Gateway boys shooting for turnaround season

By: Robert Scott
Saturday, December 7, 2019 | 10:25 AM

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Despite a tough season last year, the Gateway boys basketball team’s aspirations for this season are unfettered.

Last season, the Gators finished with a 5-17 overall record, 3-9 in WPIAL Section 1-5A. It was the first time the program missed the playoffs in 10 seasons.

That does not stop coach Alvin Rogers and his squad from believing they can win a section title or a district title this season.

“We expect to win the section and get to the WPIAL championship,” Rogers said. “Get into the playoffs and once you get in, anything can happen. But the guys have talked about winning the section”

“Will it be tough? Of course it will be. That’s our expectation.”

The Gators lost 11 of their last 13 games last season, ending the year with a five-game losing streak. They also were second-to-last in points per game (48.4) in WPIAL Class 5A.

The team featured a young roster with two seniors and 13 sophomores. They return three starters: Bonzie Parks, R.J. Stevenson and Will Kromka.

The Gators will be without Hunter Hicks, who no longer is with the team because of personal reasons, Rogers said.

Rogers said Parks needs to get back in basketball shape before returning to the starting lineup.

The junior guard was a member of the 2019 WPIAL 5A championship Gateway football team.

“Parks (will start) once he gets back into playing shape, but right now, he’s coming off of the bench,” Rogers said. “Can he work his way in? I don’t know. That’s totally up to him.

“The five we currently have are playing well together even though (Parks) was our second-leading scorer last year (9.8 ppg).”

Seniors Brendan Edgar, Elgin Oliver and junior Quincy Germany will join Kromka and Stevenson in the starting lineup.

Rogers expects Oliver to be a different player this season.

“Elgin, who played some minutes last year as a junior, went through a total transformation of his body and everything over the summer,” Rogers said.

“He was a little chubby last year, and now he can get up and down the court a lot better. We expect good things out of him, and he plays like he expects that out of himself as well.”

Stevenson, a 6-foot-1 senior guard who was the leading scorer last season with 9.9 points per game, is using last year’s result as this season’s motivation.

“(I’m looking forward to) just proving everyone wrong and turning (the team around) this season because I absolutely hated missing the playoffs last season,” he said. “I want this to be a big turnaround year for Gateway basketball.”

Stevenson committed to Hilbert on Nov. 9, a day after his birthday, and signed Nov. 26.

The senior said that Washington & Jefferson, Penn State Fayette and Marietta also were interested.

“It was easy because I only had three other schools (show) interest in me, and I knew as soon as I took my visit to Hilbert, I wanted to go there,” he said.

Stevenson also hopes to play with a specific freshman this season.

“I’m also looking forward to playing with my little brother, M.J., this year,” R.J. said. “I don’t know how much time we will have, but I know we will get a chance to play with each other.”

Rogers is encouraged by his players’ offseason progress on and off the court.

“The guys had a good offseason. Everybody played a lot of basketball, got in the weight room and just played a lot of games,” the second-year coach said. “(The coaches) had them playing in pretty much every spring, summer and fall league we could possibly play in. That was a big thing coming from last year into this year. They didn’t play a lot last offseason.”

Rogers believes the underclassmen who played minutes last season will benefit this year.

“We have some seniors who played a lot of minutes on last year’s team and we also have sophomores, like Will Kromka, who played a lot of minutes as a freshman,” he said. “It was a big thing to get those guys to play and develop some type of chemistry with each other.”

Kromka seems to have embodied the offseason progress that Rogers is hopeful for. The 6-2 sophomore averaged 4.7 rebounds per game in his freshman season.

“I spent the past summer working on my shot and ball handling, while trying to put on some muscle to help out my team,” he said. “I feel like I’ve improved some, but I know there will always be room to improve every part of my game, so not only I, but everybody on the team has to keep working.”

Robert Scott III is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

Tags: Gateway