•* i- j'Syjacuse Herald-Journal, Friday, December 1, 1989

WlN'TEK SCHOLASTIC SFUKTS '89-90

A-P-W,Pulaskito contendDevils calledhard to predict

i By Michael Flam;

Although Pulaski lost three returningstarters from last season's 22-3 squad, coachWinfield Jones' team looks like the team tobeat in the OHSL South A Division.

Starters Ray Sliwoski and Julius Hefti andfour other key players have been lost tograduation, but the division's coachesbelieve Jones has the talent to get back ontop. Jones isn't too sure, though.

"\Ve need 10 do a lot of work 10 be verycompetitive," he said. "We have quite a voidto fill from last year's squad."

Junior guard-forward Mark Sliwoski andsenior forward Chris Watson return to the

South A poll

Ranting Team Pit1. Pulaski 14(2)2. Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 12(2)3. Hannibal 10(1)

(TIE) Bishop Cunningham 105. Cato-Meridian

(Note: League poll results were determinedby a vote of the league coaches, with coachesnot allowed to vote for their own teams. First-place votes in parentheses.)

Devils' starting lineup and should be joinedthere by senior center Chris Mattison,:forward Greg Quartz and guard George.Stewart.

"It's hard to predict just how the team willfare," Jones said. "I think we'll be good andsolid, but only time will teil."

H Altmar-Parish-WilHamstown — TheRebels went 6-14 last season, but fourreturning starters should make life mucheasier for coach Grant Decker.

"Our record was a little misleading,"Decker said. "We were in many games, butwe were too young and too small. This year,we'll still be small but a little moreexperienced."

Junior forward Troy Updyke, a second-team all-league pick last season, and seniorguard Tom Nash, who made third team, willbe joined in the starting lineup by seniorguard Scott Stanard and senior center ScottPaternoster.

"I'm hoping our strength will be ourdepth," Decker said. "The junior varsity was17-3 last year, and I'm hoping some of thosepeople will give us some bona fide off-the-bench time."

• Hannibal — Coach Ken Sturges lost fourplayers to graduation and two more to foot-ball injuries, but he is still confident aboutthe 1989-90 season.

"We have good size and pretty goodguards," he said. "I feel like we have, verygood depth depite the injuries. We'll be' verycompetitve."

Senior forward Ed Bartoszewski andsenior guard Brian Griffin started last season

File phoio

TROY UPDYKE trades his football gear to lead Altmar-Parish-Williamstown on the court,where the Rebels should greatly improve on last year's 6-14 record.

for the 12-10 Warriors and could be joined inthe lineup by senior center Matt Wheeler,senior guard Tim Hubbard and junior guardMatt Skipworth, who started occasionallylast season.

• Bishop Cunningham — This team went13-1 in league play in 1988-89, but don'texpect a repeat performance this season.Coach Chuck Bisesi lost all five starters andseven players in all from last year's team.

"We'll TDB very inexperienced," Bisesi said."We lost everybody."

Senior guard Joby Barry and seniorforward Andy Dowdle are the only tworeturning players.

• Caio-Meridian — Mark Van Vliet couldbe excused for feeling a bit discouragedentering his first year of coaching the var-

sity at Cato-Meridian.He inherits a team that has gone winless in

the previous two plus years. But Van Vlietrefuses to be anything but optimistic.

"There's no place to go but up," he said."We're gone 0-57 over the last 2Vz years andwe're going to be better than that."

C-M returns only one starter from lastyear — junior guard Alex Krakuszeski —and two other players who received limitedplaying time last year, senior guard-forwardLee Cordway and senior forward Clark Jill-son.

"It's going to be an uphill battle, but we'regoing to get. there," Van Vliet said. "Ourstrength is our attitude. The majority of thekids have worked together for at least twoseasons, and I see us getting better as we goalong."

Champ Onondaga expected to fall'• By Michael Flam: Contributing Writer

Onondaga won the OHSLSouth B Division championshiplast year and would seem to

_ have a good chance of repeatingthat feat.

However, the league's coachesdon't agree. According to a Her-ald-Journal poll of the South B

'• coaches. Onondaga is picked to. finished tied for last with Tully.

It might be because of the. team's lack of experienced

depth."Our bench is untested with

five or six kids up from the: junior varsity," said coach Larry' Behm.• But he has three starters and

his top reserve back from lastyear's 14-6 club. Senior center

: Jason Kelly, senior forward Cal-! vin Jones and senior guard1 Hayward Alfred return to thei starting lineup and senior guard1 Brian Kelly and junior Bruce; Cowing likely will fill the other| two starting spots.

