The Tamaqua boys basketball team will have a new look this season.

Brett Kosciolek (16.71 ppg.) and Bo Rottet (16.82 ppg.), a pair of 1,000-point scorers, are gone from last season's PIAA state playoff team. Also gone is Raiders head coach Caszy Kosciolek, who resigned at the end of the 2014-15 season.The Raiders certainly have lost a lot, but they gained a new head coach with a personal pride and passion invested in the Tamaqua community.Ushering in a new era of Raiders basketball is former Tamaqua and Elizabethown College basketball standout Jim Barron. Barron was born and raised in Tamaqua and now he will be leading a young group of Raiders that will look to continue to bring energy and excitement to the hardwood on top of the hill.Obviously losing two 1,000-point scorers would take its toll on any program. Barron expects senior guard Russell Blaker (7.89 ppg.) and sophomore guard Thad Zuber to help fill that void this season. Barron is especially excited about Blaker, who is a guard that has nice size (6-2) with a good skill set and the ability to shoot the ball from the outside (29 three-pointers)."I feel like Russell was an underrated player last season because he was kind of overshadowed by Brett and Bo," said Barron. "He made some crucial plays and shots for us last season and I think that went unnoticed a bit to people outside of the program."He's a guy we're going to rely on heavily to score for us. When he's hot offensively, we're going to be in a lot of games."Joining guards Blaker and Zuber in the starting lineup will be junior guard Dylan Scott, junior guard Zeke Wassell, and senior forward/center Joe Berezwick.With inexperience at the low post position, Barron's plan in the half court is to spread out the opposition and work for quality scoring opportunities. Look for Tamaqua to attack mostly from the perimeter spots on the floor with the Raiders going mostly with a four-guard offense.The Raiders will also look to apply pressure in order to try and speed the game up at times so they can take advantage of their team quickness."We don't really have a guy that you can throw the ball in to and that can score consistently in the low post," said Barron. "Our big guys are working hard and getting better, but we'll definitely be relying on our guard play. We'll try to spread teams out and attack them. We're also going to try and get up and down the floor at times by putting some pressure on teams in both the full court and the half court."Other players that will see varsity action are sophomore forward/center Gabe Gregoire, sophomore guard/forward Mitch Kurek, sophomore guard Aaron Wargula, sophomore forward Nate Davidson, and sophomore forward/center Casey Rother.Barron explained that the junior varsity games will be a night in and night out audition for varsity playing time. Whoever performs the best in the JV game will get a shot to earn playing time in the varsity game. The goal is to build a competitive nature in his players that carries over to game time."We have a lot of young players in the sophomore class that we need to step up and contribute," said Barron. "Every night those guys will have the opportunity to earn varsity minutes with how they play in the JV game. This is going to be a total team effort this season and we need everyone to come ready to play every night with a ton of energy and physicality."