FROM MORE THAN a few feet away, binoculars will be needed to see the newest sports memento in Dennis Gabert's house.
Nevertheless . . .
"This'll be the coolest," he said, beaming.
The latest treasure is a 5-inch strand of the net that was formerly attached to the southwest basket in Malvern Prep's gym. Gabert snipped it Saturday night after the Friars outlasted Germantown Academy, 55-52, before a juiced, overflow crowd to finish 8-2 and claim a second consecutive Inter-Ac League championship.
Malvern had last captured back-to-backers in 1976-77 (also outright) and the coach of those squads was Temple's current boss, Fran Dunphy.
As the final buzzer sounded, Malvern's FriarNation student rooters stormed to midcourt and, with the players, formed a pile of humanity. Soon, popular senior benchster Gus Carlin was chopping down the northeast net, then every player/manager was performing that duty at the opposite end. Finally, as Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" blared over the sound system, coach Jim Rullo raised his hands to encourage everyone to sing even louder, then completed the task.
Gabert could not have felt better.
He'd been a very deep sub in 2010-11 (three points all season). Shortly into this campaign, the 6-2, 175-pound senior became a semi-surprise starter at wing guard and his contributions to the title victory included 12 points, six rebounds and a game-high five steals.
"Last year was nice," Gabert said, "but a championship doesn't mean quite as much when you're not a senior. I really wanted this one. Very special feeling."
Gabert has become quite the late bloomer. Last football season, he earned the starting-kicker nod halfway through and finished with two field goals en route to 24 points. In hoops, he was merely a sub until game No. 5.
"I didn't know what role I'd have this year. But, of course, I wanted to start," he said. "I just thought, 'In what way can I most contribute to this team?' My answer was, 'Work my butt off on defense.' My playing time did go up through the early games. Then, when coach Rullo told me I'd be starting, that was a great feeling."
Gabert almost always has blanketed the opponent's top gun in man-to-man defense, and even in some box-and-one. This time, Malvern played a 2-3 zone, but that did not prevent Gabert from making four productive steals in a 16-7 first quarter.
"I wasn't really looking for steals," he said. "I did want to jump around and at least get deflections.
