Eastern York boys' basketball captures District 3 Class 4A title over Big Spring

HERSHEY — Troy Sowers believed his first Eastern York boys’ basketball team was good enough to win a district title when he took the job in the spring. The Golden Knights, with all but two players back from a state quarterfinal run, certainly had high expectations. But there were plenty of bumps on the road to the postseason.

Bumpy roads, however, often lead to beautiful places.

Eastern York captured its first District 3 title since 2010 with a 55-50 triumph over Big Spring on Friday afternoon. The Golden Knights put the exclamation point on a memorable playoff run with a 12-0 fourth-quarter burst, turning a nail-biter into a coronation.

“We talked about, ‘This is where we think we should be at the end of the season,’” Sowers said after the game. “We just had to convince our players that it was a work in progress and to believe in what we were doing. … When you can gain inches and get better as the season goes, then the final product is this.”

The achievement began to feel more real with every basket down the stretch. No. 5-seed Eastern (18-8) trailed 42-41 with less than five minutes remaining after a back-and-forth second half before junior forward Carter Wamsley put the Knights in front with a layup and a defensive stop turned into a fast-break layup for junior guard Brady Seitz. Wamsley then scored eight unanswered points, each one bringing victory that much closer.

Wamsley scored 20 points, all in the second half after he went 0-for-6 on field goals before intermission. Seitz, who was scoreless in Eastern’s semifinal upset of top-seeded Berks Catholic, nailed four 3-pointers and finished with 14. And senior center Justin Strausbaugh, a physical force who had abandoned high school basketball until this season, tallied 13 points while cleaning up on the glass.

Junior forward Aidan Sallie tallied 20 points and freshman guard Ayden Martinez notched 15 for the No. 6-seed Bulldogs (19-6), who were playing in their first district final since 1963. Both finalists won a pair of road games to advance to Hershey; Big Spring got there by erasing a nine-point deficit in the final two minutes at Fleetwood on Tuesday.

After Eastern York jumped out to an early 11-4 advantage, the Bulldogs responded with five quick points and remained within striking distance from that point. Big Spring took its first lead at 19-18 in the second quarter, and after Seitz’s third 3-pointer of the half briefly flipped the lead, the Bulldogs went into the locker room leading 24-21.

The message to Wamsley at halftime was simple: “Keep shooting.” Sowers told his all-star junior to “go win us a District 3 title.” He did.

“Coach was telling me, ‘Just keep doing what you do,’” Wamsley said. “Every guy came up to me and told me to keep going. I can’t put into words how thankful I am for every one of those guys.”

Carter Foote-Renwick, who led Eastern with 18 points Tuesday at Berks Catholic, opened the second half with a game-tying triple — his only points of the game — and Wamsley found the scoresheet for the first time shortly thereafter. He had 10 in a back-and-forth third quarter, the last two of which gave the Knights a 36-35 advantage entering the final frame.

After Big Spring’s 42-41 lead unraveled into a 53-42 deficit with 1:15 to play, the Bulldogs hit a pair of late triples to get as close as five. But it wasn’t enough.

Sowers is now a five-time District 3 champion in seven title game appearances. He won three championships with York High’s boys between 2009 and 2015, then hoisted a trophy with Spring Grove’s girls in 2021. The feeling still hasn’t gotten old.

“It’s just fun to work together, game plan, have the kids sell out and just get 15 people all on the same page, pulling in the same direction,” he said. “All of those little things that no one sees … that’s the recipe for championships.

Sowers inherited a program that had gone 76-49 in five seasons under Justin Seitz, who resigned last April to focus on his full-time job and local AAU basketball roles. But while the transition was relatively seamless, as Seitz helped catch Sowers up to speed during the summer, the season still had its growing pains. Eastern York endured a 3-5 stretch in January and struggled on the road all season. The Knights finished third in York-Adams Division II after entering the winter as the favorite.

Since Jan. 30, though, Eastern is 6-1, with the only loss coming in the York-Adams League quarterfinals to eventual champion Central York. The Golden Knights dominated No. 4-seed Octorara 72-47 on the road in the district quarterfinals. They used a hot start and a strong finish to knock off Berks Catholic on Tuesday. And they used the same recipe Friday to lock down the program’s fourth district title.

Eastern York will host South Allegheny, the sixth-place finisher in the District 7-4A tournament, to open the PIAA playoffs next Friday, March 8. It’ll be the final home game for four seniors, as any subsequent state contests will be staged at neutral sites.

The Knights got here as a family, in the literal sense. Troy Sowers’ two assistant coaches are his brother Travis and cousin Eric. Wamsley and Strausbaugh, the frontcourt pillars, are cousins. And Brady Seitz is simply the latest in a long line of impact players from his family. His father and former coach, Justin Seitz, is in Eastern’s 1,000-point club alongside Brady’s older brother Trevor, uncle Jason and cousin Arianna (a senior on the girls’ team who reached the mark this season).

But Brady Seitz now has bragging rights over all of them.

“I’m the only one with a gold medal,” he said.

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