The excitement of the Emmaus boys basketball team’s historic 2016-17 season is in the rear view mirror. A new group of Hornet players took the court in front of Lehigh Valley fans recently as the Allentown Summer Basketball League recently got underway.

With the graduations of four-year varsity players David and Matthew Kachelries, along with program staples Eric Cichocki and Daryn Lewis, the Green Hornets are looking for new leaders to step up and take control of the team.

The likely players seem to be senior forward Josh Artis and junior center Zach Sabol, who are the lone returning starters from a year ago.

With guard play being important to the success of a team, Artis and Sabol will be shouldered with more responsibility, even if the ball is not always in their hands.

Artis did his part and tallied a team-high 11 points in a 46-36 victory over Freedom last Thursday night at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown. It was the first win in the summer league for the Hornets (1-3).

“Right now I’m just trying to be a leader for this team, and that’s how I’m going about these games in the summer,” said Artis. “With the Kachelries gone, they were our main threats. I’m trying to take on that role however I can.”

Most of the returning varsity members that saw playing time last season are forwards.

Seniors Cole Ferguson and Corey Riegel, and junior Bryce Diehl all found their way into the rotation at times last year, so head coach Steve Yoder will have inexperienced ball handlers in charge of running the offense. That makes the play of these inside guys so important moving forward.

“Our team is just trying to feel stuff out right now,” Artis said of the summer league games. “We have a lot of young guards, and even the veterans are stepping into bigger roles. So we’ll go through bumps, but that’s what summer is for.”

Senior point guard Tommy Ross and junior guard Keyon Carrol-Herring started in the back court against Freedom.

Emmaus jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never trailed against the Patriots. They held a 10-point advantage at halftime, but Freedom cut it to five midway through the second half. The Hornets scored the next seven points and led 40-28, en route to the victory.

Emmaus is back on the court for two games this week, against Pocono Mountain East (Tuesday) and Northampton Thursday.