The Emmaus boys basketball team came one shot away from winning the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title last season and fell one win short of playing for the District 11 Class 6A championship. The Hornets still qualified for the league tournament last season despite the lack of a postseason title.

The 2019-20 version of the Green Hornets team will look a lot different. Eight seniors graduated, including five starters and multiyear contributors to the program.

With all of that talent and experience lost, there is just one major contributor from last season returning this year in junior Danny Bohman.

While Bohman is the only familiar face that has seen time back in the lineup, 12th-year head coach Steve Yoder is excited about the young players on the team this year.

“I think we have a lot of depth this season, which is one our main strengths,” Yoder said. “But we just lack many kids with varsity experience.

“We lost a lot of players to graduation last year. But the young guys are talented so our goal of competing for a spot in the EPC, District 11 and state tournaments is still in reach this year.”

Some of the names of the newcomers that will be contributors this season for Emmaus include seniors Mason Boyd, Ryan Todd, Pat Hunter, Demetrius Stephanided and Jayden Walsh, juniors Paddy Tulio, Alec Ward, Jameel Sanders and Shep Henseler, and sophomores Jaden Gallagher and Meech Rogers.

What may be beneficial for Yoder and his team is that they will be able to hit the ground running right from the get-go, with plenty of games early on in the year to gain some valuable experience that will benefit down the road.

“We play more than half of our regular season games (12) in the first month of the season,” said Yoder. “Considering our lack of varsity experience, it is going to be critical that we acclimate ourselves to the speed and physicality of varsity basketball as quickly as possible. If we can survive the first month, we hope to finish the second half of the season on a strong note and possibly sneak into EPC’s and districts.”

Emmaus begins its 2019-20 campaign on Friday at Colonial League power Southern Lehigh, followed by its home opener against Abington Heights the following day.