The 2023-24 basketball season in District 9 starts in two days and there are plenty of nuggets and thoughts to go with it.
Three Big Questions heading into the 2023-24 season include:
1. Will Otto-Eldred find a way to take the next step and make it to the PIAA Class 2A boys’ title game?
The Terrors went on a Cinderella run a year ago from second in District 9 to the PIAA semifinals. But in that semifinal game, O-E was outclassed by a much more athletic and physical Aliquippa team (that actually was outclassed in the state title game).
The Terrors bring nearly everyone back from that team, including all-D9 players Landon Francis, Manning Splain, and Shene Thomas, and they did go against strong competition during the summer. But summer basketball is just that, summer basketball, and because of a 16-game league schedule and a home tournament, O-E didn’t have a lot of room to upgrade the regular-season schedule.
The bottom line is, until March comes around there is no way to know if the Terrors have what it takes to move up to the next level.
2. How will the Redbank Valley girls fair without Alivia Huffman?
Huffman was the ying to Mylee Harmon’s yang the last couple of seasons for the Lady Bulldogs but has now taken her talents and her all-district award to California (Pa.) making Redbank Valley a much more guard-oriented team with Harmon, a junior, and sophomore Ady Bond.
The Lady Bulldogs had a couple of players not come out for the team this year for various reasons who would have helped them, so it will be interesting to see how they transition to being a guard-first group.
The bottom line is Redbank Valley is still very good as long as Harmon, who is the best-returning player in District 9, and Bond stay healthy. But it is hard to imagine the Lady Bulldogs being AS good as a year ago when they weren’t beaten until the second round of the PIAA 2A playoffs.
3. Does Elk County Catholic’s volleyball and cross country runs make it more dangerous in hoops?
The Lady Crusaders won the PIAA 1A title in both volleyball and cross country this fall, and many of those players are key contributors to the hoops team, including returning All-D9 players Lucy Klawuhn, who played volleyball, and Sami Straub, who ran XC.
Those two are joined by another All-D9 player in Emily Mourer plus the D9 volleyball Player of the Year in Tori Newton to form a strong, deep group.
A year ago, that group finished second in 1A in D9 to Otto-Eldred, which has a lot to replace, and then dropped a four-point decision to eventual state champion Union (New Castle) in the second round of the PIAA playoffs.
There is definitely the talent to win the state title, and perhaps knowing they have won state titles this fall will be what it takes to push the Lady Crusaders to the next level in hoops.
The bottom line is there is no way anyone should doubt the will of this group after what we saw this fall, but, obviously, luck will have to play some sort of role if the Lady Crusaders are going all the way. A little bit more depth than a year ago – ECC arguably ran out of gas in the loss to Union, would also help this season.
Here are some additional notes about the D9 season:
• A basketball co-op
Union and A-C Valley have combined to play in girls’ basketball as a co-op program this season under the direction of former Union head coach Josh Meeker. The program will split its home games between the two schools.
Because the co-op makes the team a 2A squad in the middle of a classification cycle and both Union and A-C Valley were 1A last year it won’t be eligible for the postseason play in District 9 or the PIAA, although considering the two programs went a combined 6-38 a year ago with two of those being Union wins over A-C Valley the playoffs were probably a stretch anyhow.
• No more KSAC divisions
The KSAC has done away with divisional play and every team in the conference will play the other team once in conference action with the top four teams qualifying for the postseason KSAC Tournament.
There are 12 teams in boys’ basketball with Venango Catholic back in the conference fold this season, while only 10 teams make up the girls’ side thanks to the Union/A-C Valley co-op and Venango Catholic not fielding a team for a second straight season.
This is the first time the KSAC hasn’t had divisional play since 2006, which was the second year following four District 10 schools – Cranberry, West Forest, East Forest, and Rocky Grove – leaving 10 to join the KSAC and District 10 (a fifth school, Sheffield left D10 and joined the AML). Rocky Grove eventually went back to District 10 and West and East Forest combined to become the Forest Area co-op in sports.
• NTL adds playoffs
The North Tier League has added a four-team league playoff at the end of the season joining the KSAC and AML in offering a conference post-season tournament.
The top four teams in the nine-team league will make the postseason with the semifinal games being played at the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds’ home courts. The boys’ and girls’ championship games will then be played at Bradford High School.
