To say that Aaron McGee’s elevation to his first head coaching job was unusual would be a major understatement.
McGee was in his second season as an assistant coach at Moon Area last year when Bishop Canevin chose to dismiss coach Damien Cornish and his staff with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
That opened the door for McGee, who had served as an assistant to former Crusaders coach Gino Palmosina from 2018-22 and helped the team win two WPIAL titles and one state crown. He followed Palmosina to Moon and was in that role at Moon when the coaching change at Bishop Canevin took place.
“People told me when I took the job I was in an impossible situation,” McGee said, looking back on the transition that brought him to Bishop Canevin. “I didn’t know what to expect coming in.”
Even though McGee had been on the Crusaders staff for four years, he had only coached one of the players on last year’s team. “It would have been different if I had a relationship with all the kids and they could buy in quickly,” he said. “I didn’t know how they’d respond to me.”
McGee said he began watching video of Bishop Canevin’s games and knew that he had to make significant changes to match the type of game he wanted the Crusaders to play. He wasn’t sure how his players would handle the changes, but after a week or so, he felt better about his situation.
“From a response standpoint, the kids were great,” he said. “They accepted me, they bought in and played hard. From that aspect, things were good. I thought any success was a win.”
Bishop Canevin wound up winning the Class 2A Section 2 title with an 8-0 mark and finished 15-12 overall. The Crusaders won a first-round WPIAL playoff game, lost their second and then won two PIAA play-in games before losing in the first round to Conemaugh Township.
The problem with last year’s team, McGee said, was that while it was solid in a few areas, it wasn’t exceptional in any one area. For example, the Crusaders had trouble against a 2-3 zone and that proved to be their undoing in their WPIAL and PIAA playoff losses.
Still, McGee wasn’t disappointed in his team’s performance.
“We had this job for a month total, we won one playoff game and technically won two state playoff games although they were play-in games,” he said. “We finished off the section well – we had to beat Eden Christian and Winchester Thurston to win the section, and we did. To win the section, win a WPIAL playoff game and win two state play-in games, I thought it was a success. You never want to look at losing as a success, but I think what we did was successful in many ways.”
This time around, McGee will be at the helm from start to finish. He’ll call on three-year starter Drew Allen, a 6-foot-3 junior, to lead the way. Also playing a key role will be 6-foot sophomore guard Jackson Maddix, whom McGee said sets the tone on the defensive end and is a solid scorer as well.
“He’s a very hard-working kid and he leads by example,” McGee said of Maddix. “And he can really shoot it. Compared to last year, we’ll be asking him to do a lot more from a scoring standpoint. We need him to open up his game and score the ball more.”
McGee said Raukeem Hawkins, a 5-10 junior, is evolving into a good point guard and will be an important player for the Crusaders. Others who figure to contribute include Damar Olds, a solid defender and ballhandler; Daniel Guzman, who saw a fair amount of playing time last year; Eddie Benton, a defensive-minded guard; freshman Jhalil Benton and sophomore Lamier Wade.
“Our rotation will create itself,” McGee said. “Among those guys, we should have a solid group that can defend, get out in transition and score.”
The Crusaders, who open their season at 3 p.m. Sunday against Neighborhood Academy at Geneva College in the Lincoln Park Tournament, will move up to Class 3A this year. There, they’ll play in Section 2 with Carlynton, Sto-Rox, Keystone Oaks, Washington and McGuffey.
“We’re still getting familiar with the landscape,” McGee said. “A lot of those teams I’ve never seen, but the film will tell me what we’re up against. We’re just taking the approach that we need to control what we can control and do what we can do well.”
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