The 2025-26 basketball season is now more than three weeks old, and while plenty of games remain, several teams in both boys and girls basketball have already emerged as potential contenders in the Schuylkill League.

Boys Basketball

Schuylkill Haven (6-0, 3-0)

Last season, Schuylkill Haven was 10-13 overall and 6-8 in conference play. But just six games into their 2025-26 season, the Hurricanes are already past the halfway mark to matching their win total from last year and are halfway to matching their league wins from a season ago as well. Through the first few weeks of the season, Fran Murphy’s team has been a strong, fundamentally sound team. They’ve picked up wins over District III’s Northern Lebanon 64-57, Nativity BVM 73-62, District IV’s Upper Dauphin 67-40, Weatherly 60-58, and Marian Catholic 54-47. Their next test may be their biggest of the season so far, as they’ll face a very strong Williams Valley team that enters the game with a 3-1 record of their own.

North Schuylkill (4-1, 3-0)

North Schuylkill won just four games last season, but under first-year coach Anthony Agosti, the Spartans have already matched last year’s win total. The Spartans have picked up wins in the early season over District II opponent Hanover Area 54-18, and have also defeated Panther Valley 60-47, Pine Grove 53-50, and Mahanoy Area 53-11. Their lone loss of the season came on December 6 against District IV opponent Lewisburg, 51-43. The season is still young, but this year’s Spartans’ team looks much different than the team that struggled so mightily just a year ago, a testament to Agosti’s coaching thus far. If the Spartans can continue their success, he’ll be among the favorites to be Coach of the Year.

Pottsville (3-1, 3-0)

Another program under a first-year coach in Tyler Heffner, the Crimson Tide is off to a 3-1 start this season, including 3-0 in league play. Heffner notably did inherit a Crimson Tide team that was 21-7 a season ago, but that doesn’t take away from the strong start for the Tide this season. After starting their season with a 48-45 win over Blue Mountain, the Tide picked up a big win a few days later over Tamaqua, 53-34, and most recently an 11-point victory over a quality Minersville squad, 62-51. Their lone loss of the campaign so far was a close 63-58 loss to District II’s Hazleton, a Class 6A program that will be among the favorites to win District II’s Class 6A championship and will be a state playoff contender. The Crimson Tide are going to be very tough to knock off this season and will be among the favorites all season long to win the Schuylkill League.

Tri-Valley (4-0, 3-0)

Schuylkill League Division II was considered a toss-up coming into the season, but Tri-Valley is making a strong statement as potentially the team to beat this season, alongside Schuylkill Haven. Mike Masser’s squad this season has been nothing short of dominant through four games. After opening the season with an 81-68 win over District III opponent Schuylkill Valley, the Bulldogs defeated Williams Valley 66-56, Lourdes 81-57, and Shenandoah Valley most recently 79-61. Helping their cause is one of the Schuylkill League’s top scorers, Braeden Doyle, who is averaging a tremendous 24.7 points per game this season.

Girls Basketball

North Schuylkill (3-0, 3-0)

The Spartans were one of the best teams last season in Division I with a 19-7 record and are quickly showing they’ll once again be among the best in 2025-26. The Spartans this season have picked up wins over Panther Valley 64-24, Pine Grove 41-40, and Minersville 56-33. The Spartans are hoping to return to the Schuylkill League title game this season after falling short of winning the title last year, finishing second to Schuylkill Haven. Notably, the Spartans and Hurricanes will face off in the new year on January 6 in Fountain Springs.

Schuylkill Haven (3-1, 3-0)

No surprise here to see the Hurricanes among the teams off to strong starts. Tony Sanders once again has his Hurricanes playing at a high level, and they’ve been tested early this season as well. They began their season with a 40-37 win over Tamaqua, a threat to the Hurricanes’ Division I and Schuylkill League title this season. They also beat Blue Mountain 47-38 and a well-improved Pottsville squad 45-39. They fell to District IV opponent Hughesville 69-34 on December 6. Like the Hurricanes, Hughesville was a participant in last year’s PIAA Class 3A Girls Basketball state championships. Nonetheless, the Hurricanes have bounced back well from the loss and remain one of the best, well-rounded, and toughest to beat teams in the Schuylkill League.

