After near miss last season, Bethel Park boys working to earn playoff berth

By: Ray Fisher
Saturday, December 6, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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The Bethel Park boys basketball team missed the WPIAL playoffs last season by one game.

The Black Hawks finished fifth in Section 3-5A with a 4-8 record and ended up 7-14 overall.

Second-year coach Rico Abbondanza is optimistic that 2024-25 was a learning experience for his team.

“We have had a lot of physical growth and maturity among several underclass players who are returning to us,” Abbondanza said. “Many guys had productive offseason efforts, and I think it should yield positive results for many of them.

“We think we can lean on some of our players that have been active in our program for multiple years or are in their third or fourth year with us.

“Senior point guard Will Thomas has remained in the gym in the offseason and is a returning starter. Mike Bruckner is also returning, and Mike is in his fourth year of basketball with us. His concentration in baseball has occupied a lot of his time, but we can already see the adjustment, and he is finding his stride quickly since the start of basketball season. Joe Parisi, a junior with great basketball athleticism and skill, will balance out our offense with senior Jude Hamel, who has a high IQ and great touch around the arc.”

Thomas is a 5-foot-6 backcourt player while Bruckner a 6-3 senior forward. Parisi is a 6-3 forward and Hamel is a 6-1 guard.

“I would say the expectations for our team this year are set very high,” Thomas said. “We are an extremely well-developed team ready to compete. We have been going over our plays detail by detail, preparing to be perfect during the season.”

Bethel Park is hoping to veer away from a decades-long pattern this season by winning the section championship.

“It hasn’t happened since 2006,” Bruckner said, “and we believe we’re the team to break that streak.”

Two other integral athletes the Black Hawks are counting on are 6-1 Will Sabatos and 5-11 Brady Bruckner, both junior guards.

“We expect Will Sabatos, a starter last year, to be a major contributor again assuming he is fully recovered (from a football-related injury),” Abbondanza said. “His athleticism and competitiveness are second to none in our section.”

Brady Bruckner is a three-sport athlete and a member of the National Honor Society, student government, Spanish Honor Society, Best Buddies and AP Leadership Team.

“Our expectations for this basketball season are to work hard, execute our coaches’ plan and philosophy and to compete for a section championship,” Bruckner said. “Practices consist of executing our game plan, doing the little things with a focus on fundamentals and coming together as a cohesive team — believing in one another and challenging our teammates to strive for greatness.”

Bruckner’s cousin Mike was more specific.

“We’ve been working mostly on conditioning in practice,” he said.

Rounding out the Bethel Park roster are seniors Cam Smearman, a 6-4 forward, Owen Turoski, a 6-1 guard, and Jovian Smith, a 6-2 forward/center, along with two junior guards: 5-10 Landon Tomasiak and 5-8 Dom Lentz.

The sophomore class on this year’s team is represented by 6-2 Ben Thomas (G/F), 6-3 Peter Parisi (G/F), 6-3 Mathieu Couey, 5-10 Jordan Tewell, 6-2 Tanner Burke and 5-9 Coulter Donaldson.

Top freshmen include Josiah Martin, a 5-8 guard, and Christian Baier, a 6-foot guard.

“We expect a big contribution from freshman point guard Josiah Martin,” Abbondanza said. “This young kid has a lot of potential, and you simply can’t get him out of the gym in the offseason.”

Similar to last year, the 2025-26 preseason has been a lesson for the Black Hawks.

“This program has been blessed yet again with the addition of Joey Mascaro to our coaching staff,” Abbondanza said. “The kids already knew him and look up to him, which is having an impact on players wanting to be ingrained with our basketball program.”

Mascaro was a 1,000-point scorer at Bethel Park who joined the Pitt men’s basketball team as a walk-on in 2017-18 after starting his college career at Case Western.

Bethel Park opened the season Dec. 2 in a nonsection game at Elizabeth Forward.

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