Curwensville ended with a 7-15 mark last year but the experience and numbers indicate that the Tide are a very young team as Pentz spoke about, “Obviously we are extremely young with only one senior and three juniors; so we need to gain some experience quickly.”
The Golden Tide lost six players through graduation from the 2010-11 team in Kyle Barrett, Dan Davis, Shane Hoover, Will Rauckhorst, Alec Starr and Shelby McGary.
Two returning letter winners for this years squad that will more than likely start are senior Boone McGary and sophomore Tanner Elensky.
McGary is the leading returning rebounder while Elensky comes back as the leading scorer along with assists and steals.
The point guard duties will be handled once again by Elensky with Brett Gardner, Trevon Pennington and Marcus Stephenson seeing action at the other guard spot for Curwensville. Gardner is a sophomore and Pennington and Stephenson are both juniors.
McGary will anchor down one of the three forward positions while three other sophomores, Kyle Johns, Alex Olson and Austin Jacobson will get plenty of playing time at the other two forward spots.
Although Pentz is in his first year as head coach he is certainly familiar with the majority of the squad as the former junior varsity coach, “Almost all of these young men have played for coach (Eric) Johnson and myself so we all know what to expect from each other.”
As far as season expectations coach Pentz added, “Our goal is, and always will be, to make the District 9 playoffs and I truly feel that is attainable with this group. They have put a lot of hard work in so far and I hope that that will pay off for us.”
Assisting Pentz this year will be varsity assistant coach Eric Johnson and volunteer assistant Alec Starr.
The Golden Tide tip off the new season on Tuesday December 13 on their home court against the Rovers of Brockway. Junior varsity action starts at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
ROSTER:
SENIORS: Boone McGary *
JUNIORS: Sean Harker, Trevon Pennington, Marcus Stephenson
SOPHOMORES: Joe Brett, Tanner Elensky *, Brett Gardner , Austin Jacobson, Kyle Johns, Nate Kurtz, Nick London, Alex Olson
* DENOTES LETTERWINNER
SCHEDULE:
DECEMBER – 13 BROCKWAY, 16 at Ridgway, 22 at Harmony, 30 at Glendale
JANUARY – 4 at Kane, 6 DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC, 10 at Johnsonburg, 13 HARMONY, 17 at Elk County Catholic, 20 WEST BRANCH, 24 RIDGWAY, 27 at Brockway, 30 at Dubois Central Catholic
FEBRUARY – 1 GLENDALE, 3 JOHNSONBURG, 7 at Sheffield, 8 MO VALLEY, 10 KANE, 13 at West Branch, 15 at Mo Valley
HOME GAMES IN CAPS
