Dec 5, 2016 By Bill Hughes for The 2 min read

With the experience of 25 years as a head coach at the high school level, Charleroi boys coach Bill Wiltz has been known to not mince words.

As is his norm, he was quick to answer on what he expects out of this season.

“We expect to contend for the section title,” he said of Section 4-AAA. “If play together, we can be right there.

“I am happy with what I have seen thus far in practice and we have the potential to be pretty good.”

Senior shooting guard Sam Miceli was among the leading scorers in the WPIAL a year ago at 22 points, and Wiltz knows what to expect.

“I expect the same type of season out of him,” Wiltz said of Miceli, who is started to get more interest from college coaches, most recently LaRoche. “He needs to be the leader.

“We will be a little more up tempo so he has to get out in transition.”

Two other seniors, forward Errict Tedrow and point guard Josiah Fisher, also return to the starting lineup.

“Errict has the whole package as he can shoot from the three or go inside and bang too,” he said. “Josiah does a nice job of running the team and we are hoping to get him some more scoring opportunities.”

Junior forward Caleb Carson and senior center Dremar Everette round out the starting lineup.

“Caleb is shooting the ball really well right now, is very fundamental and is one of our two bet rebounders with Dremar,” Wiltz said before chuckling when talking about Everette. “Dremar is a joy to coach, plays extremely hard.

“He is a complete player as he runs the floor, can shoot from 15 (feet), and does a little bit of everything.”

Key reserves will include senior guard Jake Comer and three juniors in guard Ezra Guty, and forwards George Lukash and Ryan Workman.

The other teams in Section 4-AAA include Beth-Center, Brownville, Burgettstown, South Side Beaver, Southmoreland and Washington.

Charleroi opens up in the McGuffey tournament where it plays Chartiers-Houston, the team that knocked it out of the playoffs a year ago.

“We brought up Char-Houston, and that can be good or be bad,” Wiltz said. “We played very well and had a 12-point lead in first quarter but we didn’t handle adversity and lost.

“But the guys remember.”