The Cairn (5-5) basketball team got to settle their brains for a long winter’s nap following their Dec. 12 game at Gwynedd Mercy.
The Highlanders won’t take the floor until Jan. 2 when they host Penn State Abington.
For most of Cairn’s roster, “I’ll be home for Christmas” means a short drive. Nine Highlander players or coaches come from Central and Upper Bucks County. Make it 10 if you include Dock Mennonite alum Mizz Nyagwegwe.
Area products provided Cairn with over 60% of the team’s minutes, points, assists and steals.
“One of our goals in our program is to recruit locally,” shared head coach Jason O’Connell. “Where we bring in guys who are good high school ballplayers who fit in with our culture. Once we’re able to get one or two local guys – especially from the SOL and BAL – it created a domino effect.”
“We want to be more than a good team that has had success over a couple of years. We want to turn into a good program,” offered CB East alumnus and grad student Jesse Rivera, Cairn’s leading scorer. “Something I saw at East, and I see here that Coach O’Connell has established is that it is bigger than the players on the court. It’s about investing in young guys so every year, there are the same expectations and no drop off.”
O’Connell’s charges are 64-38 over their last five seasons. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a program that didn’t have a 10-win season between 2006-07 and 2014-15.
“On offense, we stress moving and sharing the ball,” explained grad student Nyagwegwe, who has three 15-point games this season. “We can pretty much score from all five spots so we try to find the best shot every time down the floor. Defensively, we want to play together. Trust that the help side will be there, make the right reads to fire over to cover the extra guy and make hustle plays.”
“One thing that has made both Faith and Cairn successful is when you have a strong senior class that really invests in the younger classes coming up,” reflected junior Josh Forker, who helped take Faith Christian to the PIAA final four in 2019. “There is a lot of talent pushing through and we don’t have too many guys leave. They come here because they want to play with good players and learn from a great coach.”
This plethora of local talent is unusual. The rosters of the next dozen closest area Division III programs feature just a combined eight area players.
Rivera, Forker, junior Matt Lucas (Quakertown) and Rivera’s sophomore brother Christian all played big roles for Cairn last season. Rivera led the team in scoring, assists and steals. Lucas paced in treys while Forker led Cairn in blocks.
“Matt is a program guy. He is a great teammate. He works really hard in practice,” O’Connell said. “When we’re struggling to get things going, he is always vocal and encouraging. I think he is also one of the best shooters in our conference. He has made big shots for us consistently.”
Both Lucas and Forker scored 200 points last winter. Christian Rivera provided quality minutes off of the bench in a 16-11 year.
“I came to a lot of basketball games to support Jesse and I saw the culture and the energy. I was drawn to it,” Christian remembered. “It was definitely a good fit because I like to bring energy into games too and it seemed like the whole team was doing that.”
This year’s team added graduate transfer Nyagwegwe from Eastern Mennonite, and fraternal twins Owen and Derian Bradford (Faith Christian), who last season led Valley Forge in just about everything.
“From the second we visited last semester to think about going here, the coaches and players were very welcoming,” credited Derian, who averages 12 points per game. “The coaches made it a very easy transition. And being a transfer is much easier than coming in as a freshman. You’re used to the college game.”
“I think it was a tough decision for me coming out of high school and picking schools,” admitted Owen. “I looked here and really liked the coaching staff and the guys on the team. I knew I would fit in well here. It was a good atmosphere, a Christian atmosphere.”
The Highlander freshman class features another Rivera – Nick – and CB South alum Jay Macalindong. “I took an official visit,” Macalindong explained. “Everyone was nice and everyone gave me a smile in the hallways. Whenever I played pickup with these guys, they treated me like I was part of the team already.”
“I wanted to build my own basketball career. I was a little bit hesitant but I felt like after visiting and talking with different coaches and players, I wasn’t really in the shadow of my brothers at all,” admitted Nick. “I’d be able to have my own thing. We’re losing a lot of guys next year but we’re preparing younger guys and role players for stepping up.”
The team’s new recruiting coordinator, Highlander alum Seth Brunner, attended and coached at Faith before taking on the Cairn role. “There were a lot of connections within the BAL. This team comes together with the same goal, which is honor God and win a championship while doing it,” Brunner said. “Some of the connections go beyond basketball, which I think is important. The program speaks for itself.
“It’s a special culture (O’Connell) has built and it’s the main reason I came back to Cairn,” Brunner continued. “It’s exciting to be a part of it and continue to build it up with kids in the area. It’s close to home, you can get a great education and win basketball games while doing it.”
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