Sports

Clarion picked second in PSAC West

The Golden Eagles men’s basketball team is coming off an 18-11 season, where they went all the way to the PSAC semifinals.

With a couple of weeks left before the Golden Eagles start their season, the team wants to make sure they are ready in each aspect of the game.

“The timeline tells us that we have to start looking at combinations a little more seriously. There are about three or four combinations I tried last night in the scrimmage, and three
or four coming up this week,” Coach Ron Righter said.

“Then at the end of next week, we will have to really get serious about who can play with who, why they should play with whom, and who best complements each other. We’re still
getting to know who can play with whom. The next 10 days we will have a pretty good feel of what we can do for 40 minutes.”

A key veteran leader who will be back with the team this year is senior point guard Lloyd Harrison.

He filled up the stat sheet last year, averaging 15 points, five assists and five rebounds per game.

Harrison knows he has a major role on this team on the court, and off it as well.

“My job on this team is to just keep everybody together, make sure we stay humble and keep working hard,” Harrison said.

As long as we keep working hard and playing defense, we’re going to be all right.”

Another key player back from last year’s squad is Jamar Harrison.

Jamar Harrison is also a guard, and led the team in scoring last season with 15.6 points per game.

Jamar Harrison knows how successful the team was last year, but expects even more from this group.

“We have more chemistry than we did last year,” Jamar Harrison said.

“We’ve been playing with each other for a whole year; I feel like we’re a step ahead of everybody else.”

Assistant coach Al Modrejewski is in his twelfth season with the Eagles.

He has seen a lot of great teams here at Clarion, formerly the assistant coach from 1990-95 and returned here during the 1999 season.

He is one of the top recruiters in Division II basketball and said he looks forward to what could be a special season.

“It’s early, and this is just the beginning chapter of hopefully what will be a long story,” assistant coach Modrejewski said.

In terms of veteran leadership, talent and depth in different positions, I’m very encouraged. Potentially this team can go a long way. We have probably the most talented point
guard in the league, couple of great wings, inside guys that can score and a new inside guy who is a great rebounder. If we stay healthy and stay together we have a chance to do
some pretty special things here,” Modrejewski said.

Last years success is behind them. It’s a new season, and both the coaches and the players are expecting big things, and a lot of wins.