After a two-year stay at the WPIAL’s Class 3A level, the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s boys basketball program has returned to its former Class 2A home for the 2024-25 season.
The rest of the class should certainly pay attention.
The Chargers had an unprecedented run of success during their previous Class 2A stay, capturing four straight WPIAL titles and back-to-back PIAA championships. During that stretch, OLSH won 74 straight games – the longest such streak in Pennsylvania high school history.
“So we’ve had some success,” Chargers coach Mike Rodriguez said in what has to be the frontrunner for understatement of the year.
Even when OLSH was bumped up to Class 3A, the Chargers reached the WPIAL finals in 2022-23, only to lose to Deer Lakes – the same team that ended their 74-game winning streak – by one point, 61-60. Last year, OLSH tied with Seton LaSalle for the Section 2 title at 11-1 and went 18-5 overall, losing in the first round of the WPIAL tournament, 54-53, to Derry.
Rodriguez said the experience that his squad gained last year certainly will come in handy this year, as the Chargers compete in Class 2A Section 4, which includes Laurel, Neshannock, Rochester, Shenango, Union, South Side and Western Beaver.
“We had a very young team, so last year was a great experience for us,” he said. “A lot of the players we had last year were new – only one or two of them had previously played on those teams that made it to the WPIAL finals for several years. It was a great experience – it helped the kids mature.”
Rodriguez rattled off a number of names when asked for the key players on this year’s team. A pair of guards – junior Jake Johnson and sophomore Tiernan McCullough – will be major offensive threats, point guard Austin Avsec will run things and senior Luca Grisafi also will help in the backcourt. “We’ll pretty much start four guards,” Rodriguez said.
But the Chargers also have some height inside in Vann Kavals, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior, and 6-6 junior Patrick Altmar. Senior Tommy Moses also will see significant minutes, and guards Owen Minzer and Frankie Igrec also will contribute.
“We like our depth,” said Rodriguez, who has been coaching at OLSH since 2008. “We have a lot of experience, even though we have a lot of young guys. The juniors this year will be looking to take a step up and play significant roles. And we have great senior leadership from Luca, Vann and Tommy. We think they’ll be impactful. At point guard, Minzer, Egric and Austin bring quickness and good ball handling, and they take care of the basketball well.”
Rodriguez said he’s looking for Johnson and McCullough to have big years scoring, “and I think we’ll be tough on the boards with Patrick and Vann. Hopefully we’ll have good results.”
Rodriguez tipped his cap to Greg Mineard, a senior standout on last year’s team, for helping to bring the younger players along. “They learned from that, and hopefully with more experience we can play well this season,” he said. “We’re preaching one game at a time. Right now, our focus is on Riverview – that’s all we’re considering.”
Rodriguez said even though the Chargers will be playing in a new section this season, it features many teams that OLSH had played regularly in the past. “They’re all very tough teams, but we’re familiar with them,” he said. “We used to play in that conference and it was very competitive. And we’ll have some long road trips.”
Actually, OLSH might be playing all of its games on the road this season due to some renovation that is taking place on its own home floor. That work is forcing the Chargers to practice in an auxiliary gym and to schedule five home games at Cornell and three at Moon. OLSH’s season-opener with Riverview will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Moon.
Rodriguez said a number of nearby schools have offered to help out with gym time. “I can’t thank these schools enough – their kindness is overwhelming,” he said. “We’re so grateful to them.”
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