After guiding his team to a perfect season, Elk County Catholic
boys basketball coach Aaron Straub was named the Associated Press’
PIAA Coach of the Year for Class A teams Saturday.
With a record of 33-0, Elk County Catholic was the only boys or
girls team to accomplish an undefeated season in the PIAA this
year. Earlier this season, Straub won his 500th game, putting his
all-time record at 532-161 in 24 years as boys coach.
The Crusaders capped their historic season with a 71-61 victory
over Bishop Hannan in the PIAA state championship game in Hershey
on March 24.
His overall record of 559-182 in 26 years as head coach includes
two years as head coach of the girls basketball team.
In addition, he has guided the Crusaders to 16 District 9 titles
and a state title.
“It’s a nice honor and I am very humbled by it,” Straub said of
being named Coach of the Year. “It is a reflection on our team and
their accomplishments. The coaches of the years in the different
classes each won state titles.
“Winning in the District 9 playoffs and going on to win a state
title is something that has been a goal of our program for a long,
long time,” he added. “The opportunity to play for and win a state
title is the culmination of a lot of hard work by our players and
coaches, not just this year, but throughout the course of my
coaching tenure, and before me.
“Being named coach of the year is a lot like being named to an
all-star team,” Straub said. “The important thing is that we were
able to accomplish this as a team, and it’s just another nice
accolade for our school and our program. It’s also a great
reflection on our assistant coaches as well as our players. We just
have a great coaching staff, and a great group of assistants and
they really deserve the credit, too.”
In the past, the PIAA state tournament’s third round game had
been the Achilles’ heel of Elk County Catholic.
Commenting on the team’s biggest accomplishment of the season,
Straub said, “There’s an easy answer to that question, getting by
the third round game. The combination of beating Kennedy Catholic,
who we’ve struggled with the last couple of times we played them,
along with the fact it has been a round we’ve struggled with
historically. I think it’s been the last five times that we’ve made
it to that round, our season ended… Beating Kennedy, going on to
the Western finals… I’d say the last three games were our biggest
accomplishment.”
The Crusaders defeated District 7 Leechburg, Southern Fulton,
Kennedy Catholic and Blairsville before celebrating their
championship triumph over Bishop Hannan.
Jesse Bosnik was selected to the Associated Press’ Class A
first-team for the PIAA champion Crusaders.
The 6’1″ junior averaged 17.3 points per game for the Crusaders
during the regular season. In the team’s nine playoff games, he
stepped it up, improving his average to 22.3 points a game.
“I’m really proud of the season Jesse had,” Straub said. “We
challenged him at the beginning of the year as a point guard to
make everybody on the team better by being on the court. We asked
him to make everybody on the floor better, and he accomplished
that. That kid was named first-team all-state averaging only 18
minutes per game this year. In a 32-minute game, that’s not a lot
of minutes.”
Bosnik heads to his senior season third in the school’s history
in scoring with 1,465 career points.
Also from District 9, Johnsonburg’s Calvin Grumley, a 6’0″
junior, was named to the all-state third-team.
“I feel very blessed and very fortunate to have had the year we
did,” Straub said in closing. “One of the keys was that we stayed
injury-free and illness-free. Another key to our success, was we
were at our best when we needed it the most. We got better and
better with each playoff game, or we wouldn’t have beat the teams
we ran into, and we ran into a lot of great teams.”