• Clearfield now in the LHAC
Clearfield has left the now-defunct Mountain League to become part of the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference (LHAC).
The Bison will play in the LHAC East division with Central-Martinsburg, Bellefonte, Bishop Guilfoyle, Tyrone, Hollidaysburg, Huntingdon, Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, and Bellwood-Antis. They will play every team in the LHAC East once and Central-Martinsburg, Bellefonte, Bishop Guilfoyle, and Tyrone twice this year.
There will also be four “crossover” games with the LHAC West which will be boy-girl doubleheaders. Clearfield will face Greater Johnstown, Westmont Hilltop, Bedford, and Richland in those games this season.
There will be a postseason conference tournament.
• ICC format changes slightly
The ICC, which Curwensville plays in, also had a new format with four divisions – East, West, South, and North.
The Golden Tide are in the six-team north with Glendale, Juniata Valley, Moshannon Valley, West Branch, and Williamsburg.
There will be a postseason tournament there as well.
• Nine new head coaches in D9
• There are nine new head coaches in District 9 with seven in boys’ basketball and two in girls’ basketball.
That includes some rather notable changes.
On the boys’ side, two championship-winning headmen stepped down after last season with Dalton Park resigning at Brookville and Joe Ferguson, the winningest coach in Clarion-Limestone history, retiring.
Park was replaced by newcomer Matt Reitz, who coached in the elementary school, while former Redbank Valley head coach Patrick Craig, an assistant under Ferguson last year.
Another notable hire on the boys’ side comes in Johnsonburg where former Ram star and 1,000-point scorer, Cole Peterson, takes over for Dan Nelson.
A 2014 Johnsonburg graduate, Peterson, who was a professional baseball player in the Tiger organization reaching Class AAA before retiring in 2021, is second all-time in scoring at Johnsonburg with 1,598 career points.
In 2013, he teamed with Cameron Grumley to lead the Rams to the PIAA Class 1A championship game, where Johnsonburg was runner-up to Vaux.
Peterson also led the Rams to the PIAA Class 1A baseball title in 2013.
Three head coaches who had previous stops as District 9 head coaches are back as headmen on the boys’ side this year as well.
Jess Quinn, who coached both the boys and girls at Clarion, is the new head coach at A-C Valley. Quinn was a color commentator for the YDL Sports Network last season
Tom Lewis, who had previous head coaching stints at both Clarion-Limestone and Clarion with the boys, takes over for Scott Fox as the boys’ coach at Clarion. Lewis spent time under both Fox and Quinn as a volunteer assistant over the last few years.
Ed McIntrye, the one-time Venango Catholic head coach, has taken over for Patrick Irwin at Cranberry after Irwin wasn’t brought back after a lengthy stay at the Venango County school.
A newcomer to the head-coaching ranks is Luke Resig, who takes over at Oswayo Valley. Resig coached the junior high program at Oswayo Valley a year ago.
While there are plenty of new head-coaching faces on the boys’ side, there are only two on the girls’ side, although both are notable.
Despite a lot of success in his two years, including 19-7 a year ago with a D9 3A runner-up finish, at St. Marys, Michael Franciscus wasn’t retained and was replaced by one of his assistant coaches, Zane Adiyeh, who is a first-time head coach.
Also, after a decade of great success at North Clarion, including multiple D9 titles, Terry Dreihaup decided to hang up the whistle. Taking over the She-Wolves is former Venango Catholic head coach, Skip Homan, whose daughter, Lily, is a senior for North Clarion this year.
While assistant coaches don’t get noticed much, one notable addition to the assistant coaching ranks is with the North Clarion boys where Mike Brown has brought in former Clarion University men’s basketball assistant coach Al Modrzjewski.
Modrzejewski, another YDL Sports Network color commentator (three in all are back in the coaching ranks with Dave Constantino an assistant for the Clarion girls), spent 26 years over two stints at Clarion helping the Golden Eagles to the PSAC title in 2001 and multiple PSAC West titles. He also spent a year at NCAA Division III Plattsburgh St. and was at NCAA D-II Bluefield St. the last two years. His long resume also includes stops at NCAA D1 St. Francis (N.Y.) as well as D2 Pitt-Johnstown and East Stroudsburg while he was at Point Park and St. Mary’s (Michigan) early in his career.
