The regular season came upon us and we were ready! We reeled off our first seven victories. We played unselfishly on offense (it was beautiful to watch!!) and amazingly well on defense. We forced turnovers, got easy baskets and shot the ball very well during that stretch.

We then ran into a Binghamton squad at home that out-played us in every aspect. They were clearly the more talented team on that night and we seemed to forget what got us to 7-0 up to that point. We were not blessed with much size. We asked seniors Orrie Meyers and Nate Matusick to play inside when in reality they were built to be small forwards not post players. When we faced taller and/or stronger teams, we struggled due to this lack of size. If we didn’t shoot it well against these types of teams, we struggled to beat them.

Our next game was against Vestal, who had beaten Binghamton in their previous game. We got down early and climbed back into the game, just like we did in every game we played. Like most games that we lost, we were only one possession away or one made basket away from getting over the hump, get a lead and control our own destiny like we had in our first 7 games. We lost to Vestal. Up next was the undefeated team from Sodus in the Geneva DeSales Christmas Tournament. The script we followed in our previous two losses – knocking on the door of winning but not quite getting over the hump – held true again. (Sodus, ultimately, won the Class C State Title going undefeated throughout the season.) We lost to them by 8 with a host of opportunities that either we created or they gave us.

Without Andy in our next game, we played Geneva DeSales. We set a host of team and individual records in a 40 point victory. Junior Jeff Hopkins set a school record with 7-3’s and he scored a season high of 26pts. Sophomore Greg Schiefen set a school record with 10 assists in the game. We placed five players in double figures scoring 95 points. The team only committed 6 turnovers while dishing out 22 assists.

The remainder of the season followed the pattern of good perimeter shooting, we won - below average shooting, we lost. Many of these games were on the road where every team struggles to shoot well consistently. It was disappointing to not shoot well in big games like EFA on the road and Horseheads on the road. These two teams were our obstacles for a divisional title and in both games we came up short shooting below average from the field. Without an inside presence, we had a hard time getting easy baskets offensively.  We also had a hard time coming from behind and winning during this stretch. (The only game we did so was against Ithaca at home. It was in this game we got behind in the first half by as much as 12 points. At halftime, rather than going into the locker room, we stayed on the bench per Coach Hopkins’ instructions. A broken clipboard and a shake-up in our offensive approach led to a 24 point win 67-43.)  Against good teams, if you don’t score, you cannot press to give you opportunities for easy baskets defensively off of opponent’s turnovers. Without our press, we relied on our outside shooting, probably too much. It was all too evident during this stretch of games.

In our final two games against Southside and West, both were at home against teams that had a below .500 record. We were hoping that we could re-capture our confidence against these teams. Sure enough, we played very well setting ourselves up for a solid sectional run. Against Southside, it was Senior Night. Our seniors Andy O’Hare, Nate Matusick, Orrie Meyers and Joern Simme, our foreign exchange student from Germany, were all honored prior to the game. It was a memorable night as we defeated Southside 68-59. Andy O’Hare had 26 points and Orrie Meyers broke out of a scoring slump with 15.

Our final regular season game was against West. West had struggled to score all season long and this game was no different. At one point in the game, we led 72-36. Andy O’Hare had 21 points, Nate Matusick had a season high 16, Shawn Roe had 12 while Jeff Hopkins chipped in with 10 points. It was a very impressive win and gave us a shot of confidence going into sectionals just like we had hoped.

We drew the #2 seed in Class A.  Our opening round opponent was Norwich. Coming in with a 9-9 record, we knew they were not real big but they were very quick and loved to penetrate into the lane to get easy scores. We scored 50 first half points led by Andy O’Hare’s 17. Norwich made a little run at us in the 4^th quarter but Greg Schiefen’s two clutch 3pt. shots on consecutive possessions moved the lead to double digits once again closing the door on Norwich’s upset bid. Four players scored double figures. Andy O’Hare had 24 points, Orrie Meyers 14 points, Greg Schiefen had 11 and Shawn Roe had 10. Our confidence grew as we kept winning impressively.

