JOHN WALK | Sports WriterWith this season being the 50th of L-L boys hoops, we’re taking a weekly look back at the league's memorable moments, achievements, coaches, players, etc. So far, we caught up with former Warwick coach Dave Althouse, and looked back at the Cocalico’s 1977 state title team and Columbia's 1987 state title team.
This week we're shining a light on March 27, 1999. That's the date Annville-Cleona won the PIAA Class 2A crown. Prior to then, only one Lebanon County program had won a state title: Lebanon won the state 3A crown in 1940. The Dutchmen are now just one of four L-L programs to have won state gold (The other is 2003 Lancaster Catholic - more on that bunch later this season).
Among many notable parts of A-C’s magical run is how many times Dutchmen players stepped to the free-throw line to keep the season alive. In a state quarterfinal against Reading Central Catholic played at Warwick, A-C’s Mark Brandt made three-straight free-throws to force overtime, where the Dutchmen came away with a 54-51 win.
Exactly a week later in overtime of the state championship at Hersheypark Arena, Isaac Custer was fouled by at the buzzer on a baseline layup attempt. With the Dutchmen down a point and no time left, Custer stepped to the line. At 54 percent for the year, he was the team’s worst free-throw shooter. Custer missed the first. He made the second to send the game to a second OT.
A-C came away with a 69-57 victory.
The L-L Section Three champ who fell to McCaskey 64-62 in the league quarterfinals and to York Catholic 60-43 in the District 3-2A final, the Dutchmen went on to win state gold, finishing 30-3.
"They won’t go down as the greatest team in history," A-C coach Scott Pera told Sunday News sports columnist Mike Gross afterward, "but maybe as the toughest."
By the way, Pera had taken over the head job at A-C a year after the Dutchmen reached the 1995 Class 2A state final.
After the ‘99 season, Pera followed his wife to the other side of the country to become head coach of powerhouse Artesia High School, steering that program to the state semifinals in 2003 before a young James Harden came up the ranks at the school. Later, Pera joined the Rice University staff in 2014, when Mike Rhoades was hired as the Rice coach. Rhoades, of course, was the standout hoopster on the 1994 national champion Lebanon Valley squad before being named the USA Today D-III National Player of the Year in 1995. Now a veteran college skipper, Rhoades was hired as the VCU coach in 2017, with Pera then filling the head coach vacancy at Rice.
Twelve games into the 2021-22 season, Pera and Rice are in the midst of a 7-5 season entering the week of Jan. 3. But Pera chatted with the LNP|LancasterOnline sports staff in July 2020 via an online roundtable discussion. Below are some excerpts from that conversation, as Pera reflected on his time with the Dutchmen, among other things.
What comes to mind when you hear the name Isaac Custer?
“I still talk to Isaac all the time. What a wonderful family man and person he has turned into, helping Cedar Crest and helping Tommy (Smith) coach.”
You’ve gone on to bigger and better things, but having won a state title in Pennsylvania has to rank right up there.
“You’re saying it and I’m getting goosebumps all these years later. I don’t get the Artesia job if we don’t win a state title. To do it in that small town. …and still be the only one to do it in Lebanon County since 1940. I said it then, and I didn’t mean to be arrogant when I said it, it’s not going to happen again for a long time. And it hasn’t. And I don’t know when it will happen again for a Lebanon County team. …somebody will do it again sometime. But it makes it that much more special. It’s unique in that it stands alone.”
