Smaller-than-usual Bears will depend on speed
By JEFF OLIVER
MVI Sports
As ninth-year Clairton boys basketball coach Matt Geletko welcomed his 2020-21 squad to practice, there was good news and bad news.
The good news is that since the school’s football team didn’t reach the state playoffs, Geletko was getting his full team early. The bad news is the Bears are uncharacteristically short with only one player in his top eight standing taller than 6-2.
“This is probably the smallest team I’ve ever had,” Geletko said. “We usually have decent size in the lineup and on the bench.”
But because the Bears aren’t very big, they have plenty of the characteristics of previous Clairton squads — speed, hustle and desire.
“We’re going to rely on our speed more than usual,” Geletko said. “We’re fast, quick. So we’re going to play a lot of up-tempo ball. We’re going to push the ball on offense and pressure all over the court on defense. We are going to rely on our defense to create a lot of our offense through turnovers.”
Geletko welcomes back two starters and one partial starter from a year ago.
The returning starters are also the biggest Bears in 6-5 junior Kanye Hawkins and 6-2 Andre Henderson.
Both players averaged double figures in scoring for Clairton, which went 13-10 and qualified for the WPIAL Class A playoffs a year ago.
The part-time starter is 6-0 senior Jonte Sanders.
The newcomers in the lineup look to be 5-10 sophomore Capone Jones and 5-8 junior Jayvon Moody.
Geletko said he also expects to get quality time from 5-10 sophomore Devin Dean and 5-8 junior Kam Lewis.
The veteran coach is hoping that as the season unfolds, some of his younger players will step up and make a difference.
“Along with our lack of height, we don’t have much experience, either,” he said. “Just not a lot of kids who played last year. So if we are going to be successful we’re going to need the younger kids to step up. Our top five is pretty solid, but we need some depth.”
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