The league record may not show it, at least not yet, but Bethlehem Catholic is a much improved boys basketball team.
The Golden Hawks are 0-3 in the Lehigh Valley Conference, having played Easton, Freedom and Liberty in their own division — arguably the best division of the LVC and the three best teams in the league.
But once out of the area, Becahi showed what it could do last week by rolling to the title of the 24th annual Robert H. Griffith Holiday Classic to benefit York County Special Olympics.
The tournament was held at York Vo-Tech and the Golden Hawks were impressive in dismantling Southwestern 62-53 in the semis and then routing York Catholic 68-36 for the title.
Those wins put Becahi at 4-4 and in position to make a run at the program's first District 11 appearance since 2007.
There's a long way to go and the LVC is as treacherous as ever, but the Golden Hawks come out of the holiday break with plenty of spirit.
"We feel good about what we're doing and have a lot of confidence right now," said second-year coach Mike Frew. "I'm most pleased with our commitment on the defensive end. We held Southwestern to 12 points in the first half and they have two college-level players on their roster. And then the next night against York Catholic, which always has good shooters, we held them to 10 points in the first half.
"The defense took over in both games. When you hold teams to 12 and 10 points in the first half, you're going to have a good shot at winning, and we shot the ball well ourselves."
Most impressive is that Becahi is winning with a young team,
A lot of focus is on 6-foot-11 senior center Matt Husek, who has committed to Holy Cross.
But the Golden Hawks rely heavily on non-seniors. Freddie Simmons, who was named tournament MVP, is only a sophomore. Darwin St. Cyr, a junior, made the all-tourney team along with Husek.
It has been a nice mix of senior leaders with younger, rising standouts.
Among the younger guys is freshman DeAndre Tillett, who is a step-brother of Allen High legend Ray Barbosa. He is getting minutes along with many other underclassmen.
"To see where we were a year ago to where we are now, we've made a lot of progress to say the least," Frew said. "Even in most of our losses, we were competitive. We took Easton to the wire and at Freedom we had it to four with under 50 seconds left. Plus, we are doing a lot of positive things on and off the court."
Among those things was something the team did in York.
Robyn Liggins-Smith of Special Olympics York County sent out an email telling how the Becahi kids got together on their own after seeing and hearing about the Special Olympics program.
They took it upon themselves to pass around a hat and collect $250 from coaches, family members and friends and made an unsolicited donation to Special Olympics York County.
The team made the presentation to Special Olympian Jeanne Goodling, who was in attendance. Just a classy, well-done gesture by the Bethlehem Catholic kids.
"We were told that no out-of-town team had won that tournament in a long time," Frew said. "So, the kids took a lot of pride in winning the tournament and putting Bethlehem Catholic on the map. But even bigger is how the kids are getting along off the court.
"I am having more fun coaching this group of kids than I've had coaching any other group. It's not even about the winning. We've really done a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that has been very positive. We've had team dinners, we've gone to church together. The kids have really come together more than they've been in the past and it's a fun group to be around."
