Giannotta

JACKSON TWP — How a team responds in the face of adversity during a game is important.

For the Seneca Valley boys basketball team, it was how the Raiders reacted between games that defined the 2008-09 season.

SV dropped a 50-49 decision at home to archrival North Allegheny on a last-second shot Jan. 9.

The defeat dropped the Raiders to 3-2 in the section and, though it happened a month before the regular season ended, was a bitter pill for the team to swallow.

"That was the toughest loss we had, just the way it happened," said Raiders coach Victor Giannotta. "But the key was how we responded. We could have folded right there, but we didn't."

SV won six of its seven remaining section games to finish 9-3 and to claim the first section championship in the program's 45-year history.

The Raiders followed that with a trip to the WPIAL semifinals and to their first appearance in the PIAA playoffs, finishing with an overall mark of 17-9 and tying the program record for wins in a season, which was set the year before.

His team's performance earned Giannotta his second straight Butler Eagle Boys Coach of the Year honor, this one coming by a unanimous vote.

"It's all about the kids," Giannotta said. "Without them, the program isn't where it's at right now."

But for every compliment Giannotta gives his players, they have one for him.

"What I'm going to remember most about playing for him is his attitude," said senior C.J. Brown. "And he has so much knowledge about the game and expects a lot from his players."

The Raiders were a physically strong team this season, fighting for every loose ball.

But possibly the team's most important quality was its mental toughness, which helped it bounce back from that loss to NA.

It certainly was a factor in the team going 6-0 in road section games.

"You can try to instill mental toughness, but the players have to want to play with it," said Giannotta.

The latest campaign was Giannotta's fifth at Seneca Valley. Though his teams struggled to nine combined wins in his first two seasons, the program was headed in the right direction.

"He made an immediate impression on me when I was a freshman," said Brown. "You could tell that he wasn't going to stand for losing. That attitude has rubbed off on the players."

Though its season ended with a 56-54 loss to State College in the state playoffs March 7, the 2008-09 squad will not soon be overlooked by its head coach, who admitted getting emotional after the last game.

"I think it stems from when I took the job (in 2004)," said Giannotta. "People were saying, 'You can't win at Seneca Valley, you can't do this, you can't do that.' That's what we heard.

"But what we've accomplished, it validates everything we've done."

Giannotta was assisted by Jim Pyle, Rob Lombardo and Joe Venasco.