Union City Bears
Clarion Office of
Head coach: Shawn Thompson
2019-20 Record: 8-15
Playoffs: Lost to Wilmington in First Round of D-10 Class 2A playoffs, 49-41
Top returning players: Matthew Bennett, Junior. 3ppg last season and 2nd team all region; Cole DeSimone, Junior, 10 ppg last season; Shane Uber, Senior, and Wyatt Post, Sophomore. Kyler Shaffer, Junior. Matt and Cole are excellent shooters. Both made over 40 3’s last season and shot very well from the foul line. Kyler, Shane and Wyatt all gave significant minutes for varsity last year. Kyler is an excellent defender and slasher, and Shane and Wyatt are physical players who use their bodies well for rebounds and defensive positioning.
Top players lost: Four starters: Jamon Higley, C, 10 ppg, 2nd team all region; Keegan Hornaman, PG, 9 ppg; Colton Bojaczko, PG, lead league in steals and Ian Dufala, F.
Key newcomers: Joshua James, Sophomore. Josh is a physical player and uses his body well. He’s a polished shooter and does the little things well such as boxing out, hustling, etc; Bryce Drayer, Sophomore. Bryce is the only true point guard on our team. He is still growing physically, but if he can get the game to slow down for him, he’s a very gifted natural passer who could help the offense get open looks.
Keys to the season: We don’t have a starter over 5’11, so we must play together and play physical. We need to play tough and fast and put pressure on teams at all times. We need to create turnovers and fast break opportunities to counter our lack of height and inside presence on offense. We need to jell together. We are replacing 4 starters, so these guys need to learn to play together and play for each other.
Things your team was doing during the COVID-19 pause of winter sports: During early practices, we split the team into pods to help with contact tracing if needed. We clean the basketballs before and after each practice, and we do temperature checks on everyone including symptom checks. During the brief shutdown over break, we had a team zoom meeting to review film and discuss how we can improve. We also set up weekly workout goals so we don’t fall behind with our conditioning.
