Just like Revis, state champion Aliquippa football players try to transition quickly to hoops

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, December 15, 2023 | 2:31 PM

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Aliquippa basketball coach Nick Lackovich, with a laugh, pointed out that sophomore Qalil Goode was doing his best Darrelle Revis impression.

In Aliquippa, at this time of year, that means winning a state football title and days later starring on the basketball court. The future NFL star did that for the Quips in 2003, a legendary 35-point effort that’s still talked about today.

This time, Goode had three interceptions in the football finals last week and scored 12 points in the basketball team’s opener against Beaver Falls.

It wasn’t quite Revis’ big night, but Goode did spark the Quips to a 71-35 win.

“I told him, ‘Man, Pook, you’re trying to be like Revis,’” Lackovich said, using Goode’s nickname. “You had three picks in the state championship and you’re coming here and knocking down 3s?”

Winning football championships is a tradition for an Aliquippa team that now owns 20 WPIAL titles and five state titles. But another long-standing tradition was that once football season ended, many of those same athletes joined together trying to win a basketball title.

It worked a year ago when the Quips won the WPIAL Class 2A basketball title and finished as state runners-up. They’re now trying to make that quick transition again in a quest to become state champions in two sports.

“The expectation is going back to states and winning it all,” Goode said. “We went there last year and came up short. So we’ve got to get it all this year.”

Four of the five basketball starters on Wednesday also celebrated a football title last week. Along with Goode, the Quips started seniors Cameron Lindsey, Quentin Goode, Jayace Williams and sophomore Josh Pratt. Tikey Hayes, a Penn State-bound junior, was one of the first players off the bench.

Of those six, only Pratt didn’t play football.

Missing from the opener were seniors Brandon Banks and DeMarkus Walker and sophomore Marques Council. All three are football players who’ll start or see minutes off the bench this winter.

“We’re a pretty deep team,” Lackovich said. “I could throw anybody on this bench in the game and not be worried. I don’t know anybody who has depth like that, especially in 2A. Some people said, ‘Oh, we play 10,’ but that 10th guy is kind of not real good. Our guys could play for just about anybody in our classification.”

Lackovich’s challenge will be deciding who starts, who plays and how much.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” he said. “It’ll work itself out.”

The football team won the state title last week with a 60-14 victory over Dallas in the PIAA 4A final. The title was the Quips’ second in three years, but those who wanted to play basketball had little time to rest. Some players were in the gym the next day. By the following Monday, almost everyone was back together.

A number of the top football players at other schools chose to skip basketball season, but that isn’t the situation at Aliquippa this winter.

“It’s something we’ve been doing since we were young,” Lindsey said. “We always played both sports growing up and we’ve just continued it through high school.”

But Lindsey noted that it’s not an easy transition. Despite just finishing a 14-game football season, he said the old adage about basketball conditioning being different is true.

“Running up and down the court is different than running up and down the field,” said Lindsey, pointing out that his basketball practice in the fall is usually limited to a few shots in gym class.

Goode said he also hadn’t played much basketball in months.

“If we came in here and saw people hooping, we picked up a ball and started shooting around,” Goode said. “But other than that, none. … The first week of basketball is real hard.”

Lackovich doesn’t disagree. The football players had only two practices before playing their first basketball game.

“All of them were complaining about their legs and this or that,” Lackovich said. “I get it. I’d love to give them a week off. We just don’t have that luxury if you want to get to where we want to get.”

Aliquippa finished 24-7 last season, won the WPIAL Class 2A title and was the state runner-up for the second year in a row. The Quips reached the PIAA 3A final in 2022, so they’re hoping for another return trip to Hershey.

“Same goals as last year,” Lindsey said. “We’re trying to take it game by game and get back to the state championship”

With an abundance of seniors on the roster, Lackovich said this year’s group should be able to quickly become a cohesive basketball team. They pulled away from Beaver Falls with a 23-0 run in the first half and finished the game with a running clock under the mercy rule. A day later, the Quips edged City League contender Obama Academy, 49-48.

“We’ve been building for this,” Lackovich said. “Lindsey. Banks. (Quentin) Goode. Walker. I brought those guys up as ninth graders. We have a good veteran group. It’s not like we had to go back and start from scratch. It’s just a matter of getting their timing and getting the feel of the ball again.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Aliquippa, Beaver Falls