The Coudersport boys basketball team is used to having a target on its back.
The Falcons have won at least 17 games in each season since 2014, including an impressive 48 wins over the past two years. That success culminated in the Falcons, led by head coach Brian Furman, winning the North Tier League and District 9 Championships in 2017.
This season, the team has to reload a bit. Despite returning eight letterwinners and three returning starters, the team lost three key contributors to graduation.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Furman said. “We bring back some really talented players, but
we lost a good group to graduation. We need to fill some holes, we have some underclassmen who by the end of the season will probably be in the mix to help us reach some of our goals. But, we have a lot to do.”
One of those talented players that returns to lead the Falcons is Jared Green. Green received a laundry list of accolades last season, none bigger than being named the North Tier League MVP. Green, a 6-1 forward, averaged a double-double last year, but his head coach has really come to appreciate in just how many ways he can help his team.
“He stuffs the stat book,” Furman said. “He’s a real good rebounder and he’s going to get you points. Last year he was second in assists for us and also led our team in steals. So, he’s just a real good all-around player.”
Returning to help Green is junior guard Owen Chambers, who averaged 16.5 points per game last season and was named a North Tier All-Star. Chambers is one of Coudy’s guards that Furman hopes can play solid defense to generate points in the transition game.
Coudy starts its non-league play Wednesday, Dec. 13 on the road at St. Marys, and then hosts Bradford next Friday. Similar to years past, Furman knows that he is going to get the absolute best from each of the opposing teams on his schedule.
“When other teams play us I think they are looking at us to measure where they stand,” Furman said. “But every year is different and we’ve got to come in and get to work at practice every day and get a little bit better and hopefully at the end of the season we’ll be playing our best ball.”
Elsewhere in the NTL, Cameron County returns three starters and looks to build upon their second-place finish from last season. The Red Raiders ended up 15-8, and it marked the fourth consecutive season that Coudy and Cameron County have swapped the top two spots in the NTL.
Head coach Mark Guido and his Red Raiders will again rely heavily on senior guard Adam Shaffer, who averaged 12.5 points per game last season and was a NTL All-Star. Cameron County will have a significant height advantage in the NTL, with seven players on the roster standing at least 6-foot-1.
The third-place finisher in 2017, Otto-Eldred returns five seniors from a team that won two district playoff games last year. Sixth-year head coach Dan Dalton is hoping that experience, as well as better coaching, can turn around the team’s achilles heel from last year.
“We’ve just got to close out some games that we should’ve won last year,” Dalton said. “We lost five games by a total of 11 points last year. Hopefully our senior leadership carries over this year and hopefully we can win some of those close basketball games that we lost last year.”
The Terrors return two NTL All-Stars in Dylan Close and Sawyer Drummond. Dalton said that while his top two players have drastically different playing styles, each player’s work ethic is the common thread that connects them to their teammates.
“Sawyer is just a hard working kid. He might not be the most talented basketball player, but his hard work makes him who he is on the court,” Dalton said. “As for Dylan, he is probably my most pure basketball player on the team. He’s a hard-worker, as well. Both of them are super competitive and I think that carries down to the rest of the team. They see that kind of competitiveness and they thrive off of it.”
Rounding out the upper echelon in the NTL is Port Allegany. The Gators went 12-11 in 2017 to finish fourth in the NTL. Head coach Jeff Stuckey is confident in his core group of players, who are a close-knit unit after spending the fall season together playing on Port Allegany’s very successful soccer team.
“It’s good to see a team work together and to have fun,” Stuckey said. “They enjoy the game for what it is. Yeah, I do have to get on them sometimes for having too much fun and not enough seriousness, but it is neat to see a bunch of kids who really play well together. There’s no feuding in the locker room or at practice.”
The Gators will be led by Stuckey’s son, Howie. The sophomore forward averaged 14.9 points per game last season. His dad was his earliest coach and could tell from a young age just how enthusiastic his son was for the game of the basketball.
“I coached about 10 years of JV basketball and he was our manager and he would never leave until he made like five three-pointers,” Jeff said. “He was like three, four years old and I’m waiting there for an hour until he makes his three-pointers. He’s pretty dedicated to the game.”
A capsule look at the North Tier boys teams:
AUSTIN
Coach: Rich Glover
League: North Tier
2016-17: 2-20 Postseason: none
BRADFORD
Coach: Brian Hobbs
League: District IX
2016-17 record: 8-14 Postseason: Clearfield (L, 59-35, D-9 Class AAAA semifinals)
Roster: Deondre Terwilliger, Adam Boyer, Tyler Gigliotti, Danny Pattison, Brice Whelan, Alec Kuzmeskas, Blake Bryant, Caleb Nuzzo, Steven Knowlton, Peyton Manion, Brent Kennedy
From the coach: “This season should bring some energy back to the Bradford program. In contrast to years past we have some depth on the bench and experienced upperclassmen as well as some underclassmen who contribute quality minutes last season.”
Roster: Deondre Terwilliger (5-9, sr., G), Adam Boyer (5-10, sr., G), Tyler Gigliotti (5-8, so., G), Donny Pattison (6-2, jr., F), Danny Manion (6-2, sr., F), Brice Whelan (sr. F), Alec Kuzmeskas (5-9, sr., G), Blake Bryant (6-4, jr., C), Caleb Nuzzo (5-9, so. G), Steven Knowlton (5-8, so., G), Peyton Manion (so., G), Brent Kennedy (6-1, sr., G)
CAMERON COUNTY
Coach: Mark Guido (29-17)
League: North Tier
2016-17: 15-8 Postseason: Johnsonburg (L, 52-44, D-9 Class A quarterfinals)
Roster: Adam Shaffer (6-1, sr., G, 12.5 ppg), Marcus Brown (6-3, jr., G, 7.3 ppg), Jake Walters (6-8, jr., F, 7.8 ppg, 8 rpg), Dino Brown (6-1 so., G), Ty Bauer (6-1, jr., G), Bryce Bauer (6-1, sr., G), Alex Umble (5-10, sr., G), Caden Beldin (6-3, fr., G).
