Emmaus eyes more of same
Green Hornets started 10-0 last season in becoming one of the area’s surprise teams
Recognizing that most teams are together throughout the offseason in various leagues, tournaments and camps, the PIAA decided last year to reduce the number of mandatory preseason practice dates for basketball teams from 15 days to 10.
That means teams can start playing games just two weeks after their first official practice.
Official practice began on Friday and for many area teams opening night is set for Dec. 2 leaving a quick ramp-up to the season.
So while six District 11 football teams will have PIAA playoff games this weekend and three more — Catasauqua, Northampton, and Easton — have traditional Thanksgiving games, basketball season is coming fast; faster than it has in many years.
In the interest of time, we’ve had to reduce our preseason tour from 12 teams to 10. But the idea remains the same, to give you an idea of who some of the best teams and players figure to be this winter.
The countdown to tipoff begins at Emmaus, where the Green Hornets were one of the surprise stories of last season.
Emmaus was coming off a 5-17 record in 2019-20 and 4-9 in 202021, but won its first 10 games last season and qualified for both the league and district tournaments.
This year, veteran coach Steve Yoder has his top two scorers back in Dylan Darville and Will Barber. They combined for more than 20 points per game last season.
Darville is coming off a spectacular senior football season at Emmaus where he set school records with 58 receptions, 1,047
receiving yards, and 12 touchdowns. In his career, Darville caught 75 passes for 1,395 yards and a schoolbest 17 TDs.
Like all football players, he took it hard when a 10-win season ended with a 28-27 loss to Freedom in the district semifinals.
Darville’s football days aren’t over. He is already being offered Division I football scholarships but also loves the game of basketball. He was the Green Hornets’ top scorer last season in the EPC at 10.8 points per game.
“He’s going to our point guard and do a lot of the ballhandling,” Yoder said. “He’s a great athlete and we know he’s disappointed with how football ended, but hopefully playing basketball will allow him to get over it faster. We expect him and Will to be our leaders this year.”
Other players will have to play increased roles if Emmaus is going to have another successful season.
Yoder said Emmaus will lead the league in having 6-foot-1 guards. Several players will be listed at that height with Jametric Harris and Jack Katrishen a little bigger at 6-2 and 6-5 respectively.
“Jack will give us a little muscle inside, but we don’t have tremendous size,” Yoder said. “It’s really going to be all about our guards. We’re going to want to get up and down the floor. We should be similar to last year when we got after it defensively and that was our calling card in creating a lot of offense. I think we can be a matchup problem for teams even though we’re not that big. They’re going to have to match up with our shooting and speed and athleticism. I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”
Yoder said that last year he didn’t know how good his team could be. This year he has higher expectations, even though the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s West is again loaded with defending league champ Parkland, and perennial powers Allentown Central Catholic and Allen among the contenders.
“There are no nights off,” Yoder
said. “We’re expecting a grind, but I think we’re going to have a lot of depth. A lot of the kids do a lot of the same things well and we’re going to have to figure out our rotation and who fits best where. We play 10 games in the first 19 days of the season. It’s a very front-loaded schedule, so we’re going to have to be ready to play right away.”