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McDONALD -- Coming off their regional semifinal appearance, the McDonald Blue Devil girls basketball program enters the 2020-21 season with the lineup largely intact, but a new face is running the show after eight-year McDonald coach Amy Dolsak stepped down.
Now leading the Blue Devils is longtime area coach Tony Matisi. Matisi has been coaching around the area for a while, making stops at South Range, Lowellville and Ursuline. Despite the chaos and uncertainty surrounding the season, the veteran coach is only getting more comfortable as we inch closer to the start of the season.
"I sort of fell into this thing," Matisi said. "I've been coaching a long time, and realizing what we have here has been great. They work so hard and every practice is better than the last. It's been going good."
When taking over for a team that's had the success McDonald has seen over the recent years, change isn't a necessary thing. But as a new coach naturally implements their own system, changes are bound to happen.
"There wasn't much to do, just a little fine tuning and putting some of the stuff we wanted to run," Matisi said. "Amy (Dolsak) did such a fabulous job getting the kids ready, and fundamentally they're so good, we didn't spend much time at all (on fundamentals) because she did such a good job."
With that fundamental skill however, the Blue Devils are able to put a little more focus on the development side and continue to improve their depth, which can only help deeper into the season.
"It's going to be a very different look," Matisi said. "We're letting them go. We're playing baseline to baseline. I thought it was real important for us to develop the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth kids because you can be good for the season, but if you want to get deep in the tournament, you've got to have kids you can put in and not drop a level.
"We did that and so we were able to then do some things. Push the ball, defend the whole floor and they've taken to it great."
The one main change you'll see with McDonald is a more aggressive defense. Matisi has largely left the offense alone.
"After I got the job, I got to see all their film and thought we could be a lot more aggressive defensively," Matisi said. "We spent probably 80 percent of our time on defense, just getting our style and what we want to do because they're so good offensively, we didn't have to do much."
McDonald continues to challenge itself with a tough league schedule and multiple non-conference foes like Maplewood, Massillon Perry and West Branch.
The Blue Devils close out their season against Chartiers Valley, a Pittsburgh area team that won the state title in 2019 in the 5A classification, (the Ohio equivalent being a smaller Division I school, like Howland), and is coached by Tim McConnell, father of Indiana Pacers guard TJ McConnell.
"We've got to get tougher," Matisi said. "It's all for the end of the year stuff for us to be good. We've got to get better. I think they understand that."
The five starters returning for McDonald include Molly Howard and Maddy Howard, the former of the two just signed to Indiana University of Pennsylvania for basketball. Also returning are Sophia Costantino, Taylor Tuchek and Lucy Wolford.
The group has already left an impression on the veteran coach.
"They're in the top five (teams I've coached)," Matisi said. "I've had teams where I've had great guards, I've had teams where I've had great big kids, but man, they've got everything here. The good thing about it, they all have their niche, they each have their specialty and they accept it ... I've got seniors on the bench cheering just as hard as if they were playing, it's been a great atmosphere."
One thing about the players that's impressed him is their basketball knowledge.
"They've been around basketball," Matisi said. "They've got a lot of basketball parents and being brought up and playing AAU and I think that's been key to their success for all these years is knowing the game."
That knowledge paid off as the Blue Devils kicked their season off with a 66-26 win over Columbiana the day before the season was paused in Trumbull County. Team activity is set to resume in late December with games set to start in early January.