COUDERSPORT
Coach: Brian Furman (3rd year, 67-10)
League: North Tier
2016-17: 25-1 Postseason: North Tier League Champions, District 9 Champions, Advanced to Round of Sixteen in State Tournament; beat Brockway in D-9 Class AA Final; beat United (D-6) in 1st Round, lost to Greensburg CC (D-7) in 2nd Round
Roster: Jared Green (6-1, sr., F, 16.8 ppg, 11.2 rpg), Derek Keglovits (5-9, sr., F, 7.4 ppg), Hunter Ricke (6-3, sr, F, 3.5 ppg), David Burd (5-11, sr, F), Owen Chambers( 6-1, jr, G, 16.5 ppg), Kullen Crosby (5-10, jr, G), Jon Lent (5-10, jr, G), Dillion Keglogvits (6-1, so, F), Kolby Vanwhy (6-0, so, F).
From the coach: “Although we return four of our top seven players from last year’s team, the key to this year’s success will be if we can fill the roles left by the three players that we lost to graduation. We must defend, rebound, limit turnovers and understand shot selection. We will look to generate offense from our transition game and off our defense.”
GALETON
Coach: Richard Smith
League: North Tier
2016-17: 8-13 Postseason: none
OTTO-ELDRED
Coach: Dan Dalton (6th year, 48-68)
League: North Tier
2016-17: 15-11 Postseason: Oswayo Valley (W, 59-58, D-9 Class A first round), Johnsonburg (L, 51-50 D-9 Class A semifinals), Kennedy Catholic (L, 87-35, PIAA first round)
Roster: Dylan Close (sr., G, 11 ppg), Sawyer Drummond (sr., F, 8 ppg, 10 rpg), Jordan Sherwood (sr., F), Trey Dalton (sr., F), Cameron Grigsby (jr., C), Andrew Sheeler (jr., G), Chase Sebastian (jr., F), Cole Sebastian (fr., G).
From the coach: “I feel as though we are in a good place following our year this past season and entering the current one. We return some valuable experience with a core group of seniors who have had quality varsity experience for two seasons now. They got a taste of two district playoff wins and then the privilege of competing with the eventual state champions in the first round of the state playoffs. Their success last year as well as another quality season in football only helps to build that winning mentality that had been lacking in previous years. We will need to rely on a few juniors and other underclassmen to fill some roles and voids left by both graduation and other departures. We have challenged ourselves in the non-conference again with the likes of Kane, Bradford, Genesee Valley and Portville. We feel this will help prepare us for both the postseason and another grind in the NTL.”
OSWAYO VALLEY
Coach: Clark Cummings (13th year, 129-147)
League: North Tier
2016-17: 12-11 Postseason: Otto-Eldred (L, 59-58, D-9 Class A quarterfinals)
Roster: Theo Henry (16 ppg, 4 rpg), Garren Black (6 ppg, 5 rpg), Taige Bryant, Jacob Karr (6 ppg, 5 rpg), Nathan Prouty, Ryan Graves, Maverick Waterman, Gavin Babcock (8 ppg, 3 apg), Michael Welch.
From the coach: “We return four starters from the team that lost to Otto-Eldred by one point in the district playoffs. Theo Henry, a returning NTL All-Star, will look to push the ball. We lack in size, so we’ll need to defend in the halfcourt to be successful.”
NORTHERN POTTER
Coach: Gary Ransom
League: North Tier
2016-17: 3-19 Postseason: none
PORT ALLEGANY
Coach: Jeff Stuckey
League: North Tier
2016-17: 12-11 Postseason: North Clarion (L, 65-48, D-9 Class A first round)
Roster: David Talkington (6-0, sr., G, 9.5 ppg), Tyler Lashway (5-6, sr., G, 4 ppg), Payton Caden (5-6, sr., G), Josh Mealy (5-7, sr., G), Owen Russell (5-10, jr., F) Howie Stuckey (5-10, so., G, 14.9 ppg), Jordan Card (5-7, so., G), A.J. Edgell (6-1, so., F), David Causer (6-0, so., F), Shawn McNeil (6-0, so., F), Dominic Guerrero (5-10, fr., G)
From the coach: “Similar to last year’s team, eight of the 11 varsity players are coming off a very competitive playoff soccer state team. We will be looking forward to that field speed to translate on the basketball court. We have several lettermen back in David Talkington, Tyler Lashway, Howie Stuckey, Jordan Card and A.J. Edgell. Much of the scoring came from Stuckey and Talkington, but we anticipate more offense from Lashway, Card and Payton Caden, as well as freshman Dominic Guerrero. We also have more depth this season, and I anticipate this year’s team to be even more exciting.”
SMETHPORT
Coach: Jay Acker (77-65)
League: North Tier
2016-17: 5-17 Postseason: none
Roster: Brayden Southard (sr.), Jordan VanGorder (sr.), Noah Costa (jr.), Caleb Lutz (jr.), Brandon Peterson (jr.), Eric Szarowicz (jr.), Ian Woodruff (jr.), Darrin Jewell (jr.), Grant Ognen (jr.), Hunter Helsley (so.), Connor Alfieri (so.), Lane Shall (fr.), Richie McDowell (fr.).
From the coach: “We are returning six players who saw varsity action including four who started last season. We are looking to continue our defensive pressure while improving our offensive output.”