As a result, Behm remains; optimistic.: "Our defense and rebounding; will be real good. With three; starters back we have a good, chance of repeating," he said.: • Fabius-Pompey — If hard

work were to guarantee !=ucces?.i then Fabius-Pompey coach

Larry Carr would be a very suc-: cessful basketball coach.; Even though he has one•• returning starter from last sea-; son's 13-8 team, Carr is comfort-: able with his present squad.i "They are a hard-working,I good-attitude group," he said.i "There are no superstars. ThereI issomeootential.and itismviob

with the kids to help them real-ize it"

Senior guard George Welits-chinsky started last year, and heshould be joined by seniorforward Dave Olson, the onlyother returning player.

"George is a solid player, butSouth B poll

Ranking Team Pit1. Fabius-Pompey 18(2)

2. LaFayelle 17(2)

3. Port Byron 124. Weedsport 115. Tully

(TIE) Onondaga

(Note: League poll resultswere determined by a vote ofthe league coaches, withcoaches not allowed to vote fortheir own teams. Tully's coachdeclined to participate in thepoll, citing lack of familiaritywith the teams. First-placevotes in parentheses.)

he can't carry the load," Carrsaid. "Other players will have toshare the load for us to be com-petitive. We're going to have towork hard to be in the middle ofthe pack."

• LaFayette — This teamdidn't have any difficulty shoot-ing the basketball last year. But;. ,4:J V,-.-.^ „ l:*«i, ...... .u*^ ...^i.11. uiu na.c a IILLIC uuiiuic iTiati-

ing the shots fall."We outshot everybody last

year," said coach Jerry Vreden-burg. "We averaged about 20more shots per game than ouropponents. Our problem wasn'tgetting up and down the court,but putting it in the hoop."

Vredenburg loses two startersfrom last year's 5-15 club, but he

;i vn fi^m

players back for their last year.Forward Larry Page, guard ErikHeyer and guard-forward OtisCase all had spots in the startinglineup last season, and theyshould be joined by forward PaulSpukus and center Tom Kuryla.

"If we can improve our shoot-ing percentage, we will improveour win-loss record," Vreden-burg said.

• Port Byron — Even thoughcoach Mike Broderick lost allfive starters from last year'steam to graduation, he stillbelieves that his Panthers canwin the league title.

He anticipates having sixjuniors who played on the juniorvarsity last year to contribute atthe varsity level in 1989-90, buthe is concerned about the team'scohesiveness.

"We have the potential to fin-ish in the top, but we're alsocapable of finishing last," Bro-derick said. "This group has a lotof talent, but over the yearsthey've had difficulty puttingthings together."

Senior center Mike Hermann,who saw a great deal of playingtime last season, and seniorguard Mark Helmer, who isbeing counted on to make a sig-nificant contribution this year,are expected to start for a teamthat went 8-13 in 1988-89.

"If they decide to worktogether and toward a commongoal, then you could see us infirst," Broderick said. "If theycontinue to play apart, we couldbe battling for last."

• Weedsporl — Like Vreden-burg, Weedsport coach SteveNealer is fortunate enough to•*' - - ?• - * • • » . - / .

ers from last year return.But he has a big hole to fill

with the loss of leading scorerand h o n o r a b l e rr ientionall-league player Marty Pass-more.

Senior guards Scott Newtonand Bob Hawkins and junior sec-ond-team all-league forwardMatt Stowell will be counted onby Nealer to display leadershipfrom their starting positions.Senior guard Mike Nevidomskyand senior forward Don Wet-more should fill the other start-ing vacancies as the Warriorshope to improve on last year's 7-12 mark.

"I think we'll finish around themiddle," Nealer said. "There's aquestion mark because we lostone key player, but we're hopingto take a step up."

• Tully — The Black Knightsare going to be inexperiencedthis season from both a playingand a coaching perspective.Larry Hart is expanding hisduties as school athletic directorto coach the basketball team,which returns five players fromlast year, only one of whom sawmuch playing time.

Honorable mention all-leaguesenior forward Mike Porter isthe lone returning sutrlei fromlast year's 12-9 team. Portershould receive help from mem-bers of a junior varsity team thatwent 18-2 in 1988-89.

"We'll be inexperienced froma coaching and playing stand-point," Hart said. "But I do thinkthat we'll improve as we goalong. We have a good JV group,but it's a big jump to the var-

Leader won't belonely at the topSeveral teams primed for title runBy Andrew J.MilnerContributing Writer

According to Chittenangocoach Phil Gordon, the Tri-Valley League-"may be one ofthe better leagues'in CentralNew York— In our league, youdon't have any softies."

Last year's champion, TJticaNotre Dame, finished in a tie forsecond in a poll of league_________ lilC It,1^ i-JUi (.cei!!i :•-:

the poll were separated by onlysix points. Perhaps the onlything to expect in the upcomingTri-Valley season is the unex-pected.

• Vernon-Verona-Sherrill —The Red Devils (14-2 in theleague, 17-4 overall) finishedsecond behind Utica NotreDame. New coach Andy Cossettebelieves V-V-S can have anothergood season despite the loss ofthree starters from last year'steam.

