St. Joseph boys hope to learn, develop after falling short of postseason

By: William Whalen
Tuesday, March 1, 2022 | 12:32 PM

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St. Joseph boys basketball coach Hart Coleman said he is going to attend WPIAL playoff games and recommends his players do the same.

He wants them to witness the type of consistency and play that will lead to his team to taking the next step in getting back to the postseason.

“We definitely had an up-and-down year,” said Coleman, who finished his third season coaching the Spartans. “We went through a little bit of adversity and a couple players got injured during the season, and we had a bout with covid.”

St. Joseph (10-12, 3-7) played well in nonsection games but struggled in section play this season. The Spartans finished fifth in Section 3-A, just one game behind Aquinas Academy (11-8, 4-6) and a spot in the WPIAL Class A postseason bracket.

“As far as the section is concerned, I feel like we should have played better versus Aquinas and Neighborhood Academy,” Coleman said.

St. Joseph held a 3-1 record as host to both the season tip-off and holiday tournaments. Once the Spartans got into the meat and potatoes of its section schedule, things became more challenging.

“Imani Christian and Leechburg are just two powerhouse programs right now, and I believe they are going to make some noise in the playoffs,” Coleman said.

The Spartans lost to Aquinas, Imani and Leechburg before notching their first section win with a 64-37 victory over Propel Andrew Street in mid-January. Then came a 4-1 stretch over a span of two weeks. St. Joseph’s only blemish was a 74-44 loss to defending WPIAL champion Ellwood City.

“We got down early in the first Aquinas game,” Coleman said. “Imani just talent-wise, in what they have, I really think they can win the whole thing.”

Aquinas snapped the Spartans’ win streak and plunged the surging Spartans into four-game losing streak. It was St. Joseph’s longest losing streak of the season.

Coleman especially likes the way his team performed against some of the bigger schools, including quality wins over Class 2A Riverview, Class 3A schools such as Apollo-Ridge, Mohawk, New Brighton and a 90-66 win over Class 5A Plum. The win over Plum was especially meaningful since Coleman coached the Mustangs before arriving at St. Joseph.

The Spartans were led by junior Central Catholic transfer Jimmy Gianetta (21 ppg).

“In all honesty, I expected Jimmy to play well,” Coleman said. “He definitely came on throughout the course of the season. He definitely played well.”

It was senior Rylan Zale’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave St. Joseph the win over Riverview.

Coleman couldn’t say enough about Zale’s overall performance this season.

“Zale stepped up big time,” Coleman said. “He became a lot more vocal this year as far as leading the team, and they took his leadership the right way.”

Zale finished second on the team in scoring (11 ppg). Senior forward Anthony Kuhns averaged 7 rebounds per game to lead the Spartans.

Coleman hope that Rylan’s younger brother Ethan, a junior, can fill his brother’s role next season.

The Spartans will lose five seniors and three starters in Rylan Zale, Kuhns and center Trevor Greenwald.

But the cupboard is not bare, there are plenty of reinforcements.

“The future is bright,” Coleman said. “We really talked about what we need to do for next season and that is to get in some skill work and go in the weight room. We definitely need to get stronger physically, mentally and faster.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

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