We Are the Champions…

By Scott Huff

The 2022-2023 Men's Bucks County Community College Centurions captured the Eastern States Athletic Conference championship with a convincing 109-87 victory over Central Penn in a game played on February 25, 2023.

"I knew that when I took over the program on October 11th that I had a roster of talented players," said first year Centurion head coach Farrad McLaughlin.  "From day one all I wanted to do was to prepare the team for the season both mentally and physically.

"This was a team that practiced with a lot of intensity and paid great attention to detail," continued McLaughlin.  "I didn't really recruit any players on the team coming into the program so late, but I did have tryouts and cut the numbers from around 30 to a final roster of 15."

BCCC finished its championship season on an impressive 11-game winning streak.  And over the course of the season the Centurions collected several impressive school records.

 
Included in that BCCC school record setting performance was -

team total wins in a season (16), points per game (90.6), and highest winning percentage (.762%).

Flashy freshman point guard Yasir Rowell was selected as a second team All-American by the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

Rowell set a Centurion season scoring record with an average of 27.7 points per game, and the electric guard also set a Bucks single game scoring record with a spectacular 46-point scoring effort against Penn State-Wilkes Barre.

Sophomores Colin Martin and team captain Joey Brusha were awarded as Academic All-Americans by the USCAA.

And Coach McLaughlin also earned a prestigious post season award as he was voted Coach of the Year by the ESAC in guiding the Centurions to the conference title.

"We are now all getting ready for a long off season," said McLaughlin.  "I told the players to only worry about what they can control.  Work on their health, their game, and their grades.

"Everyone has to consider if Bucks is where they want to be next year," continued the coach.  "We had 12 freshmen on the roster last year, and we must see who comes back and who comes into the program as freshman.

"My philosophy is to get as many players as we can into a four-year program, hopefully with a scholarship," added McLaughlin.  "Everyone in the program has their own goals and aspirations."

And for the 2022-2023 Centurions the goals and aspirations were realized with the seizing of the coveted ESAC championship.

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