Next up was Susquehanna Valley, the # 3 seed in the semi-finals at Watkins Glen HS. They came into the game with a 14-4 record. They had beaten Maine-Endwell in the first round 84-80. They had scored in the 80’s in their last several games. They, too, were playing with a lot of confidence.  We broke out of the gate with an 18-9 first quarter lead and were ahead 32-19 at halftime. We played tough, physical defense and shut their offense down. We were ahead with Andy only scoring 2 points! The thinking from the coaching staff was if he ever caught fire, we would secure a place in the finals. The third quarter did not start out the way we had hoped. Andy continued his scoring woes. This combined with a few turnovers, Sus Valley climbed back into the game. In fact, at one point they took a one point lead. We didn’t panic. We re-gained our composure and took a 6 pt. lead entering the 4^th quarter. Andrew Wood had 10 points off the bench hitting 2 key 3pt. jumpers to keep our team’s head above water to the 4^th period. That is when Andy came alive. He hit a banked 3pt. shot to open the 4^th quarter. On a set play, Jeff Hopkins gave Andy an alley-oop pass. Andy made a great catch and made the banked, tipped lay-up. He scored 11 points in the 4^th quarter and we were too much for Sus Valley. The final was 62-44. Again, we played aggressively, we were physical and we were confident. It was on to the finals at the Broome County Arena against our divisional foe #1 seeded EFA. We had split with them during the regular season. So it was the rubber-match for the Class A Sectional Title.

1965 was the last year that an East High Team had won a sectional title. Back on December 3^rd, members of that team were invited back to join us in a celebration of that moment in time. Team members Pierce Baker, Ed Craumer, Joel Griffing, Nick Pappas, Tom Potter, Mike Tammaro and the Team Manager Alan Gray all returned for the ceremony to celebrate the school’s only boys’ sectional title. Some of these gentlemen traveled from as far away as Tennessee and New Jersey to be with us that night. Ken Burmeister, the then Vice-Principal, Dr. Judith Staples, the Corning-Painted Post School District’s Superintendent, Joe Tobia, East High’s Principal, Kim Ward, East High’s Vice Principal, Chuck Lindsay, East’s Athletic Manager, Dave Conlin, the East High Alumni Director and special guest Susan Burt, the daughter of the late Head Coach Don Pieri of the 1965 Team all were on hand to be a part of the celebration. Following the Varsity game against Maine-Endwell (an impressive win 76-67 with our boys setting a first quarter scoring record with 31 points!), we hosted a reception for all of our invited guests along with our players & parents. It was a wonderful time full of vivid memories.

Prior to the sectional title game at the Broome County Arena, 1965 team member Pierce Baker came into the locker room and spoke with the players. He spoke of the memories that will take from this night. He asked them to go out and play with tremendous effort and you will have nothing to be ashamed of regardless of the score. In the first quarter, we came out like we had in our previous four games and just like Pierce Baker asked them to do. They played with confidence; they were the aggressor, gave tremendous effort and were physical. We were up 15-9 at the end of the first quarter. The score was tied at halftime at 27. The coaching staff felt that after overcoming the natural adjustment to the Arena and its’ spacious surroundings along with “BIG GAME” jitters, being tied at half wasn’t too bad. We would certainly come out in the second half and play better. Well, unfortunately, it never happened. EFA played more aggressively than we did and it seemed to sap our confidence away. We just didn’t play the way we had been playing up to that point. It was very perplexing to say the least. The players were bitterly disappointed.

As we look back and reflect upon our season, we see that we finished the season at 13-8. Each year under Coach Hopkins’ tenure as the coach, the program has progressed in nearly every category including wins. Having made it to the Sectional Finals in 2005, the natural progression is to win it in 2006.  That will be our goal!

Andy O’Hare made the First Team ALL STAC WEST. He was our Team’s MVP.  He was selected to the First Team ALL-TWIN TIERS and was the PLAYER OF THE YEAR for the Corning Leader’s Boys Basketball All-Star Team. Andy will continue his basketball career at St. John Fisher College in Rochester.

Sophomore Shawn Roe was our second leading scorer and chosen to the First Team ALL STAC WEST and was selected to the ALL TWIN TIERS and ALL LEADER Basketball Teams.

Senior Orrie Meyers will attend University of Pennsylvania to study medicine.

Senior Nate Matusick’s plans have yet to be finalized. He his looking into communications and is looking at Ithaca College or University of Rochester. He hopes to play baseball or football as well.

Senior Joern Simme will return to his homeland of Germany and has one more year of high school.

With several players returning from this past year’s squad with a young and exciting JV team that went 11-7, the Trojans are very hopeful for an even better year in 2005-06.

2004-05

A SEASON TO REMEMBER

GO EAST!!