Lourdes (4-0, 3-0)

Loudes nearly won a state championship last season and are hoping to finish their business this season. They’re off to a great start in that journey. The Red Raiders started their season with four-straight blowout victories over Meadowbrook Christian 52-15, Sullivan County 60-14, Shenandoah Valley 40-14, and Tri-Valley 52-16. On Friday night, they faced their toughest challenge yet, the Williams Valley Vikings, a state title contender in their own right, and defeated the Vikings 38-30. It’s hard to stay perfect through an entire season, but it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the Red Raiders finish this season with fewer losses than they did a year ago, when they were 23-7.

Mahanoy Area (4-0, 3-0)

Mahanoy Area is becoming a very intriguing team to watch in Division II this season as they are off to a great start. The Golden Bears have been dominant all season long. After a 65-47 season-opening win over Panther Valley, they cruised to wins over Nativity BVM (52-11), Weatherly (57-10), and Marian (49-33). They’ll be tested in the near future, however, with matchups against Williams Valley, Tamaqua, and Lourdes all in the next three weeks. How the Golden Bears can navigate that portion of their schedule will tell us quite a bit about just how strong this Golden Bears squad is this season.

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“The girls wanted someone to stick around and be there for them,” Jackson said. “For me, being probably the youngest coach in the valley at 26 (years old), I don’t have a wife and kids to go home to. I have a roommate and dogs.”

Jackson graduated from CMU in 2023 with a sports management degree. He played basketball growing up in Hawaii and was a 3-year starter on his high school varsity basketball team. While attending CMU, he started coaching youth basketball. He coached the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at Bookcliff Middle School in 2024. He coached the Central freshmen boys’ team in the summer. He was offered the Central varsity girls basketball job last summer.

Jackson is the Warriors’ third coach in four years.

The Warriors (0-5) lost 68-20 to Rocky Mountain on Saturday in the Wildcat Classic at Fruita Monument High School. Central has five returning players from last year’s team that finished 7-17.

Seniors Raygan Ball, Bianca Berens and Giavaysis Lane return. Another senior, Meadow Homer, came back to basketball after wrestling for two years.

Juniors Miranda Adan and Sonya Johnson also return.

Berens led the Warriors with eight points. Homer and Adan each scored four. Ball and Lane each had two points.

“I’m excited about what we can build the rest of the year,” Berens said. “We are focused on having fun and building a team. Hopefully coach can stick around a while.”

Berens is in her third year on the varsity and second year as a starter. She is excited to have Homer on the team this year.

“This is our senior year,” Berens said of she and Homer. “We both want to play together and have fun together. Of course we want to win, but my first goal is to build chemistry on the team. You can’t win without it. We already have good bonds on the team outside of basketball. We are having fun.”

Berens and Homer are both capable of handling the ball and running the offense.

“We have the splash sisters, Bianca and Meadow,” Jackson said. “They are both leaders, but different. Bianca is more of an enforcer. Meadow is the soft-spoken one, but together they are our leaders.”

Adan provides a physical, tough presence in the paint.

“Miranda is tough,” Jackson said. “She’s the tallest player we have (at roughly 5-foot-9). She is scrappy. A lot of our girls are scrappy. They play with a chip on their shoulder. We have great players. They just need someone to believe in them.”

Jackson said he wants the girls to build their confidence and enjoy playing the game again after a disappointing season last year.

“We have so much hope and hunger,” Jackson said. “That is what the girls need. They need someone that is not going to hound on for all the little stuff. We see and know what they are going through. Realizing this is a kids’ game, it is not the WNBA or college. This is supposed to be for fun. Our main goal is to take it one day at a time and get the joy back into them, so they are out there playing for fun. It seemed like when we took over, they were walking on eggshells. They were scared to mess up. They were afraid of getting yelled at. We know they are going to mess up. We accept that and try to move on and keep playing and have fun.”

Jackson isn’t concerned about wins and loses as much as creating a culture in the program where the girls are building confidence and enjoy playing the game. He wants his team to be able to look back fondly on playing basketball in his program regardless of the team’s record.

“At the end of the day, I’m not coaching basketball players,” Jackson said. “I’m coaching daughters, students and better human beings. That’s my goal to create a culture where the girls remember having a great time playing their senior year.”

