Malvern

When some coaches get cleaned out of top-notch players, they take a sabbatical. At Malvern Prep, Gaspare "Gamp" Pellegrini measures the new kids for championship jackets. Pellegrini produced 11 Inter-Ac League titles (10 outright, one shared) in his first 18 seasons at Malvern and he again expects to contend despite a lineup that will often feature underclassmen at 15 of the 22 starting positions. "We only have seven seniors on the whole team," he said, not complaining, just informing.

Malvern Prep named Daniel Keating as its new head varsity lacrosse coach, the school announced yesterday. Keating, formerly Malvern's assistant varsity lacrosse coach, takes over for John McEvoy. McEvoy resigned after seven seasons with the Friars to become the school's assistant director of admissions. Keating served as the head lacrosse coach at St. Joseph's Prep from 2006 to 2008 and coached the team at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., in 2004-05. He founded Keating Lacrosse Clinics, which promotes lacrosse in grades six through nine, in 2007.

Malvern Prep is moving and passing the puck like never before this season. Moving past La Salle in the Inter-County League Class AAA standings is the next objective for the Friars, who face the Explorers at 8:30 tonight at Ice Line in West Chester. La Salle (11-3 overall, 4-0 league) is in first place; Malvern Prep (4-2, 4-2) is second. Although the teams will play another regular-season game Feb. 12, tonight's matchup could have postseason implications. "We really control our own destiny," Malvern coach John Graves said.

Chris O'Brien, a senior lefthanded pitcher at Malvern Prep, has committed to play baseball for North Carolina. Last season, as a junior, he went 7-0 with a 2.47 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 45 innings. He was a first-team all-Inter-Academic League selection and Inquirer second-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania pick. O'Brien also is a quarterback and defensive back in football.    

Malvern Prep had already clinched at least a tie for the Inter-Academic League crown before Tuesday's game with Penn Charter. The host Friars just wanted to ice the championship cake with a win over Charter. But Malvern left the cake out in the rain. The Friars committed four errors in the fourth inning, helped the Quakers to a 6-0 lead, lost any chance of momentum to two rain delays, and went down in the soggy end, 8-3. So for the second straight year, Malvern and Charter finished tied atop the Inter-Ac standings.

Carla Cossa has played tennis all over the country. She has played girls from the West, girls from the East and girls from many points in between. Those girls often ask about Cossa's home town, and the 16-year-old Malvern resident has a pat response. "You go to nationals, and people say, 'Malvern? Where's that?' " Cossa said. "So I just say it's near Philadelphia. " Although Cossa may have to explain Malvern to other young tennis players around the country, she doesn't have to explain it to the people who put out the Middle States Tennis Association rankings.

When Malvern Prep's ice hockey team loses, it usually marks the end of the season and time for spring sports. Since winning the Flyers Cup Championship three years ago, Malvern has twice skated through regular seasons without a loss to an Eastern High School Hockey League opponent. But in the playoffs the last two years, Malvern has twice suffered season-ending defeats before reaching the finals. Although the Friars had seasons that made other teams envious, they were still unfulfilled.

Allegedly to bypass a trade embargo on Chinese goods in 1983, Eagle's Eye Inc. shipped in 13,983 pairs of children's and ladies' pants labeled "Made in Hong Kong," when the clothing had been made in China. Some alert U.S. Customs agents got wind of the illegal practice, and when Eagle's Eye shipped 7,050 women's sweaters to Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 1983, they were seized. The labels on the sweaters said "Made in Japan," but many had been manufactured in China, and the rest had been made in Hong Kong, according to federal authorities.

Germantown Academy's 6-foot-9 senior center, Chris Krug, will rank among Southeastern Pennsylvania's most-sought-after boys' basketball recruits this season. For Inter-Academic League rival Malvern Prep, whose tallest starter is 6-3, Krug also will be one of the most difficult to defend. However, after the wave of flu that hit Germantown Academy this week, the gray apparition of Krug that Patriots coach Jim Fenerty saw in class yesterday may be no match for the Friars. Fenerty, coach of the three-time defending league champions, knows how devastating one loss in the league's 10-game schedule can be to title hopes.

If Ivan Wilkins had gone scoreless in the first quarter of a game last year, the 6-foot, 3-inch Malvern Prep forward probably would have disappeared for the rest of the contest. But Wilkins is a changed basketball player this season. More confident. More aggressive. If he doesn't score in a quarter, he just turns it up a notch in the next period. "He's starting to realize that he can play with anybody," Malvern Prep coach Bud Tosti said after the Friars trounced Overbrook, 53-36, for the Carroll Converse Classic championship Saturday night.

