didn’t have the size to play anywhere but DeSales (where I think he still holds the assists record?) but he was a perfect high school point guard.
While I’m bringing up old stuff, the 2004 Parkland team was nowhere near as good as the 2002 Trojans. Coming off of back-to-back D11 titles and state quarterfinals trips, they went 25-0 during the regular season, including beating the Neumann (pre-Goretti merger) team that won the Philly Catholic League 76-57 during the season, and beat Gerry McNamara’s Bishop Hannah team 82-78, though McNamara had 52 in a losing effort. They were led by Adam Lane, who played at Navy, and a handful of D3 players, plus Ohlson (current coach) and Rick Seltzer (who I think played professional baseball?) were sophomores who ended up the backbone of the 2004 team. They got shocked in the opening round of districts as the #2 or #3 team in the state, losing to 8th seeded Emmaus. Emmaus got 23 points and 15 rebounds from junior seven-footer and future Pitt and NBA center Aaron Gray, and hit a buzzer beater three to beat Parkland 47-45 after losing by 33 in the regular season. Lane was also the quarterback for Parkland in ‘99 and ‘00 that ended in shocking playoff losses (particularly the ‘99 team that was #2 in the state), so quite the cursed career for a great athlete.
But it’s either that team or the 2016 Parkland team that went 28-4, beat Imhotep and LaSalle during the season, lost to eventual champ Roman in quarters. That was definitely the most talented team with Sam Iorio (American/Niagara/professional in Europe), Kyle Stout (Lafayette), Devante Cross (UVA football/NFL), and Kenny Yeboah (Temple/Ole Miss football/NFL). It’s been a really good basketball program.