Abby Carlberg

Abby Carlberg, a 10-year member of Chautauqua County 4-H, was one of only ten statewide candidates to be accepted into the New York State 4-H Youth Livestock Ambassador Program.

This program is designed to introduce participants to the many career paths available in livestock, from animal genetics and nutrition to meat processing, marketing, and more. The program consists of four two-day retreats to visit farms, feed mills, fiber mills, and processing facilities across New York State.

Youth Livestock Ambassadors will be exposed to many careers in livestock, including animal production, veterinary science, animal nutrition, meat and fiber processing and retail and marketing skills.

Along the way, Youth Livestock Ambassadors also develop skills in communication, leadership, critical thinking, public speaking and teamwork. Most of the cost of the program is paid for by the NYS 4-H Foundation and Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation.

The 4-H Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). 4-H connects youth to hands-on learning opportunities that help them grow into competent, caring, contributing members of society. This may be through a club, where they meet to explore new projects each month, or through an animal project where they learn about and/or raise an animal, or through classroom programs in their school.

CCE-Chautauqua is a subordinate governmental agency with an educational mission that operates under a form of organization and administration approved by Cornell University as agent for the State of New York. It is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The association is part of the national cooperative extension system, an educational partnership between County, State, and Federal governments. As New York’s land grant university Cornell administers the system in this state. Each Cornell Cooperative Extension association is an independent employer that is governed by an elected Board of Directors with general oversight from Cornell. All associations work to meet the needs of the counties in which they are located as well as state and national goals. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua.

Kendall Chavez concentrates while in the middle of reps at Cortez’s Youth Athletic Performance program at Mountain Range Fitness. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

Cortez’s branch of the program is located at Mountain Range Fitness

Young athletes in Montezuma County looking to boost strength and advance in their sport train at the Youth Athletic Performance program at Mountain Range Fitness in Cortez.

Known as YAP Training, the program has grown from a Mountain Range Fitness side project into a multisite operation with a custom mobile app serving athletes locally and nationwide.

The program launched two years ago by Jarrod Wyatt and his former Colorado Mesa University football teammate, Jeremy Harrison. Wyatt said some of the inspiration for YAP came during COVID-19, when school sports were limited and athletes needed other options to stay in shape.

“I had a lot of kids that started coming in during that time frame, and I really enjoyed it,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt coached football for 13 years, stopping this year. He noted that strength training was a big part of the team’s success.

“I was the defense coordinator and strength coach at Mancos, and we went to four semifinals in a row,” Wyatt said. “We won a state championship, and a lot of that success came from the work and everything that we put in the weight room.”

Hawk Overton lifts with the help of a friend as a spotter as part of Cortez’s YAP Training program. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

YAP now operates in Cortez and Grand Junction, and a third location will open in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where Harrison lives, in spring 2026. At Mountain Range Fitness, about 45 athletes participate regularly.

The Grand Junction location opened Oct. 13 and serves about 30 athletes.

An additional 15 athletes nationwide use the program’s app, YAPtraining, available on Apple and Google platforms. The app lets athletes follow YAP programming and log performance metrics anywhere.

Wyatt explained that while endurance athletes and football players have different performance demands, all athletes benefit from improved strength, explosiveness, mobility and resilience.

“Eighty to 90% of the training is going to look the same,” he said. “That other 10 to 20% is to meet the specific demands of the sport.”

In Cortez, group sessions run Monday through Thursday at 6 a.m. or 4:30 p.m. during the school year. Athletes with flexible schedules may train at other times.

Former participants who have gone on to play collegiate sports include Teya Yeomans, now on Montana State University’s Division I volleyball team, and Wyatt’s son Kaiden Wyatt, a freshman football player at Colorado Mesa University.

Eli Kop smiles while being coached through some weightlifting exercises at Cortez’s YAP Training Program. (Jarrod Wyatt/Courtesy photo)

“When she (Yeomans) first went up there, her strength coach was impressed that her background in strength training was more advanced than a lot of incoming freshmen. She was prepared,” Wyatt said. “My oldest son, who’s playing football at Colorado Mesa, prides himself on being one of the stronger freshmen.”

Wyatt said he wants Cortez athletes to have access to training common in bigger cities.

