By JOSE NEGRON
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BeeGraphix head coach Tim Tyree is looking forward to opening up play in the Mon Valley Independent Summer Basketball League when his team meets Farmers Insurance in the season opener next week.
But, with the boys draft set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Cedarbrook Golf Course in Rostraver Township, Tyree is laser-focused on rebuilding his team a year after winning the league championship in its inaugural season.
“We’re coming in and we’re looking to go back to back,” said Tyree, who led BeeGraphix to a 10-2 season last summer. “I’m excited about this year. We want to get that championship again.”
Tyree has four players returning from last year’s squad in Belle Vernon Area’s Alonzo Wade and Quinton Martin, North Allegheny’s Ty Iwanonkiw and Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher III.
Wade will be heading into his freshman year at BVA, while Iwanonkiw is a big-time threat inside, standing at 6-9. He recently transferred to NA from Pittsburgh Central Catholic.
Martin is coming off a strong freshman season in which he averaged 11.8 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game while coming off the bench for the Leopards. He was named MVI-BeeGraphix Breakthrough Player of the Year and is a highly-touted football recruit with six Division I offers.
Gallagher, who was selected No. 1 overall in last year’s draft, is the reigning MVP of the MVISBL’s boys division and is one of the top prospects – in both football and basketball – in the country.
“We’re working in the Mon Valley, but we really have national talent with some high level Division I guys,” Tyree said. “Rod is a national recruit and Quinton is a national recruit. We’re talking about some of the best athletes in the WPIAL in both football and basketball. I think it really speaks volumes about the core group we have coming back and the overall talent in the league across the board.”
Among the significant voids Tyree will have to fill is that of Chartiers Valley standout Brayden Reynolds, who was a first-team all-star selection after averaging over 20 points per game last summer.
BeeGraphix will also have to replace Thomas Jefferson’s Shawn McSwiggen, a 6-3 forward who will not be playing this summer, as well as Charleroi’s Jake Caruso, who elected to re-enter the draft.
“We’re looking forward to making some acquisitions here before we start,” said Tyree, who has already made one trade heading into Tuesday’s draft.
Tyree agreed to a deal Saturday in which he sent his second round draft pick to Elite Physical Therapy in exchange for Bishop Canevin’s Shea Champine.
After helping lead Bishop Canevin to a WPIAL Class A championship last winter, Champine will help fill the void left by his brother, Trey, who is out for the summer due to injury.
“Shea Champine is somebody who had a great year for Bishop Canevin. He’s grown two or three inches and has really developed his game,” Tyree said. “Just knowing Coach Gino (Palmosina) and knowing what they have coming back next year, they’re going to be one of the top teams in the state and I look for Shea to be one of the top players in Class A next year.
“I think Shea is going to impress a lot of people this summer.”
As for the draft, Tyree has several roster spots to fill and a talented crop of players to select from. He will have the sixth overall selection Tuesday.
“We just want to make sure we’re filling the pieces on our roster,” Tyree said. “We want to take into account availability, too. We want to make sure we’re going in there and getting guys we can count on. We may not necessarily look at the best available player, but we’ll try to fill needs and do what we need to do to build our team.”
BeeGraphix will undoubtedly have a target on its back this season after defeating Farmers Insurance in last year’s championship game.
Tyree and his group are fine with that, though.
“We embrace the challenge of being at the top and having that target on our back,” Tyree said. “We’re looking forward to having a great summer and hoisting that trophy again in August.”