Austin Velte says it didn't take much convincing for him to ditch soccer after his freshman season and make a full-time commitment to Malvern Prep's rowing program. "There was a history of success there, and that's something that really attracted me," Velte said. "Also, several of my friends were going to give rowing a try. It was a pretty easy choice. " This weekend, in the 86th annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta on the Schuylkill, Velte's aim, as part of the Friars' varsity quad, is to add to his and the Friars' championship total.

Malvern Prep's Tom Pitt set a meet record in the high jump by just a quarter of an inch to highlight the West Chester Henderson Invitational, which finished on Saturday because of inclement weather. The event began Friday before it was postponed after strong rain and lightning. Pitt captured the high jump with a mark of 6-81/4. He bettered the previous meet record of 6-8 set in 2010 by Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts. Ryan Hart of Downingtown East shattered the meet record in the discus and created a gap from the field.

Malvern Prep's Tom Pitt set a meet record in the high jump by just a quarter of an inch to highlight the West Chester Henderson Invitational, which finished on Saturday because of inclement weather. The event began Friday before it was postponed after strong rain and lightning. Pitt captured the high jump with a mark of 6-81/4. He bettered the previous meet record of 6-8 set in 2010 by Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts. Ryan Hart of Downingtown East shattered the meet record in the discus and created a gap from the field.

Like Malvern Prep's baseball team, which is closing in on another Inter-Ac League title, Nick Bateman likes to drive in the fast lane. Exhibit A is Bateman's baby, a souped-up 2005 Ford Mustang. "I like the way it sounds, the color [red], the feel of the ride," he said. On Friday, Bateman, a senior centerfielder and four-year fixture in the starting lineup, helped steer the visiting Friars to an 8-2 victory over Inter-Ac rival Penn Charter. The 6-foot, 185-pounder went 1 for 3 with an RBI. He provided a sacrifice fly in the third inning and hit a double-play ground out to second base that resulted in a run in a four-run fifth.

Like Malvern Prep's baseball team, which is closing in on another Inter-Ac League title, Nick Bateman likes to drive in the fast lane. Exhibit A is Bateman's baby, a souped-up 2005 Ford Mustang. "I like the way it sounds, the color [red], the feel of the ride," he said. On Friday, Bateman, a senior centerfielder and four-year fixture in the starting lineup, helped steer the visiting Friars to an 8-2 victory over Inter-Ac rival Penn Charter. The 6-foot, 185-pounder went 1 for 3 with an RBI. He provided a sacrifice fly in the third inning and hit a double-play groundout to second base that resulted in a run in a four-run fifth.

The bleachers had long been vacated. Players and coaches from the visiting Haverford School already had jumped into their cars or onto the team bus for a happy ride home. Even most of the Malvern Prep players had hit the showers after a deflating, 9-4 defeat by the Fords last Tuesday. Team captains Jack Sheridan and Eddie Morris remained. They sat on a sideline bench with glazed looks, still wearing their uniforms and pads, seemingly searching for answers. Malvern coach David Metzbower did his best to provide them, reviewing with two of his top seniors what had gone wrong.

P. J. Finley was a valuable asset for the Malvern Prep lacrosse team on Tuesday by winning 13 of 17 faceoffs and also scoring the winning goal in overtime as the Friars edged host Penn Charter, 7-6, in an Inter-Ac League battle. Finley's only goal of the game came 13 seconds into OT for Malvern. Jake Glancey had two goals for the Friars, and Penn Charter received two goals each from Shane Carr, Tyler Earley, and Kevin Murphy. Also in the Inter-Ac, Haverford School claimed a 12-7 win over visiting Germantown Academy as Will Gural won 16 of 20 faceoffs, and Henry Blynn chipped in with three goals and four assists.

P. J. Finley was a valuable asset for the Malvern Prep lacrosse team on Tuesday by winning 13 of 17 faceoffs and also scoring the winning goal in overtime as the Friars edged host Penn Charter, 7-6, in an Inter-Ac League battle. Finley's only goal of the game came 13 seconds into OT for Malvern. Jake Glancey had two goals for the Friars, and Penn Charter received two goals each from Shane Carr, Tyler Earley, and Kevin Murphy. Also in the Inter-Ac, Haverford School claimed a 12-7 win over visiting Germantown Academy as Will Gural won 16 of 20 faceoffs, and Henry Blynn chipped in with three goals and four assists.

Gil Hanse has spent nearly 20 years keeping a low profile heading a small Chester County golf course architecture company. He liked that his course designs spoke for him. He liked being on a bulldozer moving ground at a project while listening to the Grateful Dead or Dave Matthews more than being recognized in a crowd. But Hanse's cover has been blown. The Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games selected Hanse Golf Course Design to create the layout where men and women will participate in the first golf competition at the Olympic Games since 1904.