The last three years haven't exactly been much of anything to write home about for high school basketball teams in the Altoona Mirror coverage area.
The area only produced four champions - the Altoona, Hollidaysburg and Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic girls and the Bishop Carroll boys - out of a possible 12 in District 6 and District 5 in 2010-11. That's coming off a year when only three area squads took home district gold sandwiched into another year with four area champs.
Only eight area teams even played in district finals last year, and the Bellwood-Antis boys were the only other one to advance to the PIAA tournament by virtue of a consolation game win in 6-AA.
There might be an upturn to that trend in the next few weeks.
District 6 will release its playoff brackets and sites for Class A, AA and AAA either this afternoon or Tuesday, and the Mirror area should have a lot of high seeds and contenders there as well as in the Class AAAA and District 5 fields that will come out later.
In fact, the area is already guaranteed two teams in states - Hollidaysburg and Tyrone were the only entrants in Class AAA girls, meaning both teams advance to interdistrict games.
The final date to accumulate points for seeding in 6-AAA through A was Feb. 9. It looks very promising that the BG girls (Class A), Tyrone boys (Class AA) and Northern Cambria boys (Class A) will join the Tyrone girls as No. 1-ranked in their respective D6 fields. The Altoona girls are a shoe-in to be top seeded when the 6-AAAA girls seedings come out, and the Chestnut Ridge boys and Tussey Mountain girls are leading contenders to garner top spots in District 5 Class AA.
The Bellwood boys and girls, Guilfoyle boys, Penn Cambria boys, Williamsburg boys, Northern Bedford boys and girls and Portage girls are among the other area teams that should be highly seeded, while the Central girls and Tussey boys are teams that will be more near the middle of the pack in their brackets but capable of doing big things.
There are 13 teams apiece entered in 6-AA boys and girls, but look for the area to make its biggest splash in 6-A, where six of 10 boys teams and five of nine girls are covered by the Mirror.
It looks like the Altoona boys, despite their recent woes, might be entering. If so, the Mountain Lions would be in the second seed's half of the bracket; six teams might enter in that classification.
The district finals are slated to be played Feb. 29-March 3. District 6 chairman T.J. Kakabar said St. Francis University is not available for this year's championship games, so look for them to be scattered among places like Altoona, State College and UPJ, among others.
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There was more than a little irony that Franki Treglia hit a shot that gave State College girls an upset win at Hollidaysburg on Friday night.
Treglia, a junior, actually played the last two seasons for the Lady Tigers and built a reputation as quite a shooter. She started some as a freshman and scored a team-high 13 points off the bench in Hollidaysburg's PIAA overtime second-round loss to Franklin last March.
Her family moved into the State College district before this season.
Cmor can be reached at 946-7444 or pcmor@altoonamirror.com.