“What can we bring back to Cortez, Colorado that helps our athletes? My goal is to expose these athletes to something that I was never exposed to. You hear that of a lot of former athletes, just going, ‘Man, I wish I had this when I was young,’ and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt said athletes aiming for college competition should prepare early by building strength and conditioning skills, since programs often require it before arrival.

“Let’s get ahead of the curve. Let’s be ready,” he said. “Our good athletes … tend to be a big fish in a little pond in our area, but when you go to college … they’re a dime a dozen. Everybody’s good.”

The program serves athletes starting at age 10 with exercises scaled by age and experience. Younger athletes focus on body-weight movements; older athletes use weight equipment.

Families can register at www.yaptraining.com or visit Mountain Range Fitness. Prospective athletes may attend one or two sessions to see if the program is a good fit.

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Block Samiti – Nagar Zone

A day ahead of the panchayat polls on December 14, it is the youth of the four villages he represents, whose issues weigh heavy on his mind.

The scourge of drugs, taking youth back to sports, freeing villages of long-standing issues like waterlogged roads — are the key issues around his election campaign has been centred.

Thirty-eight-year-old Parshotam Singh — activist, panch and a highly qualified candidate (MSc in IT and MA in Punjabi) — has had his entire campaign centred around the village populace and their issues, especially the youth. Contesting the Block Samiti elections from the Nagar Zone in Phillaur, Parshotam represents the villages Katpalon (where he is also the panch), Nagar, Ashahoor and Fatehgarh Lakkha.

Ask him about the pivot around which his campaign revolves, and pat comes the reply, “Youth”.

Parshotam Singh says, “Naujawani nu bachaya jave (youth must be saved). The prime concern with any well-meaning citizen in Punjab today must be that our youth is heading in the wrong direction and they must be brought back from drugs or other ills afflicting their culture and moorings. Very few people know about the power of these elections. An elected representative of the Block Samiti can be instrumental in getting sportsgrounds, gyms and culture-related means of recreation in villages which could ensure the transformation of youth — instead of falling prey to drugs. This is immense power.”

Having been a youth leader and a member of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha, vice-president of the Punjab Students Federation and currently a member of the Lok Insaaf Manch, Parshotam is well-versed with Punjab’s issues. He has fought for the rights of youths falling prey to unemployment despite degrees, fellow students’ bus pass and right to reservation, ridding a local activist of false cases against him and also the struggle for Panjab University, Chandigarh.

He has also been among the activists holding month-long dharnas to free villages of contaminated water and sanitation woes besides approach roads.

Speaking on the issue, he says, “So many villages don’t have proper drainage these days. This is an ever increasing problem. In some villages, even the entry gates are waterlogged. Villages do not have plants to clean water, they don’t even have ROs. Villagers have the right to clean water and dry spaces. This has been a major fight of our region and an important element of my campaign.”

Planning of village ponds according to new technology to counter spillovers is also among his plans, he says.

Speaking specifically on his plans, if he’s elected, he says, “It’s a misconception that an MLA or MP is empowered but a Block Samiti member isn’t. Anyone who is aware and knows what he wants for his area is actually more empowered. For a member of the Block Samiti, Zila Panchayat funds could be spent on villages. They can also use their part of the district budget to build villages. Sportsgrounds, stadiums, spaces and gyms could be facilitated by Block Samiti members. So people must choose and vote wisely.”

Zila Parishad – Patara Zone

Lakhvir Singh Hazara, a farmer who is an avid sports promoter of his area, is set to take his message of sports promotion to the ZIla Parishad polls as well.

Contesting from the AAP, Hazara, a candidate for Zila Parishad election from the Patara zone, is known best in the region for the sports activities he has been undertaking. While he contested elections from the same zone last time, he had lost to the Congress candidate Mehtaab Singh Lali. The years-long delay in the panchayat coupled with simmering issues of people, make him confident that people are fed up with false promises and need real change on the ground.

His spirit to promote sports and wean children away from drugs, keeps him upbeat.

At Patara and in neighouring villages, Lakhvir Singh has been holding various sports tournaments. An annual soccer tourney is slated for December 16 and he also hosts a Kabaddi Cup.

On why the elections are important this time, Lakhvir says, “The Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections are happening after a gap of seven years during which various works have piled up.”