Basketball Preview 2016

Paden City Hit Hard by Graduation

By CODY TOMER PADEN CITY — Graduation hit Paden City hard as four of its top six players are no longer with the program but 15-year boys’ head coach Fred King believes that two of the young men remaining can take control of the team and lead them to victory. Center Luke Cooper, forward Logan Carroll, guard Zach Yeater and guard Deven Price all picked up their diploma’s last year and it will be very interesting to see how King goes about filling those big shoes. “We are really going to miss all four of those guys,” King said. “We want to wish them all the best ...

Wildcats Hoping for Big Turnaround

By CODY TOMER PADEN CITY —The Wildcats are coming off a 5-18 record during the 2015- 2016 season and three-year head coach Alan Miller believes that this year will be a season of working hard, learning and improving for the Paden City girls’ team. “I think that this year can be a learning process for our team,” Miller said. “We have good kids who work very hard. We are going to focus on the fundamentals and getting better with every game that we play.” A key member of last year’s squad, center Darien Ritchie graduated in the spring and the Wildcats will need ...

Graduation Hits BL

By RICK DeLUCA CONNORVILLE — Greg Haberfield has been one of those patient coaches that just keeps his head up and keeps moving. Although winning just 15 times in three years at Buckeye Local, the Panthers coach has learned one thing. Quitting is not an option. Haberfield starts his fourth season as the Panthers coach and after his squad’s bounce-back season last year, it appears that added success may be just on the horizon. Graduation took a big chunk out of the Panthers including the team’s top two scorers and top rebounder, but Buckeye has ample ...

St. John Gets Some Stability

By BUBBA KAPRAL BELLAIRE — Coaching continuity. Two years may not seem like much, but it does with the St. John Central boys’ basketball program. SJC has been through a dozen head boys’ coaches the past two decades. So with Matt Heusel returning for a second-year at the Fighting Irish helm it marks progress. Heusel got a late start on the campaign, being named to the position after official practices had commenced. That delay was an obvious deterrent to wins, but the former Union Local and SJC hoopster developed a competitive squad, winning five games. “Last ...

Dons Have Shoes to Fill

By MIKE MATHISON WEIRTON - Life has changed for the Weirton Madonna girls’ basketball team. The Blue Dons lost Monica Bragg, Katie Lammers and Mikaela Lenhart to graduation off a team that went 18-9 and made it to the West Virginia Class A state tournament, where they lost in the quarterfinals. “Their shoes will be hard to fill,” Madonna coach Don Ogden said. Three seniors dot the roster in Samantha Parris, Haley Timko and Emma Burns, along with juniors Kasey Canei and Gianna Mascio. “We have good overall team speed and I think we’ll be more balanced in ...

Buckeye Local Focusing on Defense

By RICK DeLUCA CONNORVILLE — It would seem that lately scoring points hasn’t been much of a problem for Coach Tom Figurski and his Panthers at Buckeye Local. After all, the school career scoring record has been topped in each of the past two years and his squad returns a sophomore this season that scored more than 400 points as a freshman. Of course, Figurski would be the first to tell anyone that games are won both sides of the court and that scoring is important, but so is defense. In starting his fourth season as the head coach at Buckeye Local has shown ...