District 2 hoops action gets underway this Friday night with several excellent matchups. On the boys side, Holy Cross heads up to The Summit to take on perennial Lackawanna Division 1 contender Abington Heights. Both teams expect to be right in the thick of the championship race this season. Holy Cross must find a replacement in the middle for 6-7 center Mark Bevacqua who elected to transfer to attend school and play basketball for well-known Blair Academy (NJ) who boats numerous players on NCAA rosters. Bev was an emerging force in the middle for the Crusaders, especially toward the end of last season when he averaged 16 pp and 10 rpg in the playoffs. Another marquee game takes place at Scranton high where the Knights will take on a seasoned group from Holy Redeemer. It will be speed versus heights in that one. In addition to those games, there will be seven tip-off tourneys across the region highlighted by the Finan Tourney (in Carbondale) and the Badger Marseco Memorial (in Old Forge). A little further away, the Williamsport Millionaires will hit the hardwoods in the talent-filled York Tip-Off. A LOT further away, the Hazleton Cougars will completely escape the frozen tundra of northeastern PA by hooping it up at the Orlando, Florida Tip-Off playing a pair of games. As always the NEP Beat will be on hand throughout the weekend to cover many of these early season games.
On the girls side, Holy Redeemer hosts Scranton Friday night and Dunmore hosts Scranton Prep Saturday in a few of the headline games. District 2 teams are also playing in nine tournaments from Hazleton to Hughesville to Hawley. All Tip-Offs are listed below. Please check local papers for individual matchups.
See you in the bleachers.
Several coaching changes take place for the 2009-2010 basketball season. This week we touch on the Lackawanna League changes and will mention the new faces in the Wyoming Valley Conference in a future column. Jack Dabney takes over for Mark Mazak as the Mid Valley boys head coach and immediately brings a wealth of coaching experience to the Spartan program. In Honesdale, Ron Rowe retires following a 30-year career and Tim Woods will now head the Hornet bench. On the girls side, one of the legendary all-time local coaching leaders gets back into the mix following a year hiatus. Ross Macciocco, owning a resume which has 528 wins in 28 seasons at Dunmore will now take over for Roy Gibbs and orchestrate the Scranton Prep squad. The Classics are always a strong club and Macciocco figures to make an immediate impact to build on their 15-8 record last season. Carbondale, one of the teams expecting good things this year, looks to secure some coaching stability as Will Reckless takes over the Chargerette helm. Reckless played for the Bishop OHara 1996 Class A state runner-up team. Finally, Joe Vadala, a former assistant coach, takes over the girls team at Lakeland and looks to get the program going in a more positive direction.
District 2 Chairman Majikes announced at the November 18 meeting that Frank Victor, District Basketball Chairperson, will be holding a meeting of the District Basketball Committee in the near future in order to discuss the format of the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 tournaments. There are two main topics for discussion. The first is whether to continue the current protocol of allowing all teams to compete in an open-format tournament. The second is whether to switch the playoff dates to coincide with the inter-district PIAA format of playing A boys, AA girls, AAA boys, and AAAA girls on one day (and then A girls, AA boys, AAA girls and AAAA boys on the next day) or stay with the current of format of boys on one day and girls on the other. As always, the NEP Beat has some opinions on these topics, but the more important issue is that the coaches that are impacted directly by these policies get their views to the basketball committee ASAP so that proper and productive dialogue will take place. Everyone that follows local hoops action is probably very familiar with the torrent of media coverage (mostly against) the open-format tourney. Much of the criticism was unfairly directed against the governing athletic body of District 2. The infamous opt-out policy never worked as it had been designed, but the reality is that no coach or AD should ever be saddled with having to choose whether their athletes deserve the opportunity to participate in post-season play. And that is the problem. The NEP Beat recommends that the open-tournament policy be modified so that there are some minimum win thresholds which must be met in order to qualify for the District 2 playoffs. Using league win-loss (and not overall) records is probably a better approach because of the wide strength of schedule variation across the district. The minimum win total does not need to be excessive, say only 25% or 33% of league games, but it establishes a qualifying accomplishment beyond just showing up for every game. Or maybe the committee will elect a different approach, to possibly establish total team limits to the playoffs (say, 12 teams max for AA and AAA and 4 teams for AAAA and A). More on this topic for sure as it develops. The next district meeting is December 16.
