Football team inspires Knights boys
JEFFERSON TWP— Other than on the calendar, Knoch's long football season hasn't cut into the Knights' basketball season.
It has fueled it.
"Five of our varsity basketball players were on the football team,"senior center Rob Briggs said. "We've proven what we can accomplish when we work together.
"We won the section in football. We feel like we can win the section again."
Briggs, who averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds a year ago, is one of four starters returning from last year's 13-11 team. Point guard Shawn Samek, guards Michael Gallagher (10 ppg) and Kyle Reiser (13 ppg) are the others.
All five starters would have been back, but senior Alex Whisler will miss the season because of a serious knee injury from football.
Forwards Aaron Boldy, Josh Lio and Jake McTighe, along with guard Andrew Wirtz, are vying for the fifth starting position.
"We lost four weeks of full practice because of football, but we're still farther ahead now than at this point last year because of our experience,"second-year coach Chris Andreassi said. "I was hoping to put in some new stuff this preseason and haven't been able to do that, but that's been the only problem."
Of the 20 players on Knoch's varsity and junior varsity roster, 12 played football.
"We haven't been able to run scrimmages in practice, but the eight guys who have been here have worked really, really hard — and they'll be better players for it,"Andreassi said.
If Wirtz wins a starting spot at guard, Reiser will move to forward, the coach said.
While the Knights have set winning the section as a goal, Andreassi cautioned that the league schedule "will be brutal."
"From top to bottom, this is a tremendous league,"Andreassi said. "Valley and Highlands are considered the top two teams in WPIALTriple-A, and Hampton is right there with them. Mars was playing great at the end of last year and their top kids are back.
"We only have three nonsection games before the league season starts and we open against West Allegheny, which won the WPIAL last year. We're jumping right into the fire."
Josh Johnson will be Knoch's junior varsity coach. Jason Neubert is Andreassi's varsity assistant.
The green crop of players fifth-year coach Curt Vasas is working with this year will be a bit greener, at least early in the campaign.Four starters from last year's 17-7 squad, Abby Marshall, Sarah Cooper, Lizz King and Pam Gagen, have graduated. Marshall is playing at Seton Hill and King plays at Chatham College.Cooper is Vasas' assistant coach this year.The lone returning starter, 5-foot-8 senior guard Megan Gray, suffered a knee injury during a recent scrimmage and is sidelined indefinitely, pending results from a MRI."The girls were a little down when it happened, but they've learned we have to move on,"Vasas said. "Hopefully, we'll have Megan, If not, we have to learn to play without her."Gray will be a 3-guard if she does return. Sara Montgomery, a 6-0 junior, will be in the post with Kristen Gagen, Haley Hutterer and Lindsay MacArthur on the floor at guard.Gagen and Hutterer will divide point guard duties."Both can handle the ball well and that will benefit us," Vasas said.Top players off the bench are sophomore guard Hannah Novotny, junior guard-forward Laura Gray and senior forward Jade Thrower.While the team is inexperienced, Vasas refuses to term this a rebuilding year."I just don't believe in that word," he said. "We work hard in the offseason and during the summer to restructure our team to compete and win games. That's the mind-set of this program."These girls are hungry to continue the success of last year. I'm anticipating they'll come together quickly. Three days a week during the offseason, we had 10 to 15 girls in here lifting weights, doing agility training on top of open gym. They're dedicated to the sport."Vasas wants the Knights to be a fast-paced team, get scoring opportunities through transition and get plenty of scoring chances, period."If you get a lot of possessions and take a lot of shots, shooting percentage doesn't play such a factor,"he said. "We'll score our share of baskets."
