Jeannette boys pick up steam as they recover from football

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, January 1, 2018 | 10:23 PM

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Adrian Batts recalls the early part of the 2007-08 basketball season.

Jeannette had just won its first PIAA football championship and had to postpone its first two basketball games as players moved from one season to the next.

“We started out 2-0 but went to this showcase (Holiday Festival) at Robert Morris and played Beaver Falls,” said Batts, the Jayhawks boys basketball coach who was an assistant on that team.

“We got smacked.”

Jeannette lost by 20 points to the Tigers but finished 25-4 and won WPIAL and PIAA championships. Several football players made the transition to hoops, but it took time.

That sounds a lot like this year's group, which appears to have the potential to be a serious contender in Class 2A as it rounds into form.

Jeannette won the PIAA Class A football title in Hershey on Dec. 7 and played its first basketball game Dec. 15.

A 3-0 start by the No. 3 Jayhawks (5-1) was halted by a 70-62 loss to East Allegheny in the Jamfest at Penn Hills.

A pair of wins at the Greensburg Salem holiday tournament, though, made for a nice bounce-back, the gears greased and flow happening.

Jeannette topped Class 6A Connellsville, 51-42, then picked up an emotionally charged 64-57 victory over Greensburg Salem.

Tre Cunningham had 17 and 22 points in those games.

Of the 13 players on the basketball roster, only two did not play football: junior guard A.J. Sharp and senior guard Tyler Elliott.

The names that made the football team shine are beginning to do the same in basketball. Seniors Robert Kennedy and Cunningham are leading the backcourt, with help from juniors Anthony Johnson and Seth Howard.

The adorned group has its sights on another trophy this winter.

“When you win a state title, you bring that winners' mentality,” Batts said. “We're just getting everyone back to form. They only had two weeks of practice, so their legs need to get to where they should be. The thing about these guys is that their intensity level is through the roof.

“They have accepted the challenge. If you're a winner, you should win. Now it's time to show that in basketball.”

Newcomer Sharp, a transfer from Greensburg Salem, has provided quickness and perimeter shooting for a team averaging 62 points.

Jeannette has one of its more athletic teams. It has size, quickness and shooters. Pressure defense often will trigger the fast-paced offense, one that has looked jittery one moment and pure the next.

“It's going to take some time to get it back,” said the 6-foot-4 Johnson, who was an explosive defensive end. He plays with the same intensity in basketball, driving the lane and initiating contact. “When we get it back, we're going to be strong. We'll be able to beat anybody. We have to keep working and grinding every day, and we'll back to where we need to be.”

Against East Allegheny, Jeannette looked flat and out of sync. A few days later, the Jayhawks were upbeat and intense, especially at the Greensburg Salem tournament, where more sharing of the ball occurred and the results came.

“We have the same mindset as football: We want to dominate,” said senior guard Robert Kennedy, a quarterback/receiver/defensive back who was named the Class A state co-player of the year.

Kennedy believes chemistry will happen naturally with reps and in-game situations.

“Our whole starting five and a lot of guys on the bench can score one-on-one at any time, but it's easier to go five-on-five than one-on-five,” Kennedy said. “Whenever we buy into everyone passing the ball, we're definitely a tough team to beat.”

A receiver and linebacker in football, Cunningham also helped Jeannette win a WPIAL baseball title last spring. No WPIAL school has ever won football, basketball and baseball titles in the same school year.

This could be the year it happens.

“Sky's the limit for us,” said Cunningham, a 6-4 combo player who scores inside and out.

“Once we get every playing the way they can, we can be a really good team.”

The team was greeted after Friday night's game by three former baseball/basketball players: Eric Hall, Mike Pompei and Brendt Billeck.

“That meant a lot to our kids,” Batts said. “Family over everything.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

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