Lady Bears hoping to take next step

Nadia Gauronsky is anything but complacent.

Gauronsky has led the Pleasant Valley girls’ basketball team to the District 11 playoffs in six of her eight years at the helm.

But Gauronsky wants more for the Bears. And it starts with the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

“I think we’re trying to work hard every day and hold each other accountable for things we’re not really great at and things we are really great at,” said Gauronsky. “And the ultimate goal is to possibly win that Mountain Division of the EPC. We’ve been in the running every year, but we’ve never been able to come in first.

“We’ve kind of tied for first, and then the last game we kind of lose it. I think our goal is to win the Mountain Division.”

Gauronsky watched Pleasant Valley’s season end with a 42-22 loss to Mountain Division champion Stroudsburg in the first round of the District 11 Class 6A playoffs a year ago.

The Bears look to be primed for another postseason run with the return of last season’s two leading scorers, senior Masani Francis (7.74 points-per-game) and sophomore Cameron Caffrey (6.30 ppg.).

With Francis and Caffrey spearheading the attack, Pleasant Valley is hoping to play a more up-tempo style of basketball this season.

“I’d say, previously, we were probably a little bit bigger as a team. So now we’re gonna be a bit shorter, so we’re gonna try to push it and go fast to really push it up the court,” said Francis.

“I think we’re quicker this year, so we wanna push the ball a little more, and we wanna just work with what we have, and try out some new things,” added Caffrey.

In addition to Francis and Caffrey, senior Mikaela Miller (3.35 ppg.) also returns after starting for the Bears (11-12) a year ago.

“We’re more of a family this year on the court,” said Miller. “Most of us have been playing together for a while, so we kinda know what we’re going to expect out of each other.”

The Bears lost two big pieces in Joyce Sullivan (4.30 ppg.) and Natalia Salmon (4.09).

But Gauronsky expects her underclassmen to step up and play a bigger role on the team this season to help offset those losses.

“We have Maddie Rosenberg, who is stepping into a leadership role now, and we have two twins, in Alexa Clark and Brianna Clark, and Maddie O’Neil, who is going to see time at the guard spot,” said Gauronsky.

“And then we have a 6-3 girl in Ashley Schwenck, which is a huge benefit to any team when you have somebody with that kind of size. She’s a pretty dominant player when she is on her game. So I think those things will help us this season.”

Schwenck averaged 4.73 ppg. as a sophomore, and figures to play a larger role in the offense this season.

If the pieces fall into place, expect Pleasant Valley to be in contention in the EPC, and maybe more.

“I think they’re capable of winning much more than just the Mountain Division,” said Gauronsky.

“And I think that if they continue to work as hard as they’re working, and hold each other accountable, I think that they’re going to go pretty far.”