By Wayne Witkowski
For many teams, including Allentown High School’s boys basketball team, this is a crucial time of the year. Seasons are dictated largely by the amount of work players put in during the summer to improve themselves.
Although the start of preseason practices is four months away, the Redbirds’ returning players for next season have been busy working out four days a week on offensive and defensive schemes for the team and also on individual skills.
“Things are going well,” said coach Jay Graber, who has been busy splitting his time in the summer with basketball workouts and with preparing his football team for the start of preseason practices that begin Aug. 16.
Graber has skipped summer leagues and tournaments this year and instead is scheduling scrimmage workouts with other high school programs from the end of July through the end of August, along with player workouts in the weight room. A big reason is that Graber faces a rebuilding year with only two returning established players in Nahshon Taylor, a junior, and Elijah Kelly, a sophomore.
Graber also awaits appointment by the Allentown district school board of a new assistant and junior varsity coach. Conor Hayes returns as freshman coach.
Allentown ended a 14-12 campaign last season, losing, 51-49, on a buzzer-beating basket by Pennsauken High School in its NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group III opener. Allentown finished 6-2 in the Colonial Valley Conference Freedom Division, losing both games to Ewing High School by 12 and 15 points. The Redbirds started 3-4, then won four straight and had an up-and-down run from there, including a 73-63 victory over gritty rival Hopewell Valley Central High School and an impressive 49-45 loss at 20-game winner Eastside High School (Paterson).
With four starters among the five players graduated from last year’s team, Graber will need to rekindle in the returning players that sense of tight teamwork and balance that has changed the culture of the Redbirds in recent years to become a more competitive team with winning records.
Graber’s first priority this summer is establishing a point guard in the mold of graduated Tristan Millett, who Graber said led by example as well as his take-command approach. He and Taylor, a 5-foot-7 guard, were consistent contributors last season, with Taylor averaging a team-leading 13 points a game. Kelly sank four points a game.
“We’re expecting a lot from those [two] guys,” Graber said.
Three other departed players scored between eight and 11 points a game, with Millett scoring 10.5 points a game and Bekim Nikovic dropping in 11 points a game, including some big scoring efforts at crucial times. Peyton Jackson averaged eight points, and Gerling had six points a game. Gerling was the lone double-figure scorer in the state tournament loss to Eastside.