Pictured above: Payton Kepp, front left, looks on during Media Day activities. Kepp, who will miss the season with a knee injury, has found other ways to help the Nanticoke team. (Tony Callaio Photo)
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
WILKES-BARRE – Sunday was a day about looking forward to the basketball season in District 2 in anticipation.
The excitement for what is ahead, however, was tempered by revelations of who will not be part of the season.
Already well known is the fact that the Dunmore girls enter the season without District 2’s top prospect in any sport, all-stater and University of North Carolina commit Ciera Toomey, and face the uncertainty of whether she will play at all.
Toomey, however, holds out hope for being back from reconstructive knee surgery in time to play some part of her senior season.
The 2022-23 basketball season appears to be gone for some of the district’s top athletes.
Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches’ Press Conferences Sunday including announcement of who will not be playing this season.
And, the first Coaches vs. Cancer Media Day included confirmation that Riverside’s Gerry Rose is out for his sophomore season after starting for the Vikings throughout his freshman year.
The Hazleton Area boys will try to remain a contender without two of the school’s best all-around athletes — Brett Antolick and Matthew Cusatis.
Nanticoke will go without Payton Kepp.
The Berwick girls have lost Gabby Starr.
Injuries were a hot topic of conversation at the WVC sessions with the media with several other key players in danger of missing at least some time at the start of the season.
“Brett Antolick is not playing basketball this season,” Hazleton Area coach Tim Barletta said in beginning his remarks to the media and fellow coaches in the Sunday night meeting at Patte’s Sports Bar. “I met with him; talked to him several times.
“He had knee surgery. He’s in rehab. He’s going to Texas A&M to pitch.”
In addition to his major college baseball plans, Antolick is a prospect for the Major League Baseball Draft.
“ … He has too much to risk,” Barletta said. “I told him, ‘I love you. I support you’. But, Brett Antolick is done with basketball.”
The Cougars also played without Antolick last season and still won 19 games while reaching Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 and tournament championship games before falling short.
As a sophomore, Antolick led the Cougars in total points and was second in scoring average. He was the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter while ranking second in steals and third in rebounds.
Cusatis, who tied for second on the team in blocked shots two years ago, had spent three years on the varsity basketball team.
“We also don’t have Matthew Cusatis,” Barletta said of the state track and field medalist. “Matthew Cusatis has decided to concentrate on getting a track scholarship. He’s running indoor in the winter.
“He still has hopes for maybe football. Matthew is a great kid and a great athlete, but basketball is probably his third-best sport and he’s decided not to play.”
Kepp will miss the season while continuing to work his way back from a major knee injury suffered early in football season. He was a second-team, all-star choice last season in WVC Division 2 by NEPABasketball.com, which is now part of NEPASportsNation.com.
“He’s not going to be playing basketball for this year,” Nanticoke coach Zach Pientka said. “The good news is he’s in the gym with us every day. He’s getting better every day.
“He’s absolutely crushing rehab.”
Kepp was a district medalist long jumper in track and field and is hoping to be ready for that season.
Pientka credited Kepp with becoming “our biggest recruiter,” helping to encourage other top athletes from the school to join or rejoin the basketball team.
Starr, an honorable mention on the NEPABasketball.com WVC Division 1 all-star team last season as a sophomore, suffered a torn ACL and MCL during soccer season.
“The injury bug killed us,” Berwick coach Bill Phillips said during the afternoon girls meeting at Grotto Pizza at the Wyoming Valley Mall. “We lost Gabby Starr for the season … and we lost another potential starter Lybbi Switzer, who had season-ending shoulder surgery from soccer.”
