With Bethlehem Catholic's football season coming to an end last week, the window for prepping the entire lineup into basketball shape is small heading into this weekend's season opener.

The Hawks host Parkland on Saturday night at Liberty's Memorial Gymnasium, with the Trojans entering this season as the clear cut favorite to roll through the East Penn Conference.

Fortunately, for head coach Mike Frew, the Trojans are coming off a season-ending football loss last Saturday in the state quarters as well to put both teams on the same preparation schedule.

Whether that will be enough to make a splash on opening night is up for dispute, but the expectations for the Hawks this year still remains the same.

"Expectations for the year are to qualify for districts again and qualify for league playoffs again," Frew said. "We have made districts two of the last three years and one district final in that time. We won our division last year and hope to defend that as well. The league is competitive again and will make for some exciting matchups yet again."

This year's varsity roster includes Freddie Simmons (G, 6'3 Sr.); Juwan Swan (G, 5'11 Sr.); Julian Spigner (F, 6'3 Jr.); Chance Neilley (G, 6'0 Jr.); DeAndre Tillet (G, 5'7 Jr.); Salih Salaam (F, 6'2 Jr.); EJ Fineran (F, 6'5 Jr.); Andrew Posch (F, 6'3 Jr.); Nick Maff (G, 6'0 Jr.); John Stiles (G, 5'8 Jr.); Joe Smith (G, 6'2 Jr.); Tyler Muniz (G, 5'10 So.); Nick Petros (G, 5'10 So.) and Dat Lambert (G, 5'10 Fr.).

With the Hawks lacking height this year, due to the loss of Andrew Hudak (transfer to Liberty), Frew will have his work cut out for him meshing this team together, but is confident that it can be done.

"This team is young and lacks a lot of varsity minutes experience wise," Frew said. "They are coachable and get along. The group now has been progressing daily and learning what it takes to make a competitive practice environment. We want to be a strong defensive team and look to push the ball working for the best shot possible on the offensive side of the court."