Winter Sports

It's been a decade since the Panther Valley girls basketball team reached postseason play.

That's nine years too long for coach Josh Wank.

Wank wants the Panthers to become an annual fixture in the District 11 playoffs and he wants it to start right now.

The fourth-year coach guided the Panthers to the brink of qualification a year ago before losses in the final two games of the season left them one win short.

Tony Thomas is following the blueprints he laid out for what is his first season with the Northern Lehigh girls' basketball team.

Thomas, taking over for Dave Oertner, who stepped down after last season, is forced to deal with some rebuilding within the program.

Last year's Colonial League Most Valuable Player Aimee Oertner and Tina Bastardi, who earned All-League Honorable Mention, both graduated. Oertner (United States Military Academy) and Bastardi (Misericordia) have taken their basketball skills to the collegiate level.

It took strong leadership for the Northern Lehigh wrestling team to get back to the District Duals last season.

Two seasons ago, the Bulldogs missed out on the event for the first time ever during head coach Todd Herzog's tenure.

But last year, the Bulldogs relied on the guidance of seniors Kyle Greenawald, Dylan Hofmann, Kyle Schomp and Kyle Baumann to get the program back on track.

Now, Herzog, who enters his 18th season with the program, will have to depend on his new players to step up and fill the void left by graduation.

BETHLEHEM Sean Bianco isn't afraid of many things, unless spiders, snakes and darkness are in the equation. But when it comes to wrestling, the Pleasant Valley junior is fearless on the mat. Bianco illustrated that mentally fierce demeanor during Saturday's Northeast regional AAA finals when he wasted little time dispatching Strousburg's Guesseppe Rea in the 113-pound championship with a fall in 2:42.