Chartiers Valley is going through youth movement

Tri-State Sports & News Service

In 25 years at Chartiers Valley, Tim McConnell has won 546 games and has guided the Colts to six WPIAL titles and 17 section championships.

A week into this season, McConnell has a team he already knows separates itself from all of its predecessors.

For the first time in McConnell’s tenure, the Colts don’t have any seniors.

Youth is being served at Chartiers Valley, which is not only young, but inexperienced. The Colts have only one player who saw significant time last season. The situation isn’t ideal, but it hasn’t gotten McConnell flustered.

“It’s one of my favorite teams because they listen, they battle. The never-giveup attitude is just my kind of team,” McConnell said. “We are very inexperienced. We are very young. But you know what? If they play like this, win or lose, we’ll have an enjoyable season.”

Chartiers Valley split games in a tournament hosted by Upper St. Clair last weekend, beating Bishop Canevin, 78-35, before losing to Upper St. Clair, 63-59, in the championship.

The Colts had their ups and downs against an older Upper St. Clair team. They were sloppy with the ball at times and didn’t share it as well as many of McConnell’s teams, but the Colts showed promise, with juniors Joe Pipilo and Tyler Shaw and sophomore Sean Banas standing out the most. Pipilo is an outstanding shooter, Shaw a quick guard who was at his best attacking the basket, and Banas a tough 62 guard-forward who scored 26 points in Tuesday’s 61-44 win at Baldwin which improved the Colts to 2-1.

Pipilo is the star and could have a big season. The team’s lone returning starter averaged 10.2 points per game as a sophomore and began this season with 30- and 34-point efforts. Once Pipilo gets hot, watch out. McConnell said he knocked down 14 3-pointers in a scrimmage against Thomas Jefferson. Against Upper St. Clair, he scored five points early on before going ice cold the rest of the first half. He then scored 29 in the second and nearly willed Chartiers Valley to the win.

“Joe’s just a pure shooter. He can really stroke it,” McConnell said. “They did a nice job on him for the first half. He had five points at halftime. But then the second half he came out and started scoring. I’m glad I have him for another year after this year.”

McConnell can say that about the rest of his team, too.

OLSH

Another team without a senior is Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which graduated 11 seniors. Coach Mike Rodriguez has some talented underclassmen, though, one of them being sophomore guard Donovan Johnson, the brother of former Pitt and current North Carolina player Cameron Johnson.

Johnson did not play for OLSH in the season-opening Keystone Oaks tournament, as he is battling tendinitis in his knee. The reason for the discomfort could be that he grew 4 inches over the summer, shooting up from 6-2 to 6-6. Cameron had a similar growth spurt, going from 6-2 to 6-6 prior to his senior season.

“Donovan is going through it earlier,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a great thing for coaches, but it’s hard for him a little bit because he’s got to grow into his body. He’s really been working hard rehabbing. He’s been shooting a lot.”

Johnson said he could be back as soon as Friday’s game at Bishop Canevin. With Johnson out, freshman point guard Dante Spadafora starred for OLSH as the Chargers went 1-1 at Keystone Oaks. Spadafora scored 19 points against Seton LaSalle and 20 against Fort Cherry.

Mt. Lebanon

No WPIAL player had a more explosive start to the season than Mt. Lebanon’s Antonio Garofoli, who scored 74 points and knocked down 18 3-pointers in two games in the Mt. Lebanon tournament.

Garofoli, a senior guard, showed why he is one of the WPIAL’s top shooters by connecting on 11 3-pointers and pouring in 44 points in an 89-53 win against St. Francis Prep, N.Y. and then making seven 3-pointers and scoring 30 points in a 92-78 win against Montour. Garofoli averaged 11 points per game as a junior. The Blue Devils are averaging 90.5 points a game after averaging 55.9 last season when they won the Class 6A Section 2 title.