Looking over his roster for the Big 30 Basketball Senior Classic, Jim Insley saw positional balance and one thing in common for most of his players: they can shoot.
From the shortest members of his New York team to the tallest, such as Wellsville’s Logan Dunbar, Randolph’s Jaiden Huntington and Salamanca’s Andy Herrick, the New York boys have range.
Insley’s boys squad features players from eight schools, with Olean and Randolph each bringing two seniors to the game. Olean’s Jack DeRose and Thomas Bates will team up again in the backcourt along with fellow guards Anthony DeCapua (Allegany-Limestone), Jacob Smith (Cuba-Rushford) and Kyle Stover (Pioneer).
Randolph’s Huntington and Carson Conley, a duo that helped lead the Cardinals to a state Class C championship last weekend, lead the New York forwards, along with Herrick, Dunbar and Mitchell Ward (Fillmore).
DeRose, Dunbar and Herrick were all returning Times Herald Big 30 All-Stars as seniors.
“Coach (Dave) Fuhrman and the committee did a good job putting this roster together,” said Insley, the former longtime Wellsville coach who also led Canaseraga and Pioneer before and after his Lions tenure. “It’s just a nice mix of kids, from guards to bigs, and it seems like right up and down the roster, everybody can shoot it. I’ve seen a lot of these guys and our biggest players are some of the best 3-point shooters in the Big 30. You throw in the kids from Allegany-Limestone, Olean, they certainly have had their share of 3-point success in their high school careers. So I think our ability to shoot the 3 is going to be a strength.”
Former longtime Wellsville J.V. coach and assistant Matt Buckley will join Insley as his assistant coach for the game.
“They’re playing with guys that they’ve competed against since they were probably in fifth grade, so it gives them a chance to be on the same team, but at the same time they’re all-stars for a reason. You want them to be able to showcase some of their ability and have fun and make it memorable,” Insley said. “There’s not a lot of Xs and Os; you don’t have a lot of practice time, for sure. It’s really about the kids, they’re the ones that are in this game. I was honored to be chosen to coach it, but it’s all them.”
THE BOYS game of the Senior Classic tips off at 4 p.m., following the girls game at 2 at Portville Central School.
“It’s just a great charity and these kids, they’re the best of the best. It makes it special,” Insley said. “Not everyone gets to play in this game, not everyone gets to coach in the game. But they do a great job. There’s a lot of pride in the Southern Tier in regards to basketball, the Southern Tier of New York and the Northern Tier of Pa., there’s a lot of basketball fans and junkies and I think I’m one of them. To be able to coach one more game is going to be fun.”
THE PENNSYLVANIA boys’ 10-player roster includes two Elk County Catholic seniors – Adam Straub and Mike Jacobs from a team that won the AML North at 10-0 and another District 9 Class A title – in the frontcourt, joined by fellow forwards Ridgway’s Aaron Sorg, a go-to star for the Elkers, and Connor Finch of Sheffield. Guards for Pennsylvania include Aaron Myers (Johnsonburg), Austin Cousins (Otto-Eldred), Preston Alfieri (Smethport), Drew Evens (Port Allegany), Camdyn Allison (Cameron County) and Tanner Fox (St. Marys).
Alfieri, Evens and Allison were all reliable scorers for their squads. A spot-up shooter, Cousins helped lead Otto-Eldred to the state semifinals in PIAA Class AA.
“I see hard-nosed kids and from what I see there’s not a whole lot of size, like height, but a lot of speed and tenacity,” said Pennsylvania coach Don Sestina, a former Big 30 head coach at Oswayo Valley, Smethport and Cameron County.
Fellow former Cameron County coach and current athletic director Jon Songer will assist Sestina on the Pennsy bench.
Sestina’s son Nate starred in the very first Big 30 Senior Classic in 2015 before playing in college at Bucknell and Kentucky and now professionally overseas.
Sestina likes to play with speed, dating back to his early days as an assistant high school coach in Virginia, studying the fast-paced 1980s Loyola Marymount teams of Paul Westhead.
“I went to a clinic there and brought that back to Shortsville, Va., and we implemented it with our athletes there,” Sestina said. “It was incredible, it was absolutely incredible. So as a result of that way, way early clinic back in the 80s, I’ve always had the mindset of uptempo basketball. That’s what I have a tendency to favor.”
But with only a few hours to get to know his all-star team, there’s only so much coaching for the former sideline bosses to do. Sestina will try to set two five-man lineups that complement each other out of the 10 on the roster.
“We have two sets of teams and I’ve got to go back over the rules, but it’s (essentially) five-in, five-out,” he said. “I’ll just do my best to match two different teams up. We’ll run through some standard man-to-man offenses and maybe throw a press in there and that’s about it.”
