Countdown to tipoff: Christian Fermin may be gone, but Pocono Mountain West figures to remain strong

There are few certainties in high school sports, but one thing is for sure about the upcoming boys basketball season.

Pocono Mountain West won’t be playing in the District 11 Class 6A championship game again. That’s because the Panthers are no longer in 6A.

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Declining enrollment has put them in 5A along with four other members of the EPC North, Bangor and Southern Lehigh from the Colonial League and Whitehall from the EPC West. It figures to be a competitive classification, but not what West is used to after winning championships in the highest classification in both 2012 and 2017 and playing in the finals last year.

Panthers coach Rich Williams would have probably preferred if his program had stayed in 6A, but will turn his focus to keeping his program as one of the area’s best with the first goal of competing for a league championship, which has eluded West in the previous eight seasons of the current Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

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The team graduated one of its best all-time players in Christian Fermin, who was the league MVP, a Morning Call co-player of the year and an all-state selection last year after averaging of 21.7 points, 14.5 rebounds and 4.8 blocks per game.

However, there is plenty of talent in place starting with Julian “Juju” Pagan, who has already committed to Kutztown University.

“Would I like to still be 6A, sure I would, and it would have been nice to win 6A last year because then it would have been like finished business and a little easier to bow out,” Williams said. “But there’s no way I am big-timing anybody. There are a number of good programs in 5A, including East Stroudsburg North, which might be the best team in our division. We still have to go out and compete and I’m still lucky we have guys like Juju and we have a very talented freshman in KJ Coles and some other really good players.”

Williams said the team has a talented backcourt and West is going to push the tempo at both ends.

Last year, they were No. 1 in EPC games in scoring with 67.7 points per game and were No. 2 overall behind only Nazareth in all games. They were third in the league behind Nazareth and Parkland in 3-point shooting.

Most importantly, they were fourth in the league in defense at 48.3 points per game.

Williams, who is as passionate about his kids as anyone in coaches, has another good group in terms of being coachable and doing all of the right things.

“They work hard and their grades are excellent,” he said. “Their behavior is excellent. There’s nothing not to like about them.”

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As for Pagan, Williams said: “He’s a very special player. He’s a kid who has been with us for four years and has come back strong after hitting a huge bump in the road two years ago when he was ready to start for us as a sophomore, but had a catastrophic injury and was out the entire year. So last year was really the first year he got to play and averaged 13 points, five rebounds, five assists per game.”

Williams said that now is the time for Pagan to “literally and figuratively step out of Christian’s shadow.”

“Last year was all about Christian and he knew that,” Williams said. “He stayed back and just played his game. This year he knows he has to step into the spotlight and he’s ready to do that.”

A capsulized look at the Panthers:

Coach: Rich Williams (sixth season, 71-44)

Last season: 21-7, 15-1 EPC. Lost to Nazareth 67-56 in the EPC tournament semifinals; beat Liberty 55-54, beat Northampton 59-55 and lost to Parkland 58-33 in the District 11 6A tournament. Lost to Abington 47-43 in first round of PIAA tournament.

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Season opener: 6:30 p.m. Friday vs. Becahi in the Notre Dame-Green Pond Jeff Dailey Memorial Tournament

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League opener: Dec. 3, vs. East Stroudsburg North

Nonleague games: Dec. 2-3, in the Notre Dame-Green Pond Jeff Dailey tournament; Dec. 23 at Scranton Prep; Dec. 29 vs. James Monroe from Bronx, New York; Jan. 14 vs. Parkland; Jan. 28 at Nazareth.

Players to watch: Juju Pagan (6-3, Sr. G) 13.3 ppg; KJ Coles (6-2, Fr. G); De’von “Day Day” Smith (6-4, Sr. G) 4.2 ppg; Ethan Sakwa (6-0, Sr. G); Adrian Brito (6-5, So. F); James Stewart (6-2, Sr. F); Eryan Silva (5-10, So. G); Jayden Huggins (6-0, So. G); Ty Zubairu (5-1, Sr. G).

Take note: Rasheed Walters, a former West standout, is back with the program as a volunteer assistant coach. He joins several other former players on the coaching staff, a list that includes Jerusalem Strickland, Quindell Brice, Tyrel Dixon and Antre Cole. Former area head coaches Ken Piontkowski and Mark Brown are also aboard. Cory Mizenko, who had been an assistant coach at Penn State-Scranton, is the 9th grade coach. … Williams said the team is hoping to make a trip to Saint Joseph’s on Feb. 21 when VCU and Fermin will make a visit. VCU is at Temple on Saturday, but the Panthers will have a game that day in the Jeff Dailey Memorial Tournament at Notre Dame-Green Pond.

Why the Panthers are Top 10 material: Pagan figures to be one of the most dynamic players in the area coming off a season in which he scored 13.3 points per game and had 31 3-pointers. He was also a 73.5% free-throw shooter in league games last year and there are several other talented pieces around him. “I really like this team this year,” Pagan said. “We have a lot of guys who can go out and run the floor. We can trap and we can go 10 deep. Last year we only had six or seven guys and we were tired all the time and relying on Christian to do everything for us. Everybody can create this year and I don’t have to take as many shots. We have a bunch of younger guys who can score and that takes some of the slack off me. I honestly think we can be better this year than we were last year.”

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Final word: “We’re going to have to go back to the old way of playing Pocono Mountain West basketball,” Williams said. “We fell a little short at the end last season and that gave us a sense of unfinished business. The last three years we just pounded it inside to Christian. But before that we were and a run-and-gun team that was always pressing and putting 10 people out there per game. We’re going to get back to that. If we play West basketball, we’re going to be in the mix at the end of the season.”

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