Trib HSSN Boys Basketball Team of the Week for Jan. 23, 2023

By: Don Rebel
Monday, January 23, 2023 | 7:18 PM

Maybe they should call him Magic Mike.

Coach Mike O’Lare has transformed his magical touch from the girls to the boys basketball program at Mohawk.

“I was blessed the last few years with the girls to have teams that played a high level of basketball,” O’Lare said. “For me to open up our offense, open up our defense and let them play, allowed me a quicker transition to boys because the team that we have right now is very similar to some of the teams at the end of my career with the girls.”

After 15 years of success capped off by back-to-back WPIAL championships in 2020 and 2021, O’Lare made the jump from the Warriors girls to the boys program in 2022.

“Fifteen years is a long time to do anything anymore,” O’Lare said. “I felt like we accomplished everything we set out to do 15 years ago. That job (Mohawk boys basketball coach) had opened up a couple of times throughout those years, but it just didn’t feel right. I felt like we were still in the middle of building what we put a lot of time into.

“I never would have made the switch had my coaches not come with me. That was so important to me to bring all those guys over. When we did that, the transition became so much easier.”

The Mohawk boys had won a total of 12 games in the three years before O’Lare took over and finished 6-15 in his first season last year.

“We have the same team we had last year,” O’Lare said. “We graduated two players from last year, but we had to go through some really hard times last year. We started, at times, five sophomores, and very few teams are going to win a lot of games when you start five sophomores. We just weren’t ready last year.”

Then the magic kicked in, and with three weeks left in the regular season, Mohawk is tied with Neshannock (6-1, 10-4) for first place in Section 1-3A and has an overall record of 14-1.

The tie for first happened Tuesday when the host Warriors blew past the front-running Lancers, 67-49.

“Neshannock is definitely a well-coached team,” O’Lare said. “John (Corry) has done a great job there for a long, long time. Our kids were ready for that game. Being a home game, it was a great environment.”

Mohawk outscored Neshannock, 32-16 in the second and third quarters combined. Junior Jay Wrona led the way for the Warriors with 25 points, freshman Bobby Fadden scored 17 and junior Keigan Hopper added 13 points.

On Friday, before another packed house at Mohawk, the Warriors picked up another double-digit victory over a ranked team, beating Class 2A Shenango (10-4) in a nonsection fray, 78-64.

Mohawk led 44-23 at halftime and cruised to victory. Fadden led the Warriors with 31 points while Hopper added 20 points.

“It was a great week for us, but we know we’re only halfway through section play and we start over on Tuesday,” O’Lare said. “Now our job as a staff is to get them re-centered to go after the section title. That’s the first goal on the list.”

Trib HSSN Boys Basketball Teams of the Week

Week 2 – Central Catholic Vikings

Week 1 – Thomas Jefferson Jaguars

Tags: Mohawk