Football team’s success impacts basketball season

“I believe winning breeds winning,” said Ackerman, whose Pine-Richland team, ranked No. 1 in WPIAL 6A by the Post-Gazette, is coming off a 28-2 season and seeking a record third consecutive title in the WPIAL’s largest classification. “These guys haven’t lost a football game all year. When they show up here, they’re going to bring that attitude to the basketball court. They’re going to want to keep on winning.”

Added Mastroianni, a twotime WPIAL championship coach and the athletic director at Quaker Valley: “Our football players have generated unbelievable excitement in our community and at our school.It’s been a great run for all of us. We’re glad to be in this situation.”

Outside of Jeannette, which was without eight of its top nine players due to the football playoffs, the three other schools have been able to hold full workouts. Counting junior varsity members, Gateway has been practicing with 19 players, Pine-Richland with 15 and Quaker Valleymore than a dozen. Not that it’s easy. Pine-Richland awaits 1,000point scorer Phil Jurkovec, the star quarterback and a Notre Dame recruit, and space-eating center Andrew Kristofic, a 6-foot-7, 270-pound two-way lineman in football. Jurkovec, who averaged 16 points last season, said he might not return to basketball until after the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Jan. 6.

Gateway is without talented point guard Courtney Jackson, a high-caliber receiver with 93 receptions for 1,903 yards; Quaker Valley will open without returning leading scorer Ricky Guss, arguably the best quarterback in Class 3A; and Jeannette is hoping to see guard Robert Kennedy, another quarterback, Tre Cunningham and Seth Howard sooner rather than later.

Because those players are so gifted, their transition to basketball should be relatively smooth. However, they must get into basketball shape and in sync with their teammates.

“In football, players are part of high-powered explosions every 12-13 seconds,” said Ackerman, who faced a similar situation in 2014-15, when Pine-Richland reached the PIAA football finals. The Rams opened 8-1 that season. “They’ll be moving around more often in basketball, and they’ll tend to get winded. The other thing is, some players won’t know all of our plays. For Phil and Andrew it won’t be as bad, but with Kenny White (a transfer from West Allegheny who plays football) he’ll have a lot to learn in a short period of time.”

At Jeannette, Batts’ “situation” is typical of smaller schools, where students often play multiple sports. That said, the nine-year coach wonders what point guard A.J. Sharp, a transfer from Greensburg Salem, thinks after spending countless days in anear-empty gym.

“He probably says to himself, ‘What the heck, if I was at my old school, we would have at least had some scrimmages by now,’” said Batts, whose team is expected to challenge for a WPIAL title after reaching the Class 2A quarterfinals last season. “He’s getting lots of attention in practice. Lots. But the good part is, he plays such an important position, point guard, that it will help whenwe get everybody back.”

When the football players eventually return, it will mean less playing time for thosewho have been filling in. That may sound like pulling the carpet on those reserves, yet Ackerman said most players are mature enough to understand the situation.

“When you have a kid like Phil Jurkovec coming back, you realize that he’s a once-ina-lifetime type of athlete,” said Ackerman, a former Moon coach who enters his fourth season at Pine-Richland. “The younger players get a lot of great experience when the football players aren’t around. It’s good for them and it’s good forthe team.”

Veteran Gateway coach Freedman — a former college assistant at Duquesne, Northeastern and Massachusetts — is taking a pragmatic approach to opening the season short-handed.

“This is a special time for our teams,” he said. “We’re not going to pressure any of our players to come back until they’re ready. They can have all the time they need. What really matters is section play (which begins Dec. 22), and we have a while until that starts. So, yes, it would be great to have the whole team together. But we’ll take them playing for a championship anytime.”