Dec 11, 2020 3 min read

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Steve McIntire has only one year of experience as a high school basketball head coach going into his first year at the helm of the Waynesburg boys team.

In that lone season he guided Mapletown’s girls team into the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

McIntire, a former Raiders assistant coach and father of former Waynesburg 1,000-point scorer Darton McIntire, is facing another tough task in his second head coaching stint.

“My team is really young,” McIntire said. “They lost seven seniors last year and I don’t have anybody returning who has much varsity time except for Chase Henkins.”

Players who will likely be part of the rotation are senior Sam Harmon, juniors Henkins, Jacob Mason, Dawson Fowler and Hudson Boris and sophomores Drew Layton and Mason Switalski.

“Jacob is 6-7, he’s my five (center) and Chase is my swing, three-guard,” McIntire said. “Dawson is a point guard. Switalski is a swing man who can hit the three pretty good. Boris can play the guard or forward. Layton is my iron man, a good defensive player who probably will end up as my sixth man.

“Basically, my players are going to have to learn two positions,” McIntire said. “I call them hybrid basketball players now.”

The Raiders have a couple freshman who could see some playing time.

“Be on the lookout for Trenton Zupper and Devin Gustafson,” McIntire said. “They’re practicing hard.”

McIntire, whose assistant coaches are his son Darton and Chad Henkins, has brought in his own system.

“Everything is brand new,” he said. “We’ll play different defenses. We’ll play some man, it just depends on who we’re playing.”

Waynesburg was 9-12 overall and 2-8 in Class 4A Section 3 last season but has been moved down a classification into Class 3A Section 4 with a brand new group of opponents that includes Brownsville, Beth-Center, Charleroi, Washington, Brentwood and McGuffey.

“I’ve looked it over,” McIntire said. “I don’t know much yet about Brentwood but I would say your favorites right now would have to be Wash High and McGuffey.”

McIntire insists his players focus on a couple key areas in his first year as coach.

“My top things are to play good defense and be mentally and physically tough,” McIntire said. “I’ve got to have that.”

McIntire isn’t conceding anything despite his team’s youth and lack of experience.

“We’re getting better,” McIntire said. “I think we’ll be highly competitive in every game.”

Waynesburg opened its season with a 71-43 loss to Keystone Oaks Dec. 11, one day before the season was shut down for at least three weeks as Gov. Wolf ordered a stoppage because of rising coronavirus cases in the state.