Eagles are Soaring

The Triboro area has already had a great basketball season with many solid players and teams making noise this season. Riverside and Old Forge get most of the attention, but Triboro Christian Academy, located in Old Forge, also sports both boys and girls basketball teams.

Both teams are sitting in third place in the New York Pennsylvania Christian Athletic Conference, important because the league has a tournament at the end of the season. The tournament will decided the champion of the league, with the top four teams will make the tournament.

"We are coming on now," said boys' head coach Keith Weber. "We had a 0-4 start and we started clicking at the holiday tournament we played in and only lost one game since. We are 6-6 now."

The league features two teams from Pennsylvania and five teams from central New York state, meaning the teams do a lot of traveling to play games. When the Old Forge-based school plays a home game, its home court is at the Ice Box in Scranton.

The Eagles and the rest of the league features players of all grades playing all on the same team.

There are no varsity, junior varsity, freshman or middle school teams. The teams in the NY-Penn Christian Athletic Conference encompass players from all grades due to the size of the schools in the league. They aren't big enough to support multiple teams.

"My son Zack (Weber) is in seventh grade and he plays," coach Weber said. "The competition gets them going. Both seniors started when they were in seventh and eighth grade and played right on through. Now because of that competition they are at where they are now as a result."

Coach Weber said his team is led by two seniors Caleb Simpson and Jacob Brown. Jake Chibala is a sophomore, but is a part of what coach Weber refers to as the big three. Coach Weber said they also compliment each other very well on the court.

Simpson is a versatile guard/forward, but Weber said he likes to use him more as a guard. Brown is guard, which gives the Eagles a tough back court to deal with. Chibala is the center, who plays tough under the basket.

On Friday night the Eagles defeated Muhlenberg Christian Academy by a score of 48-31. Simpson scored 15 in the win, Brown scored seven and Chibala added 12 points.

"Right now we are in third place and so are the girls," Weber said. "Right now we are both looking pretty good to get in."

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