New-look Gremlins athletic, inexperienced

By SAM TALLARICO Eagle Staff Writer

December 01, 2005 Last Updated: December 01, 2005 12:27 PM High School

Winning the District 9 Class AA championship last year could be a valuable learning tool for the Karns City boys basketball team.

Head coach Steve Andreassi can only hope this year's team was paying attention.

The Gremlins lost eight seniors from that squad, including Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference Player of the Year in Tyler Callihan and Nathan Knox.

Callihan, the school's all-time leading scorer, averaged 25.2 points, 12 rebounds and four assists per game and drained 54 3-pointers. Knox added 12 points and 10 rebounds per game while David Black, Josh Behrens and Ryan Earley also played key roles.

Senior guard Mark Ferguson is the team's leading returning scorer with 6.3 points per game while senior guard Steve Black averaged three per game.

Of the other four returning players that scored, those players totaled 24 points.

Andreassi is hopeful this team will rely on its other assets until the experience kicks in.

"We're athletic, but inexperienced," said Andreassi. "We're hoping some of that athleticism will overcome that.

"The good thing about the senior group from last year is these varsity kids now went up against them every day in practice. They got valuable experience. They took their lumps in jayvee in games.

"They've seen the best of both worlds, good and bad," Andreassi added.

Another plus is having positions up for grabs, which heightens the competition level.

"We've got an open competition going on," said Andreassi. "We may not start a certain group. Nothing is established. We could go 10 or 11 deep this season.

"With our lineup being a small lineup, we plan on rotating 10-11 guys in every game," he added.

Jeremy Bowser and Charlie Zaludek are the team's other two seniors, while five juniors with no varsity experience — forwards Kevin Beck and Trevor Williams and guards Mike Senepole, Kody Craig and Kyle Davis — will be thrown into the mix.

Twin guards Mike and Matt McConnell and forward Cameron Turner round out the varsity roster.

"We had a good fall with some of the non-football and soccer players so hopefully we'll be able to take the off-season and turn it into something good," said Andreassi.

"We had our talks with (Black and Ferguson) as well as the other players and the most important aspect is for them to bring out is their experience. It's like 'been there, done that.'

"In all sports, they've been successful and they need to convey that to the younger guys," Andreassi added.

In the usually talented KSAC, it may take a while for the Gremlins to get going. Andreassi is hopeful they can be right up there in the end.

"We don't know how we'll start the season, but like every year, the plan is to get better and better with every game," said Andreassi.

"And, by the end, we hope to be playing our best basketball and see where it takes us."

KARNS CITY HIGH SCHOOL 2005-06 Boys Basketball Schedule

Dec. 2-3-

at Kittanning Tip-Off Tournament;

Dec. 6-

EAST FOREST;

Dec. 8-

at A-C Valley;

Dec. 14-