The coaches and a handful of players from each of the Heritage Conference boys’ and girls’ basketball teams met at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex Tuesday morning for a preseason breakfast, and the coaches spoke with the media about the upcoming season and participated in a preseason poll.
The Ligonier Valley boys were picked to repeat as Heritage Conference champions with eight of the 10 coaches picking the Rams to take the title on Feb. 7 at the KCAC. The Rams collected eight of 10 first-place votes to win the South section as well.
The United boys received one championship vote, and one coach abstained. Purchase Line was picked to win the North section.
The Ligonier Valley teams will be playing in their final Heritage Conference season in 2019-20.
On the girls’ side, coaches are split on who will win the championship. Five of the 10 coaches believe it will be United, while four picked Penns Manor, the defending champion. Blairsville received one vote.
Penns Manor received eight of 10 first-place votes in the North section, while United edged Blairville with six of 10 first-place votes in the South. Blairsville received three first-place votes and was just four points behind United in the voting.
To tally the results, first-place votes received five points, second-place votes received four points and so on. The following are the full results of the poll.
Boys North
Purchase Line (five first-place votes)
Penns Manor (four)
West Shamokin (one)
Marion Center
Northern Cambria
Girls North
Penns Manor (eight first-place votes)
Purchase Line (one)
West Shamokin (one)
Marion Center
Northern Cambria
Boys South
Ligonier Valley (eight first-place votes)
Saltsburg (two)
United
Homer-Center
Blairsville
Girls South
United (six first-place votes)
Blairsville (three)
Homer-Center (one)
Saltsburg
Ligonier Valley
Boys champion: Ligonier Valley (eight votes)
Girls champion: United (six votes)