Joseph Nespoli Tourney (Berwick, Hanover, Wyoming Seminary) 12/11, 12/12
Sayre Tip Off (Blue Ridge) 12/11, 12/12
Hawley Rotary Tourney (Mid Valley, Monticello, Paupack, W. Wayne) 12/11, 12/12
York Bearcat Tip Off (Williamsport, Reading, York, So. Philly) 12/11, 12/12
Orlando Tip-Off (Hazleton) vs. Colonial HS 12/11, vs. First Academy Prep 12/12
Marseco Memorial (Old Forge, Northwest, Pittston, Wyoming Area) 12/12, 12/13
Finan Tourney (Carbondale, Honesdale, W. Scranton, Forest City) 12/14, 12/15
Trail Tourney (Lack. Trail, Lakeland, Lake-Lehman, Mid Valley) 12/18, 12/19
Holy Cross at Abington Heights
Carbondale at Elk Lake
Nanticoke at Crestwood
Holy Redeemer at Scranton
Honesdale at Valley View
Montrose at Riverside
Scranton Prep at Wilkes-Barre Meyers
Wilkes-Barre Coughlin at Wilkes-Barre GAR
Wyoming Valley West at Bethlehem Freedom
Dallas at Nanticoke
Abington Heights at Wyoming Valley West
Holy Redeemer at Nanticoke
Lackawanna Trail at Dunmore
Wilkes-Barre Meyers at Wilkes-Barre Coughlin
Hazleton at Whitehall
Williamsport at Crestwood
Holy Cross vs. Pittston (University of Scranton)
Valley View at Scranton
Abington Heights at Dunmore
Dallas at Hanover
Riverside at Scranton Prep
Wyoming Valley West at Shamokin
Wilkes-Barre Meyers at Crestwood
Hanover at Wilkes-Barre Coughlin
Holy Cross at Holy Redeemer
Old Forge at Mountain View
Tunkhannock at Nanticoke
West Scranton at Valley View
Abington Heights at Tunkhannock
Marian Catholic at MMI Prep
Valley View at Scranton Prep
Abington Heights vs. Holy Redeemer (Marywood, 8 pm)
Dallas at Wilkes-Barre Meyers
Dunmore at West Scranton
Williamsport vs. Chester (Coatesville Shootout)
Holiday on the
Hardwoods (Wachovia Arena)
Noon (Crestwood vs. Wilkes-Barre GAR)
2 pm (Hazleton vs. St. Albans, Washington DC)
4 pm (Holy Redeemer vs. Bethlehem Freedom)
6 pm (Holy Cross vs. Binghamton, NY)
Cougar Tip Off (Hazleton, Abington Hts., Cheltenham, Spring Ford) 12/11, 12/12
Pocono Mountain East Tip-Off (Berwick) 12/11, 12/12
Hawley Rotary (Carbondale, Honesdale, Wallenpaupack, W. Wayne) 12/11, 12/12
Tunkhannock Tip Off (WB-GAR, Elk Lake, Susquehanna, Tunk.) 12/11, 12/12
Lake Lehman (Lack. Trail, Lake-Lehman, Northwest, Wy. Seminary) 12/11, 12/12
Lewisburg Tip Off (Williamsport) 12/11, 12/12
Hughesville Tip-Off (Hanover) 12/11, 12/12
Marseco Memorial (Lakeland, Pittston, Wyoming Area) 12/11, 12/13
Wy. Valley West Tip Off (Dallas, WVW, Nativity BVM, W-B Meyers) 12/12, 12/15
Scranton at Holy Redeemer
Scranton Prep at Dunmore
North Pocono at Riverside
Crestwood at Scranton Prep
Hazleton at Scranton
State College at Holy Redeemer
Dunmore at North Pocono
Shamokin at Williamsport
Holy Redeemer at Abington Heights
Montrose at Carbondale
Old Forge at Forest City
Lake-Lehman at Wilkes-Barre Coughlin
Valley View at West Scranton
Dunmore at Scranton
North Pocono at Forest City
Scranton Prep at Hazleton
Mountain View at Mid Valley
Williamsport at Wyoming Valley West
Nanticoke at Pittston
Holy Redeemer at Dunmore
Montrose at Scranton Prep
West Scranton at Riverside
Wallenpaupack at Forest City
Williamsport at Wyalusing
That is it for this edition of the NEP Beat. See you next time!
Question or Comments, email us at LLHoops.NEP-Beat@comcast.net
Jon K.