There’s more to Red Raiders than hoops
There’s something more to this year’s Uniontown boys basketball team than wins and losses, accomplishments and disappointments.
There’s more to this group than simply finishing among the top 16 Class AAA teams in the state.
“This is the closest group of kids I ever coached,” Red Raiders coach Rob Kezmarsky said. “We are losing two great seniors, but we have plenty of good kids coming back.”
Uniontown’s season ended on Feb. 11 with an overtime loss to Farrell in the PIAA playoffs.
“This is a very close bunch of kids,” Kezmarsky said. “When one of them is hurting, all of them are hurting.”
It was a tremendous season the Red Raiders put together and they finished with a 22-3 record and the respect of many around the WPIAL and state.
“I didn’t see them for two weeks after that game,” Kezmarsky said. “Then we started playing undergrad and we didn’t realize until we saw each other again how much we had missed each other. Just like a family, that’s what this team is.”
They missed having practice or games to play. More to the point, they simply missed each other’s company.
“It’s amazing, but it’s something you have to go through to appreciate,” Kezmarsky said. “These guys had become accustomed to playing in front of 2,000 or 2,500 fans in sold out gyms. Those are great memories. These kids really had a great season.”
The Red Raiders will be a very good basketball team again next season, even though they will be without the two seniors to whom Kezmarsky alluded. Jordan Pratt will be playing college basketball somewhere and Xavier Ellis will be playing college football, likely somewhere else.
The Red Raiders’ seniors finished their careers with a 54-14 record.
Actually, Pratt will showcase his game one last time before heading off to college. He’s playing in the 6 p.m. Roundball Classic game Saturday at Geneva College with the Class AAA All-Stars.
“He’s getting a lot of looks,” Kezmarsky said. “He hasn’t decided yet where he’s going to go, but he’s getting looks from a couple of Division II schools and a lot of Division III schools.”
As for Ellis, Kezmarsky is certain he’ll be playing one sport or the other in college somewhere. “Bootie will probably play football, but he’s good enough to have a choice.”
As for the recently completed basketball season, Kezmarsky said he’ll always remember two of Uniontown’s playoff games.
“The first game against Ambridge was special,” he said. “Just because of how good Ambridge was. It really gave us an appreciation of the level of competition there is in Class AAA.
“And the Elizabeth-Forward game stands out, too. We had a big lead, but Bootie got in foul trouble and they came back on us pretty good. When it was 62-62, we could have easily folded, but we didn’t. We fought back and ended up winning. That was a great game for us.”
They were all great games for the Uniontown community, which showed up in full force to get behind this team with all they had.
The winning?
“That was our way of saying thanks to everybody for coming out and supporting us,” Kezmarsky said.
It’s what families do. They stick together through thick and thin, good and bad.
“We’ll be back next year, looking for one more win, one more game, one more level,” Kezmarsky said.