The Bradford Owls boys basketball team was able to finish its season long before COVID-19 shut down the sports world. The Owls ended the 2019-20 regular season campaign with a 12-10 record and advanced to a third consecutive District 9 Class AAAA title game before falling to Clearfield, 51-40, at Clarion University.
That loss marked the conclusion to the careers of six seniors on that team — including the entire starting lineup. It was a group that put together a very successful four years at BAHS that broke some records en route to double digit win totals in each of the past three seasons.
“Overall this group was so respectful and their attitudes were great,” head coach Brian Hobbs said. “You come along a few of those special groups in your time coaching…and this is definitely one of them.
“I know I can be tough on the guys, but they kind of embraced that balance of what I demanded from them as a coach and we developed some good friendships that helped out a lot over the years.”
So, in lieu of their annual postseason banquet getting canceled due to the coronavirus, here are the awards chosen for each of those senior athletes — as selected by Hobbs and his assistant coaches:
Offensive MVP – Tyler Gigliotti: Surely the easiest selection Hobbs had to make, Gigliotti is the school’s all-time boys basketball scoring leader with 1,448 career points. He finished fourth in District 9 scoring this year, averaging 20.2 points per game, and elevated his play in some of the Owls’ biggest games. He scored a season-high 41 points in Bradford’s double overtime victory over Olean in the championship game of the Joe DeCerbo Memorial Tournament at St. Bonaventure. He also poured in 22 points in a big interstate win over Wellsville in late January and had a 35-point performance on the night he broke the scoring record in a loss to DuBois.
“I don’t know if I can say anything more about Tyler that I haven’t already said,” Hobbs remarked. “But he’s just an all-around great kid. He takes care of the stuff in the classroom and does all the extra stuff as far as workouts in the summer and he’s doing that as a two-sport athlete.”
Gigliotti improved his game away from the basket this year as well, according to Hobbs, picking up 98 rebounds, 40 assists and 33 steals.
“He was good at realizing that he had to do more than just scoring in particular games,” he said. “As the season went on, he realized that teams were collapsing on him and he did a good job of penetrating and kicking and from that his assists went up.”
Hobbs also noted that Gigliotti was selected to play in both the Big 30 Basketball Classic as well as the District 9 Sportsmanship All-Star Game — two events that have since been canceled.
Defensive MVP – Peyton Manion: Thrust into a much bigger role this season, Manion delivered as the team’s top defender and did a lot of the dirty work away from the ball. Despite being undersized in the post, Manion was one of the Owls’ leading rebounders, scooping up nearly five boards per game. One of Manion’s best games of the year came in a 64-37 win over DuBois Catholic in early December where he picked up eight points, four assists and 10 rebounds.
“He’s a tough kid and that’s kind of what we needed with this group: a little toughness,” Hobbs noted. “He really grew over the summer and put in more time than he had in the past and it really paid off for him on the confidence end.”
Chauncey Smith Sportsmanship Award – Evan Schmidt: Hobbs said that this award went to the Owls’ big man because of how Schmidt carried himself during games, especially how he kept himself composed despite having to lock up with some of the biggest and toughest opposing forwards in D9.
Schmidt finished the year with 7 ppg, 6 rpg and swatted away 15 shots. He picked up two double-doubles this season, including a 12-point, 13-rebound game against Kane and had 15 rebounds in a four-point win over St. Marys in early January.
“Down low, I don’t think a lot of people realize how physical it is,” Hobbs said. “But he kept his composure and he did sometimes get frustrated but (it was) never detrimental to the team. He was a true sportsman.”
Jack Daly Scholar Athlete – Caleb Nuzzo: Created by former BAHS boys head coach Dave Fuhrman to honor the top player in the classroom and named after longtime team supporter Jack Daly, it went to Nuzzo this season.
“Caleb is a great kid in the classroom, on the court and then just socially,” Hobbs said. “A really good kid and a lot of class comes from him.”
On the court, Nuzzo averaged just under three rebounds and three assists per game, while also posting 31 steals.
“He’s a gym rat and he’s always in there throwing basketballs, footballs and baseballs around. Non-stop with him. Overall, he was a good athlete for us and did a lot of good things for us, especially early in the year. Ball-handling and defensively did things outside of scoring.”
Adversity Award – Steven Knowlton and Owen Kane: Kane had a very abbreviated senior season, as the guard was attempting to battle back from an injury he suffered in the fall playing soccer. He ended up playing a few games at the beginning of the season, but elected to have surgery that kept him sidelined for several months. But Kane rehabbed and returned to the team to play in some critical games down the stretch, including the championship game against Clearfield.
“I think it says a lot about him that he came back,” Hobbs said. “With a lot of kids even minor knee surgery could set them back, but he helped us out at the end of the season and down the stretch.”
Knowlton, meanwhile, played in nearly all of the Owls’ games in 2019-20, but was chosen for the award after battling back from an early-season illness as well as not letting some off-court issues impact him or the team.
And after Cam Austin went down with an injury in January, Knowlton stepped up to fill the role of a solid secondary scoring option behind Gigliotti. He finished the year with 7.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg and 1.5 apg.
“Steven has had to grow up real fast and has taken a lot of responsibility on his own and outside of athletics and in school,” Hobbs said. “There’s never been a complaint or a ‘poor me’ … he continued to fight through the season and did the best that he could.”
Knowlton’s best scoring output of the season came over the final two regular season games where he scored a combined 41 points. In fact, he posted double-digit games in seven of Bradford’s final 10 contests to close the regular season.
“He came on strong and once he got back to 100% we really enjoyed having him on the counter side of Tyler because he definitely helped us win some games at the end of the year.”