Senior off-guard Sean Kimball,also quarterback of the RedDevils football team, injured hisknee in a game in late Octoberand will undergo arthroscopicsurgery; Cossette could not saywhen Kimball could return.

"We'll still run our motionoffense,". Cossette said. "We'llutilize a man-to-man defense.We've got good ballhandling."

• Chittenango — Coach PhilGordon, who has been with theBears for 30 years, calls thisyear's squad "one of my betterteams."

This is despite losing five gra-duating players, including RobBeach, who set a school recordby scoring 517 points in 21games.

The Bears (11-5, 13-8) retainsenior forwards Jeff Leahy andJim Landers, who averaged indouble figures last season, aswell as senior point guard RonnieMartin and junior center JamieKrahl. With seven players over 6feet tall, Gordon says, "We'regoing to be a heck of a lot biggerthan last year. We're going to'rebound better, be more of adefensive team ____ I'm very opti-mistic about this year. The kidsare hungry."

• Utica Notre Dame — Last sea-son, the Jugglers went unde-feated in Tri-Valley action, win-ning 16 straight and going 18-3overall. But all five of their start-ers graduated.

According to coach Joseph T.White, "How well we do dependson how good the players cometogether. How good they canplay defense will determinewhether we're successful ornot"

Gone from last year's team areforward and Tri-Valley MostValuable Player Scott Dough-

-

• CaitMtotr— Five membersof last year's Red Raiders team(7-9,11-10) graduated, but coachSteve Tornatore is impressedwith the returning players.

Coming back are senior centerRick Setticase (second-team all—league) and senior guards EricDimao and Matt Lavonas (honor-able mention).

"We're going to be a lotquicker outside this year," said

year at the Canastota helm."Lavonas and Dimao give usexperience so we can play out-side more."

• New Hartford — The varsitySpartans went 3-13 in leagueplay and 4-14 overall last year,while the junior varsity had the'opposite record, 14-4, overall.Second-year coach Michael Adeyhopes the JV's results rub off onthe varsity this season.

Nine piayers from last year'sJV squad are now on the Spar-

Tri-Valley poll

Ranking Team Pis

\. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 56 (2)2. Chittenango 51(5)

(TIE) Utica Notre Dame 51 (2)4. Holland Patent 505. Canastota 296. New Hartford

7. Oneida26

258. Clinton

9. Camden_20

12(Note: League poll results

were determined by a vote of theleague coaches, with coachesnot allowed to vote for their ownteams. First-place votes inparentheses.)

, ,-- ,,_^lcucv aiiu„_.„ _,„_.) -n^—.jci tj , guoiu ijoijiter Brendan Chudy.

• Holland Patent - Mark Frye,the new coach of the GoldenKnights (8-6, 11-11), predicts astronger year from a squad thatlast year sent one Tri-Valleyplayer to the Big East, pointguard Darryl Crist, now withSeton Hall.

"We should be a lot deeper,"Frye said. "We should go nine or10 players deep."

He intends to press and run,and employ a man-to-mandefense.

Returning starters includejunior guard Barry Ouimette (10ppg), senior guard Tim Broad-bent (8 ppg) and 6-foot-5 seniorcenter Chris Mucica, last season'sleading H-P rebounder.

"For the first time in years,there are no real stars," Fryesaid. "It's really more of a teameffort."

tans squad, giving the varsityfive players taller than 6-4.

"Last year was our first in theTri-Valley League," Adey said."It was a learning experience foreverybody. This year, we had 32kids out for the team, and that's ahealthy sign."

• Oneida — According toTerry Goodfellow, coach of theIndians (5-11, 7-13) for sevenyears, Oneida's strength "is-going to be our quickness, shoot-ing and rebounding."

Losing three of last year'splayers to graduation, theIndians retain senior smallforward Reid Jacobs (10 ppg) andsenior guard Bob Sayles (7 ppg).

• Clinton — Coach Bob Pul-torak, following a solid seasonthat culminated in regional post-season competition, expectsanother good campaign from theWarriors (8-6,15-8).

"Our strength is our decentthree-point shooters," Pultoraksaid. "We've got returning play-ers who've had playing time. Weintend to press and run thewhole game."

The three returning startersare junior forward Tom Bier-worth, senior forward LouisMontalvo and senior point guardMarc Simon.

• Camden — "The good newsis that everyone is back," BlueDevils coach Larry Ethingtonsaid about this season. "The badnews is that we went 1-19 "

Camden (0-16, 1-19) hasretained most of last year'ssquad, including senior guardEddie Gay. However, junior pointguard Eddie Dickson broke hishand in a football game and isexpected to miss two weeks ofpractice.

Despite last year's disappoint-ing record, Ethington has opti-mism about improvement.

"They've got a lot ofexperience," Ethington said."These kids played most of thetime last season. ... I'd like tothink that it'll be an advantage."

FHe photo

THERE MAY NOT be any softies in the OHSL Tri-Valley, where30-year coach Phil Gordon has one of his better Ohitionanon