Chartiers Valley Athlete: Joe Pipilo

One of the main things that Joe Pipilo focuses on in his life is the game of basketball. The 6'2'' shooting guard will enter his senior year at Chartiers Valley next school year and is going to try to get his Colts basketball team to the playoffs. The Colts did not get into the WPIAL playoffs last year as they finished the regular season with a 4-8 section record and an 8-14 overall record. The Colts did not play terrible. It was just that they had lack of experience finishing games and lack of experience when it came to coming back in basketball games.

Some of their losses in the section last year was so heart breaking because they were so close to winning those games. Here is a list of some of the games that the Colts should have won last year but lost.

12/9/17 @Upper St. Clair L 63-59 (Non-Section)

1/3/18 @Moon L 60-58 (Section)

1/23/18 vs. Moon L 50-48 (Section)

2/2/18 vs. Knoch L 53-47 (Section)

2/9/18 vs. West Allegheny L 46-45 (Section)

2/12/18 @South Fayette L 61-55 (Non-Section)

As you can see out of these six games that the Colts played last year they lost all those games by no more than 6 points. All six of these games the Colts should have won and if they would have won all those six games that they should have won they would have had a 14-8 overall record and an 8-4 section record putting them in the playoffs.

Joe Pipilo was the leading scorer for the Colts last year as he scored a total of 433 points throughout the whole season and averaged 19.7 PPG. Pipilo was so good last year that he made the WPIAL 5A Section 2 All-Section team last year along with other WPIAL stars such as Robby Carmody (Mars) , Austin Ryan (Moon), Connor Ryan (Moon), Isaac DeGregorio (Hampton) and Isaiah Crowe (West Allegheny). Each season Pipilo has gotten better as in his freshman year he only scored a total of 25 points due to not get playing much time because of him being a freshman. His sophomore year he scored 255 points as he got more playing time and last year in his junior year he scored a whopping 433 points as that was the first year Pipilo became a full time starter.

Last year Pipilo learned during through the course of the season how to become a better leader and take more responsibility as a captain of the team. There was not a single senior on the team last year which means everyone that was on the team last year will be on the team next year. The Colts might also have upcoming freshman trying out for the team and there might be upcoming sophomores, juniors and seniors who did not play basketball last year try to play for the team next year. The Colts also lost their head coach Tim McConnell as he decided to coach the Colts Girls basketball team.

The Colts made the WPIAL playoffs for 24 straight years before entering last season but that streak ended and that really did make a lot of the players mad. The ultimate goal for Joe Pipilo and for the rest of the Colts next year is to get back into the playoffs and play at the Petersen Events Center for a chance at the WPIAL 5A championship.

Pipilo played CV baseball in his freshman year and sophomore year at high school but decided to quit in his junior year right after basketball season to focus more on practicing his basketball skills to prepare for next season and to get more offers from colleges.

It is really hard not to like Joe Pipilo, the person, because of the ambitious attitude he has on the basketball court and the fact that he is just a supportive and a nice person to begin with.

Joe Pipilo has scored a total of 713 points in his high school career and is 287 points away from 1,000 points in his career. A lot of CV students will pay attention throughout the season to see if Pipilo can accomplish that milestone.

Expect big things from the Chartiers Valley Colts basketball team next season.