The Tide and the ever positive Wassil lost some key players due to graduation in Sam Gardner and Jed Greslick. Gardner averaged over 14 points per game last season while Greslick tallied over 12 per contest. Others lost through graduation were Billy White and Ben Johnson.
With the success of the Tide football program Wassil hasn’t had a full squad at practice until earlier this week making it somewhat difficult for the early part of the 2010-11 campaign.
Wassil spoke about how to have the Tide achieve success this year, “We are going to have to play to our strengths to be successful. Right now I think that is our ability to get the ball inside and rebound the basketball. We also have to come together as a team in a short amount of time which will take great leadership from our veteran players.”
Returning lettermen this year are four seniors Kyle Barrett, Shane Hoover, Alec Starr and Shelby McGary along with junior Boone McGary.
Barrett averaged 10.1 points per game for Curwensville as a junior and is expected to carry a major part of the scoring load along with taking care of the boards on both ends of the floor.
Boone McGary, Josh Ireland and Jesse Zorger will also be counted on to help with the inside game. Zorger did not play last season.
Starr will direct the offense most of the time from his point guard position along with being versatile enough to saddle up at small forward. He will be helped in the backcourt by Shane Hoover and Shelby McGary.
Another senior, Will Rauckhorst, will provide rebounding height and also will see action at a guard slot along with freshman Tanner Elensky.
The Golden Tide will once again play in two leagues, the Moshannon Valley League (MVL) and the Allegheny Mountain League (AML). Wassil singled out the AML in saying “I think we play in one of the toughest leagues around in the AML which will challenge our guys to be ready to play each and every night.”
Curwensville will open the 2010-11 season Friday night at home against the Vikings of Glendale in an MVL battle. Junior varsity action begins at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
ROSTER:
SENIORS – Kyle Barrett*, Dan Davis, Shane Hoover*, Shelby McGary*, Will Rauckhorst, Alec Starr*
JUNIORS – Josh Ireland, Boone McGary*, Jesse Zorger
SOPHOMORES – Brad Coudriet, Trevon Pennington, Marcus Stephenson
FRESHMEN – Tanner Elensky, Brett Gardner, Kyle Johns, Alex Olson
SCHEDULE:
DECEMBER – 10 GLENDALE, 14 at Brockway, 17 RIDGWAY, 20 at Glendale, 22 MOSHANNON VALLEY, 28-29 KSAC/AML Challenge TBA
JANUARY – 4 KANE, 7 at DuBois Central Catholic, 11 JOHNSONBURG, 13 at Harmony, 19 ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC, 21 at West Branch, 25 at Ridgway, 28 BROCKWAY, 31 DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC
FEBRUARY – 2 WEST BRANCH, 4 at Johnsonburg, 8 SHEFFIELD, 9 HARMONY, 11 at Kane, 14 at Moshannon Valley
HOME GAMES IN CAPS