Deer Lakes boys hope to build on recent winning tradition

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, November 22, 2018 | 9:03 PM

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Deer Lakes’ 2018 boys basketball senior night lasted longer than most because of the sheer amount of players. Ten seniors — enough to fill two starting fives — walked the floor with their parents that night to receive recognition.

And while it stood mostly as a time of celebration, it also served notice of the upcoming task at hand for the Lancers.

“You’re going to make me go through therapy thinking about that stuff,” fourth-year Deer Lakes coach Terence Parham joked at the Lancers’ first official practice earlier this week.

Call it rebuilding, reloading or renovating, Parham became accustomed to the process of filling the vacancies of his roster on a yearly basis — though 10 seniors represents a new level.

“It was definitely something new as a coach to lose so many guys, and really all of those guys played,” Parham said. “Every single senior played, if not started at some point. That’s a lot to replace, but I think they did a good job of laying the foundation down for the next group coming up.”

Deer Lakes, which made the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs each of the last two seasons, established a foundation of winning.

More than that, the Lancers have a solid core returning with four players who started at least part of last season: seniors Jared Colton, Colin Kadlick and Brad Perrotte and junior Jack Hollibaugh.

“It’s difficult (to replace 10 seniors), but we like it because it’s a chip on our shoulder,” Perrotte said. “People don’t expect much out of us because we’re replacing a big group, but we know what we have here.”

What the Lancers have is a group used to playing together, along with one of the largest rosters in Parham’s time as coach.

“We’re very close, so I’d say we have a good team camaraderie,” Colton said. “Fall down, everybody’s picking you up. You’ve got four hands trying to get you up. I think we’ll be a good team, playing together, sharing the ball.”

Junior Zac Herbinko will step in at point guard for Jake Kelly, one of the 10 departed seniors and Deer Lakes’ leading scorer last season. Josh Solomon was one of the Lancers’ leaders, with Marc Vrane and Shane Yarussi both presences at forward.

But with Colton, Herbinko and Perrotte on the outside and the rugged Hollibaugh and Kadlick on the interior, Parham believes he has maybe his most balanced team yet.

“The first few years we were dribble-drive and jacking 3s because that was the strength of our team,” Parham said. “Now with Jack and Colin, hopefully we can really do a good job of working inside-out and creating easier shots and higher-percentage shots for our guards.”

Juniors Josh Darsie and Aris Hasley also potentially can step up in bigger minutes, and Parham said he doesn’t fear playing sophomores and freshmen, either.

Although Deer Lakes last won a playoff game in 1985, the Lancers almost got that long-awaited victory last season, ultimately falling six points short in their upset bid against higher-seeded Ambridge.

“I think about last year’s playoff loss every single day,” Perrotte said. “It motivates us as a group. I came here as a freshman to Deer Lakes School District, and I still feel part of this community and I feel that need to win. I hope we can get it done this year.”

Realignment in the offseason sent Deer Lakes down to Class 3A, where the Lancers will compete in Section 3 with Burrell, East Allegheny, Shady Side Academy, South Allegheny, Steel Valley and Valley. All but Steel Valley qualified for the playoffs last season.

“The key is literally everyone buying into their role: no I in team, which is the old cliché,” Parham said. “But if everyone buys into their role and (takes it) one game at a time, not looking ahead of anybody, I truly believe we have a legitimate shot within this section.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Deer Lakes