Jason Closs is the new Tri-Valley girls varsity
basketball coach while Brian Tingley is starting his eighth season at the helm
of the boys varsity team.
Closs moves up from coaching three years of Tri-Valley boys junior
varsity where his team last season posted a perfect 16-0 undefeated record. This
will be his fourth year of coaching on the varsity level and brings to the court
12 total years of coaching.
Closs when asked if there were any difference betweren coaching a
boys junior varsity team to a girls varsity team said, "I went from a boys team
last year that worked very hard, really practiced well and was very coach-able
and now I've moved to a girls program this year at the varsity level with
athletes that are very similar to what I had last year."
In regards to last year's girls varsity team the Bears finished the
season with a 14-6 record losing to Chester 45-42 on a three-pointer with four
seconds left by Chester's Kathrun Jankelunas.
In looking at the upcoming season Kloss noted, "these girls are
hard working, they have been well coached in the past by former coach John
Tenbus and this team is eager to be coached."
Returning players from last year's team include their outstanding
three-point scorer Katlynn Greffrath, scrappy hustling guard Caroline Martin,
Sabrina Smith, Colleen Jones, and Ashley Exner . New varsity members include
Kayla Butler, Sara Dertinger, Grace Kelly, Jessie Leszcezynski and Danielle
Shafarsky.
Closs at this point of the early season and without any scrimmage
events at the time this interview was held said that the strengths of the team
are, "their work rate, conditioning, getting up and down the court and working
their fast breaks.
"Conditioning is very important to us as it allows us to play the
type of basketball that we want to play which is to get up and down and to get
into teams on defense and dictate how the game is played," Coach Closs
added.
The coach indicated that he feel the team "should do fairly well on
offense with getting up and down and getting out on the break.
Closs said the team was "very guard heavy and we are undersized at
our forward positions but they will be physical."
The varsity girls team has made the sectionals the past three to
four years but Coach Closs didn't give a prediction for making the sectionals
but added, "we're going to take it one game at a time and I told the girls early
on lets not think what we can do lets get busy doing."
Non-league play opens December 3 at home against Ellenville. First
league game is scheduled December 17 at home against Tuxedo.
In discussing 2014 sectional play with boys varsity coach Brian
Tingley he quickly expressed the fact that "I would be disappointed if we don't
make it into the sectionals this year."
Several of the ball players we talked with expressed confidence
indicating they anticipate a good season. The team last season won their first
game in the sectionals against Chester and finished up with a 12-8 record being
blown out in their final game against the Pine Plains Bombers who at the time
were the No. 1 rated Class C school in the state.
When asked what the team looked like at this early stage of the
season he said, "we should be quick if nothing else." He pointed out that he has
a very fast team and that "they work well together, pass the ball well and they
like to be around each other."
As far as ball control under the boards Tingley stressed the fact
of rebounding to both get another shot for Tri-Valley or stopping the opponent
from getting another shot. He also stressed the fact that he wants to see more
shot blocking while on defense.
When asked about how the team will be offensively Coach Tingley
said, "we have the speed here to get up and down the court and we got some guys
that can play inside, players that can shoot outside and we have guys who can
also handle the ball."
Returning players from last years team include Alex Brown, Devin
Donnelley, Mike Post, Sam Tingley, Donntae Brock and Jesus Lozada.
Moving up from the undefeated JV team are Justin Swarthout, Jarred
James, Dion Lynch, Zach Nilson, Stephen Carleton, Thomas Mungeer. Moving onto
the varsity team from his position as team manager is Kainin Justiniano. Tingley
noted that a new transfer student would be trying out for a team position and
that the squad will consist of 12 or 13 players.
While talking about the varsity team being able to acquire some of
last years undefeated JV team Tingley pointed out, "they will find it
differently when coming up to the varsity level because up here you can't
overpower people and the scouting is better."
In conversation about sectional play Tingley noted, " it's not
going to be easy for us because Chester is going to have a very good team as
they didn't lose any important players and they also had a very good JV team
that will add to their strength also." He also feels that Seward (Florida)
should also be a tough opponent.
Non-league play for the boys varsity opens on Dec. 4th and 6th in
the Walton Tournament at Walton while the first league game is Decembers 18 at
home against Tuxedo.
Photo Identification
New Tri-Valley varsity girls basketball coach Jason Closs, standing
right, discussing what he wants to do at practice that night.
Tri-Valley boys varsity coach Brian Tingley shows team members
offensive tactics.
