Boys' 5A Basketball Will Be Exciting Next Year In The WPIAL

The official season of summer has begun as most of the students from around the WPIAL area are enjoying spending time with their friends and having in fun. WPIAL basketball players who will return to their teams next year are perhaps practicing basketball this summer as they wait for next basketball season to begin in the winter.

On Monday February 19th 2018 the WPIAL released the 2018-19 basketball sections for both the Boys' and Girls' basketball teams. The Boys Basketball 5A conference is one of the WPIAL basketball conferences that will be one of the most fun to watch next season. What is going to really make this conference special next year is the fact that Penn Hills, the team that won the WPIAL 6A Boys' Basketball Championship last year, is moving down to 5A next year which means no matter what there is going to be a new champion in 6A next year.

The teams that will be playing in Section 1 in 5A are Albert Gallatin, Gateway, Greensburg Salem, Laurel Highlands, McKeesport, Penn Hills and Woodland Hills.

The teams that will be playing in Section 2 in 5A are Chartiers Valley. Montour, Moon, South Fayette, Thomas Jefferson, Trinity, West Allegheny and West Mifflin. The teams that will be playing in Section 3 in 5A are Armstrong, Franklin Regional, Hampton, Indiana, Kiski Area, Mars (the returning 5A champions), Shaler and Plum. That is a combined total 23 teams in the conference looking to win the 5A Boys' Basketball WPIAL championship at the Petersen Events Center.

Penn Hills, Woodland Hills, Shaler and Plum will move down to 5A after playing in 6A next year while South Fayette and Indiana move up to 5A after playing in 4A last season. The teams that left 5A are Ringgold and Knoch as both of those teams moved down to 4A.

Some of these teams will miss key players next year as one of the most noticeable loss is Mars Area High School not having Robby Carmody next year as he has now graduated high school and will play his college ball in Notre Dame. Woodland Hills losses their star player in Amante Britt as he has not let the media know if he is going to college or not. Penn Hills is lost a lot of their seniors as Daivon Stephens, Cory Fulton, Cam Wiley, Keyshawn Adams, Myles Yarbough and Darrell Mason will all be gone. All six of these guys made big impacts for the Indians in the regular season and the postseason. Let me tell you that the teams in 5A that were in Mars' section last year like Moon, West Allegheny, Chartiers Valley and Montour are probably happy that they do not have to see Mike Carmody and the Fighting Planets next year because Mars is still going to be a good team next year and those four teams do not want to see Mars beat them again.

Twin brothers Austin Ryan and Connor Ryan will be entering their senior year next year and they look to go deeper in the playoffs after losing to Franklin Regional by a low score of 28-26 in the second round of the WPIAL 5A playoffs last year. The Moon Area Tigers want to show the media that they can win big games in the playoffs. They also want to show the media that they can win big games without Jarrod Simmons. Like think about it. Would Moon have won the 5A championship in 2017 without Jarrod Simmons? Simmons was like a savior playing for the Tigers in his senior year after spending his previous three years at a prep school in Massachusetts called Cushing Academy.

The Hampton Talbots lost Isaac Degregorio as he was considered one of the best players for the Talbots and you might say he was the reason why the Talbots slipped into the playoffs. Isaac will be a junior next year as he is transferring to Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School. Isaac's dad is also going to be the coach of the team.

The Trinity Hillers will miss Joey Koroly as he graduated this year and will play football at Washington and Jefferson College. Joey was a very fast and efficient basketball player for the Hillers and was a big reason they went deep in the WPIAL playoffs. If Jaden Nelson was still on the Hillers perhaps they could have beaten the Fighting Planets in the third round of the WPIAL playoffs.

Jaden Nelson finished his junior year at Montour as this was his first year at Montour after attending Trinity from kindergarten through tenth grade. Jaden's Spartans did not make it into the playoffs and you know that Nelson could not be happy about that. Nelson is hoping to get the Spartans deep into the playoffs in his senior year as he was obviously the best player for the Spartans this past season.

Every year the Gateway Gators are just average and make the WPIAL playoffs but don't go far into the playoffs. Gateway might not be a school that wants to be a basketball power house right now as I think that school wants to be a football power house right now.

You know how Robby Carmody was the most talked about in 5A last year? Well, I think Highlands player Johnny Crise is going to be the most talked about player in 5A next year. What you have to like about Crise is that he is good when it comes to sprinting to the paint and dunking the basketball. A lot of defenders hope he doesn't get to the paint because Johnny would make you wish you were not in his way. Crise has made an impact on Highlands which is exceptional and we are supposed to see Crise play at his best in the next two years as he will be a junior next year.

Mars knows their team is going to be different and the atmosphere is going to be different next year because they will know that they will not have the best basketball player in the state next year but just because their star player Robby Carmody is now gone does not mean that Mars will not make a deep WPIAL post season run. I am excited to see the leadership that Brandon Caruso, Andrew Recchia and Michael Carmody are going to bring to the table next year as all three of them for the first time in their high school careers will see how they can do without playing with Robby. I think the average amount of points that Mars score will decrease but I still think they can win games and play good defense next year.

The Chartiers Valley Colts had missed the WPIAL postseason for the first time in the Tim McConnell Era as the Colts made the WPIAL playoffs for 24 straight years when Tim got the job at Chartiers Valley. But the Colts did not make the playoffs this year and that rises concern for a lot of people around the Chartiers Valley area. Joe Pipilo is the star for Chartiers Valley as he is a monster when it comes to shooting three point shots. When Pipilo saw that there was no seniors on the team last season he knew someone needed to plays and Joe was the one making plays. Sean Banas and Tyler Shaw also contributed in making Pipilo the star he is today. The Colts are frustrated that they didn't make the playoffs so we'll see if they can come back next year. Besides, going into last season no one on the Colts had a lot of minutes. Pipilo didn't even have a lot of minutes either in his freshman and sophomore season.

Franklin Regional, McKeesport, Armstrong, Greensburg Salem, West Allegheny, Laurel Highlands and Albert Gallatin are all good teams in 5A as well but I would not be surprised if all the teams I had listed in this paragraph would not do so well except for Franklin Regional.

Last year before the season started like in August or September I thought either Moon, Mars or McKeesport would win the 5A championship and of course Mars did. But right now as we are at the end of June if I had to guess three teams that I think would win 5A I would guess as of now Highlands, Mars or Woodland Hills.