It doesn’t happen often, but the Emmaus boys basketball team finished the 2019-20 season under .500 with a 5-17 overall record. A young and mostly inexperienced team, the Green Hornets faced plenty of bumps in the road, but never gave up on the season.

“It was a tough season,” said Hornet head coach Steve Yoder. “It wasn’t what we’re used to here or how we wanted it to go, but the boys never dropped their heads or quit. They finished out the year. And that’s all you could ask for as a coach.”

One year after playing in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship game, the Green Hornets missed the postseason all together.

Emmaus graduated five seniors in Mason Boyd, Pat Hunter, Ryan Todd, Jayden Walsh and Demo Stephanidis. Yoder and his staff will bring back three top returnees who played major minutes last season in seniors Danny Bohman, Patrick Tulio and Jameel Sanders. Bohman has been a member of the varsity team since his freshman year, and him and Tulio each were starters last year. Sanders brings energy and hustle to the floor off the bench and takes pride in his rebounding.

Some other key players to this year’s team include juniors Jadis Brevitt and Meech Rogers, along with senior Shep Henseler. The trio were all contributing members last season, but will see an increased role for the 2020-21 campaign.

Other players on the roster include senior James Debus, juniors Brydon Crawford, Ryan Diehl, Ryan Santos and Jaden Gallagher, sophomores Jake Fotta, Dylan Darville and Dan Charlot, and freshman Will Barber.

“I think our depth and athleticism are strengths for this group,” Yoder said. “We are a little inexperienced again as a whole, but we have some good athletes. Our lack of size is one thing that may be a weakness as well, but we play scrappy and work hard.”

Like with fall sports, the EPC divided boys basketball into divisions. Emmaus will be joined by Allen, Dieruff, Central Catholic, Whitehall and Parkland. Each team will, most likely, be playing each other twice.

The East Penn Conference pushed back the start of the 2020-21 season to Friday, January 14. The Hornets host Deiruff in the opener.