CITY SERIES Chaney wants no part of stall ball

Ten players should see plenty of varsity action.
By BILL SULLIVAN
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- There is no indecision in the voice of Don D'Alesio.
He has a vision of where the Chaney High boys basketball team is headed and the first-year coach is willing to be the architect of that dream.
"Hopefully, we're going to be very entertaining," said D'Alesio when asked about this year's Cowboy team.
"We're going to play the up-tempo style of basketball. Full-court press, straight man-to-man defense. Try to put on a great show for everybody. We're going to make it exciting. We're a pretty athletic team."
The Cowboys are a pretty deep team, too, with 10 players who will see plenty of varsity action.
Five seniors start
Five seniors start, including three who lettered on last winter's 7-13 squad -- guards Chance Peay and Ed McElroy as well as forward Chris Childers.
Other starters should be guard Idris ElAmin and forward Adrian Richards.
Sophomore Dom Crosby and junior Keenan Ready will be the first two players off the bench, but senior Dave Heginbotham, juniors Mike Bevan, Brandon Crosby and Jesse Bowlen and sophomore Carrington Moore should be in the mix.
"Our strength is our team speed so we'll try to utilize that," said D'Alesio.
Thus far there are no health problems and academic eligibility is not a factor.
"We've been using some study tables at practice. Kids have to have their grades before they do anything else. If they need to do some extra homework, all we ask them is come to practice and we have four study tables set up in the gym."
Despite being the third coach in the past four years, D'Alesio quickly admits basketball is secondary.
Grades stressed
"We're really stressing grades," he said. "If they don't have grades, they could be Michael Jordan and they'll sit on the bench. That's what we're really trying to stress."
The coach, who played basketball at Chaney, sees the City Series race as a tough toss-up.
"We'll just have to go out and be prepared for a battle every single night. Every game in the City is a tough game. What makes our league, with Rayen and Wilson, really competitive is the kids all know each other."