Persistence pays off for Sheetz in claiming championship
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Sheetz has spent a long time chasing Budget Beverage in Division 5 of the Central Blair Rec Commission Lakemont Park Summer Basketball League.
Gary Vermeulen chased Eric Taylor even longer.
Taylor, a former Division I star for Saint Francis University, finally agreed to join Vermeulen's team this summer and, along with a 28-point effort from Seth Rummel, helped Sheetz top long-time nemesis Budget Beverage, 50-34, for the championship on Tuesday.
"I think the last time I played in this league might have been 2002," Taylor said. "I can't remember exactly. I had a hiatus for a long time. I was in Europe. I was coming back and forth from America to Europe from 1998 through 2012. I knew Gary Vermeulen when I was playing at Saint Francis. I knew him when I was coaching at Saint Francis, and he was always asking me to come down and play with him. Due to the recruiting rules while I was coaching, I wasn't able to do that. Even after I stopped coaching, I didn't know if I would do it, but Gary asked me and I told him I'd do it for him."
Taylor earned all-NEC status three times at Saint Francis, scored 1,287 points, had 967 rebounds and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2022. After graduating in 1998, Taylor had a tryout with the Boston Celtics and played overseas professionally for 13 years.
Taylor made a three-point play with 5:30 to play in the first half to give Sheetz its first lead, 18-16, after it had trailed 10-4 to begin the game.
Taylor threw his free throw hard off the backboard to complete the three-point play and finished 5-for-5 from the line in the game with one lane violation. The method was something he picked up quickly this summer.
"I came one game and tried to make an all-net free throw," Taylor said. "The ball hit the tip of the rim, and I saw the backboard shake and the rim shake and the ball fell off. I saw a lot of other players banking it in, and I said from that point on down here, I have to bank it in. I guess it's infamous to bank the ball in down here on these courts."
Sheetz won the CBRC Division 5 Summer League Basketball title. Team members include (from left): First row -- Ethan Brady, Gary Vermeulen, Josh Bukowski, John Bukowski, Derek Forshey. Second row -- Eric Taylor, Shaun Boland, Matt Gindelsperger, Cody Black, Seth Rummel, Mike Donoughe, league director Skip Dry.
Team photos for the Mirror by Clark Adelman
After Taylor put Sheetz ahead, Rummel kept it.
He had three traditional three-point plays and was 9-for-9 from the free throw line -- all without the backboard.
"It feels great," Rummel said. "It felt like we'd never get this win. This is our third time going for it, and I guess it's true that the third time is a charm. We really moved the ball around in the second half, and it was a great team effort. It was a long time coming."
Budget Beverage was playing in its eighth consecutive Division 5 championship game and had won the previous five.
"It's the consistency," Mike Mignogna said. "We have good veteran players. Between Val Mignogna, Turtle (Tom Smith), Cory Gehret -- that veteran leadership allows some of these younger kids to gel with us. Will Sankey, I don't even think he's 21 yet, he joined us a couple years ago. He didn't play a lot at first, but slowly and surely he earned it and played our game. It's an old-school game. If you are winning, don't take that extra shot. Make the extra pass. It has served us well."
It looked like a sixth championship was coming early when Budget Beverage scored 10 of the game's first 14 points, but the Sheetz defense tightened.
"We started moving the ball around more," Rummel said. "We were able to get out on the fastbreak and get some easy buckets instead of settling for shots from a distance. We clamped up the defense too, which helped the offense."
Budget Beverage trailed by nine at the half and cut it to four early in the second half before Sheetz pulled away and cruised to the victory.
"We may have lost some confidence," Mike Mignogna said. "We were 2-5 at one point but won our last three games. We were hitting our shots. We had a couple early misses. They made a few, and there was that three-point play for the other team that was huge. The same kid (Rummel) ended up with two more which put the dagger in us."
SHEETZ (50): Black 1 0-0 2, Vermeulen 2 2-2 6, Rummel 9 9-9 28, Brady 1 0-0 2, Taylor 2 5-5 9, Forshey 1 0-0 3, Bukowski 0 0-0 0, Donoughe 0 0-0 0, Gindelsperger 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 16 16-16 50.
BUDGET BEVERAGE (34): Smith 1 0-0 3, Sankey 0 4-4 4, Brumbaugh 5 0-0 10, M. Mignogna 1 0-0 2, Irwin 1 0-2 2, Elvey 1 2-2 5, Berwager 2 0-0 5, V. Mignogna 0 1-4 1, Ozechoski 1 0-2 2, Columbo 0 0-0 0, Gehret 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 12 7-14 34.
Halftime: Sheetz, 29-20 3-point goals: Sheetz 2 (Rummel, Forshey); Budget Beverage 3 (Smith, Elvey, Berwager).
Officials: Rod Chism, Alan Robinson, Brian Smith.