IAC BOYS BASKETBALL: TIOGA BASKETBALL STILL WAITING ON FOOTBALL PLAYERS AS 2022-23 SEASON APPROACHES (7 PHOTOS) (2022-11-29)

By TIM BIRNEY
Valley Sports Report
TIOGA CENTER — Tioga boys basketball coach Brian Card is encouraged by an increase in his program’s numbers, but as usual able-bodies are still scarce as more than half his varsity team is still at football practice as the 2022-23 season approaches.

“We go through this every year, we’re use to it,” said Card. “In my time here, I’ve had one normal preseason.

“We’ve had three varsity players — Ethan Perry, Ethan Landmesser, and Nick Guiles-Vought — at practice, and the rest have been JV kids.

“It’s great though,” he noted. “The kids come off a winning season in football, and that’s what they expect to do in basketball.

“They always work hard,” added Card. “They know it’s a shorter season, and they’re behind the 8-ball, so they put in the work right at the beginning.”

The Tigers will have 24 players on the roster between the varsity and JV teams in 2022-23.

“Our numbers are really good,” said Card. “We have 10 for varsity, and 14 on JV.

“Last year, we ended up with seven on varsity, and eight on JV,” noted Card. “So, we’ve improved our numbers quite a bit.

“We have one new senior in Nick Guiles-Vought, who hasn’t played since he was on JV at Athens,” added Card. “And, we have quite a few freshmen, some new faces for the JV squad,”

The Tigers scrimmaged Deposit-Hancock last week, and are at Towanda Thursday.

Tioga will open the 2022-23 season at home against S-VE.

“We will have four full practices with our entire team together before our first game,” said Card.

“Our first live-action will be our first regular-season game, but these kids played 20 games this summer. They understand the game, and they understand the system.

“We shouldn’t be too far behind the 8-ball,” added Card.

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IN PHOTO 1: Tioga’s Ethan Perry. … PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.