The Hazleton Collegian
] (nsketball, tennis finish seasons
by John Flyte
“We had an up and down season, the
talent was there, but things just didn’t fall
into place for us the last game.” That’s
how sophomore Scott Answini surmised
the 1990-1991 basketball season.
The team had an overall
record of 17 wins and 10 losses.
That is the second year in a row
they had won 17 games. For the
CCAC conference, the Lions of
Penn State Hazleton had a record
of 7-3, and lost the one playoff
game against the Lions of Berks.
The most important game the
Lions played was, of course, the
last game against Berks. But the
team had two other exciting
games against Bucknell and the
Centaurs of Allentown College
where Dr. Tom Caccese, head
coach for our team states, "...we
played our best basketball against
those two teams.”
I asked Dr. Caccese if there
were any problems this year with
the team. He pointed out that
there was a problem with the
guard spot Scott Answini was
placed in this spot after Christ
mas break (originally Scott played
a two-point guard). Dr. Caccese
has to give credit to both Scott
and sophomore Brian Powell,
because both played out of posi
tion and did a great job. Since
Scott was moved to point guard,
Brian was “bumped” up to two
guard, taking Scott’s place (Brian
orginially was a small forward).
“Everyone got shuffled. Hav
ing players out of position forced
us to change strategy,” said
Coach Caccese.
"We did a real fine job getting
into the play-offs. Three returning
players, Scott Answini, Brian Bil
lig, and Brian Powell did a great
job as did Tony Dunkelberger,”
stated Caccese. And indeed they
did. Tony Dunkelberger broke
the record of the most rebounds
in a game. The record stood at 23
rebounds for 7 years, until Tony
broke it at 25.
Brian Billig broke two
records. One was for the most
foul shots made in a season; he
made 113 foul shots, breaking the
old record of 98. The other was
for the most foul shots in a
career; he made a total of 204
foul shots, smashing the previous
record of 191.
Coach Caccese is expecting
the returning players to be the
nucleus, and incoming freshmen
to add depth at the guard posi
tion.
“Pm very optimistic with the
freshmen,” said Coach Caccese.
“They didn’t get a lot of playing
time due to the sophomores, but
next year’s team could possibly be
as good as any team we had in the
past ten years. The strong suit for
next year is defense, and we are
staying with the same philoso
phy.”
“Winning is never accidental”
will be the motto on the practice
jerseys next year. The captains
will be Buddy Johnson and Chris
Jemo. Coach Caccese is still look
ing for a few good men to fill the
shoes of the sophomores that left,
surely not an easy task.
I asked the coach how he gets
freshmen to come to Hazleton to
play basketball. His response was,
“I offer the freshmen the repu
tation we have at Penn State
Hazleton, an impressive and
attractive schedule which entails
26 games against top competition,
and a Penn State education.” The
coach cannot offer athletic scho
larships since the basketball team
is in division three.
The basketball team wasn’t
the only interscholastic sport to
do well. Mrs. Deidre Jago sums
up her men’s tennis season by
saying, “We had a very good
season, the players progressed
nicely, but their performance at
the tournament was a little dis
appointing, primarily because
they had tough matches in early
rounds.”
The tennis team had an over
all record of four wins and two
losses and came in second in the
conference. “We have several
players coming back and a very
good freshman coming next year
who is looking forward to play
ing. As with every sport we are
going to strive to do better than
last year; we always have a
chance,” comments Mrs. Jago.
Next year will prove to be
interesting for athletics. With
excellent potential, practice, and
attitude there isn’t anything that
can stand in the way of Penn
State Hazleton’s sports.
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