Dec 15, 2024 By Rob Burchianti 6 min read

West Greene is coming off one of its most memorable boys basketball seasons in program history.

With their top six players all returning, the Pioneers are optimistic that 2024-25 can be even better.

It won’t be easy, however. West Greene was moved up into Class AA this season and into Section 3 which includes another potent Fort Cherry team among others.

Jim Romanus is in his 14th year as coach of the Pioneers and 48th in coaching overall. While he won multiple section titles when he coached at Jefferson-Morgan, West Greene has never claimed a first-place WPIAL plaque in boys basketball. He feels, despite the strong section the Pioneers are in, this is one of their best chances to do so.

“We have all five starters coming back. Three seniors, Lane Allison, Patrick Durbin and Parker Burns, and two juniors, Darren Knight and Matthew Wassil,” Romanus said. “Our sixth man, junior Will Shipman returns as well. This has to be the year for us.”

West Greene went 16-9 overall and 8-2 in Section 2-A where it finished second to Monessen last season. The Greyhounds’ lone section loss came at the hands of West Greene.

The Pioneers notched a first by hosting and winning a WPIAL playoff game, over Avella, for the first time in program history. It was West Greene’s first postseason win since 1991.

This year the Pioneers’ section foes in addition to Fort Cherry, which went 23-7 and reached the PIAA semifinals a year ago, are Chartiers-Houston, Beth-Center, Burgettstown, Jefferson-Morgan, Carmichaels and Mapletown.

“I think Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston are really good and the top two,” Romanus said. “I think that Jefferson-Morgan is pretty good, too.

“I think there’s not a team that we can’t beat in the section, but there’s not a team that we can’t lose to either. We run a very organized system but it takes everyone to perform their role. If we play undisciplined basketball and we don’t take good shots and make good shots, then we can be beat. It’s that simple.”

Leading the way for West Greene’s returning starters is Allison, who scored his 1,000th point late last season.

“Lane is special, an outstanding offensive player,” Romanus said. “It’s really something how these players all know their roles. A lot of kids don’t want to accept their roles. Like if you watch Lane play, he can score in bunches, he’s a natural at that. Not everyone is like that even though some kids think they are. We have to like put a lid on that and say your shots will come from here, from this offense and this is how. Whereas like Lane can pretty much score from anywhere.”

While Allison is a premiere scorer, Durbin is an elite passer.

“Patrick can do a lot of things but he is as good of a passer around here since Tommy Curtis down at Jefferson-Morgan,” Romanus said. “Tommy Curtis was an outstanding passer. He had vision. Patrick is like that, too. He’s really good at seeing the court.”

Burns is the player who keeps everyone on the same page and in the right spots.

“Parker is really important. He’s the best communicator on our team,” Romanus said. “We try to get all of our kids to talk on the court and that’s really difficult. A lot of kids just don’t want to do that, that’s just not their make-up.

“But Parker barks out the signals to us and he also makes sure all our kids know where they’re supposed to be. He’s also got a good sense of what’s behind him.”

The three seniors have been dedicated to the program since they were in eighth grade, according to Romanus.

“I just remember Patrick and Lane and Parker would be up there with me after their eighth-grade year in our open gyms working on things,” Romanus said. “They got to know the system. I like our system. I think it’s very effective and the kids have bought into it. They get a lot of freedoms now since they’re seniors. I’ll ask them, you want to do this, you want to do that, and they’ll give me their opinion.”

Running the offense for West Greene will be Knight.

“Darren has gotten alot better,” Romanus said. “He’s a really good athlete and he’s worked hard to improve his ball handling and shooting.”

The center is 6-foot-8 Matthew Wassil.

“Wassil has become better and he’s grown an inch,” Romanus said. “Football helped him. He was a wide receiver. He’s more physical now, which is what we needed, especially with Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston coming into the section. Fort Cherry is just so physical. I saw them play last year.

“Shipman is our first guy off the bench but he will start a game here or there. Shipman has improved a lot and he has to work on continuing to improve. Last year he played, he lettered and he got in some games. This year he’s more comfortable.”

While he’s optimistic, Romanus felt his team was a little behind at the beginning of the season.

“We’re excited about the season, but we’re not where we need to be because we’ve only had one practice with everyone due to various circumstances,” Romanus said.

“We expect to be better than last year and it’s mostly going to be because of the experience of everybody and the improvement of my three sophomores who became juniors. One of the things I really take a lot of pride in is we play with a lot of discipline but also we can put kids in different spots and create mismatches for teams.

“All of our kids are taught post moves and forced to shoot bank shots. I know that sounds old fashioned, but we do. We work real hard at little things. We try to develop our kids so they can develop more than one function.”

Romanus’s assistant coach is Kolton Rush.