The Philadelphia Public League basketball season will be marked this year by two major differences.
One is the three-point shot, which takes effect this season after being successfully tried out in the Catholic League. The second is that Southern High is not considered a championship favorite.
The Rams, who are coming off two straight Public League titles, lost their first eight players from last season, and that has left coach Mitch Schneider in a realistic frame of mind.
"We're rebuilding," Schneider said. "If I were to pick this year's top teams, it would go like this: Ben Frankin, Frankford and Ben Franklin's second team."
Ah yes, the spotlight this year is on the Electrons of coach Ken Hamilton. With perhaps the league's best player, guard Randy Woods, and a strong supporting cast, Franklin is the coaches' consensus pick to be one of the participants in this year's title game.
Other teams who figure to have successful campaigns include Frankford, West Philadelphia, Overbrook and Franklin Learning Center.
As far as the three-point shot goes, Central High coach Frank Greco predicts, oddly enough, that the Public League, which emphasizes the transition game, will use it more often than the patterned Catholic League.
"I think you're going to see teams shoot the three 10 to 12 times a game," said Greco. "We scrimmaged Franklin last week. Randy Woods got the ball in the corner and stepped backward to get past the line."
Here is a look at the Public League division races. Last season's overall records are in parentheses.
DIVISION A
Frankford (17-4) was going to be good without the Warley brothers. With them, the Pioneers could be great. Jason, a 6-foot-4 junior, and Carlin, a 6-6 sophomore, the sons of former Sixer Ben Warley, transferred to Frankford in October. They join a cast that includes 6-3 Jamie Ross, one of the league's best guards last year; 6-1 Nate Emons; 5-11 Robert Roach, and talented juniors 6-1 Cory Lewis and 6-4 Barry Lewis.
Engineering and Science (8-12) has stiff academic requirements that have been known to claim students with potential basketball greatness. This year, coach Charles Brown's two top players transferred to Germantown and Olney. Brown's young and inexperienced team will be led by 6-1 senior forward James
Dunn and 5-10 junior guard William Wright.
