WOLF PACK Riverside family has plenty of interest in Panthers basketball
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
John Wolf has been bringing his two daughters with him as he coaches Riverside’s practices since they were young enough to be in a playpen.
One made out of a ball rack with the wheels taken off it and a few basketballs placed inside, in fact.
“I had to tell my wife I caged the kids at practice,” said Wolf, in his 21st year as coach.
Years later, there’s no playpen required. His daughter Sydney is a senior and starts at point guard, while his daughter Marley is a sophomore and starts at shooting guard.
Last year, Riverside’s 19-7 season marked their first year playing on the same team and the first year all three Wolfs were Panthers together.
“It’s been fun,” Wolf said. “Since probably both of them could walk, they’ve followed me to the gym. When I was practicing with my team way back when, they would be practicing and dribbling to the side. So they’ve probably, as the saying goes, grown up in the gym.”
Through Riverside’s first three wins, Sydney has averaged 23 points and 5.6 assists per game and Marley has averaged 16.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Sydney will run track at Seton Hill.
For Sydney and Marley, officially playing for their dad isn’t that much of an adjustment, since he’d offer tips or help them with their game over the years. They’ve always been a staircase away if Wolf, who grew up in Erie and played high school basketball at Seneca, wants to walk them through game film or call them down to watch a college game.
Playing on the same team has also come naturally, with the two building chemistry the more they play together. Growing up playing one-on-one tournaments and building obstacle courses in addition to shooting and dribbling drills has assured that.
“All you have to do is glance at each other and I know exactly where she’s going, and she knows exactly what I’m going to do so it makes it a lot easier and a lot less stressful because we know exactly what each other’s doing,” Marley said.
“We’ve always had that but it’s definitely gotten a lot stronger playing on the same team, now that we actually can.”
All that togetherness is not without its moments, though. As a precautionary measure, Sydney and Marley drive separately from Wolf to and from practices and games.
“It’s definitely fun, because there’s always stuff to talk about and people to talk about it with,” Sydney said. “But also it can be hard sometimes, especially if you had a rough practice or a rough game, to kind of leave that all there and not bring it back and yell at each other at home, which we don’t do. But it’s definitely fun because we get to share even closer memories with each other and continue to make more.”
Riverside has been eliminated from the WPIAL playoffs the past two years. Though the Panthers’ first three games have looked promising, Wolf isn’t looking ahead to the playoffs just yet.
“We never really set a certain goal like that,” Wolf said. “We want to certainly make the playoffs, but even more of a short-term goal is to just get better every day, learn a little bit and keep improving. Obviously, trying to go as far as you can in the playoffs, but we never really set a certain goal, at least as a team.”