Another summer, another year that Steve Yoder has to figure out new formulas for success after the Emmaus boys basketball head coach graduated a chunk of his roster from a year ago.

The Green Hornets lost three starters in Derek Tannous, Dan Brndjar, and Gabe Shankweiler from a team that went 12-12 overall and 9-5 in the Lehigh Valley Conference, and advanced to the District 11 quarterfinals last season.

It is the second year in a row Yoder has a whole group of new and inexperienced players to groom for success.

"In the last two years we graduated 12 kids," Yoder said. "The value of playing in the summer is helpful for our older guys like Nate [Feiertag], Tyler [Prescott], and Claude [Bradshaw] because they're getting playing time with this young and up-and-coming sophomore group. That's important because come the season we are going to have a lot of new bodies in there."

Emmaus has been a bit unknown to the Lehigh Valley sports fans this summer. Instead of playing in the LV Summer League each week at Cedar Beach, Yoder takes his team down to Philadelphia to face different competition in hopes of gaining valuable experience.

"We went down to Philly and I thought it was a great experience for us," noted Yoder. "We played a lot of urban schools with great athleticism. I think the kids enjoyed it. We took our lumps, but I think the speed and overall play is going to help us down the line."

The Green Hornets played around eight games in Philadelphia this summer.

On opening night of the Stellar Catch A Rising Star Tournament last Thursday, Emmaus fell to a quality team in District 3's Berks Catholic by a score of 55-34. Feiertag scored a team-high 19 points in the loss.

On Saturday, the Green Hornets tournament ended in dramatic fashion, dropping their second straight, 52-48 against Central Bucks East. Prescott tallied 21 points, and Joey Polczynski added 16.

"I thought our last game was a great experience for the older kids and the younger kids to play together in a highly competitive game," said Yoder. "It didn't work out, but they were exhausted in the end and the effort was great. I was really proud of them."

Emmaus will look to keep improving when the next tournament, Sportsfest, approaches this weekend.