Sto-Rox bulks up for run at repeat
After battling through a physical Section 3 schedule last season - en route to claiming the WPIAL Class AA title - members of the Sto-Rox boys basketball team came to a conclusion: To make another postseason run this season, they needed to get stronger.
"We realized that one of the reasons we lost to Aliquippa in the (second round of the PIAA) playoffs last year was that they had Division I bodies and we didn't," Sto-Rox coach Bill Minear said. "Since June, we've spent a lot of time in the weight room trying to get stronger."
Nearly the entire team took part in the voluntary team workout, Minear said, a sure sign of the team's determination to defend its league title. The WPIAL crown was Sto-Rox's first since 1995. The Vikings also won consecutive titles from '91-93.
"We've talked about how teams are going to be looking for us now," Minear said. "I was talking with former Sto-Rox players Monty Latimer and Myron Brown on the phone last week - they both play on the same pro league in Italy - and they even told me to make sure and tell the players that everyone will be targeting them now that they won the WPIAL title."
The Vikings graduated the WPIAL's leading scorer, Eddie Peterson, from last season's 24-3 team, but have a group of returning players prepared to share the scoring load.
"In a lot of games last year, our starting five was out of the game for six minutes of the fourth quarter," Minear said. "We'll need our starters to play more minutes this season, which should also make their scoring averages go up."
A key to the team's success will be the development of sophomore guard Adam DiMichele. The 6-foot-1 point guard started as a freshman last season, but will be relied upon even more to spread the ball around.
"Adam is much more vocal," Minear said. "Last year, he seemed to be afraid to say anything because he was a freshman. This year, he's willing to speak up if someone is in the wrong spot."
Minear said that DiMichele, also the starting quarterback on the football team, has added about 10 pounds of muscle since last season.
Senior shooting guard Mike Mott (5-9) will return to his starting spot next to DiMichele in the Vikings' backcourt.
Sto-Rox will feature a much taller frontcourt this season as 6-4 senior Kellen Kyles is joined by 6-6 sophomore Devon Huger, giving the Vikings a formidable shotblocking tandem.
"Devon's very athletic and has long arms - he can almost hit the rim if he just reaches up - but is still pretty thin," Minear said. "He's more fineness oriented now than I think he will be when he's a senior."
The fifth starting spot will be filled by either B.J. Hayes (5-10), Jason Rose (5-10) or John Geiger (6-4).
"I expect to see four or five players scoring in double digits," Minear said. "We're going to be more balanced offensively but, without Eddie Peterson, we might not be good at pressing defensively."
"We've been at kind of a disadvantage because (last Tuesday and Wednesday) were the first days that we could go full court. Construction in the gym forced us to run cross court. It set us back a little bit in working on the defensive traps that we like to run."
"We don't set season expectations for ourselves," Minear said. "Just like last season, we just want to get better every quarter, every game."
