'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 4 -- at Hickory      7-- Struthers      10-- at Girard      14-- Salem      21-- Howland      29-- at Warren JFK Jan . 4 -- at Brookfield      7-- at Newton Falls      11-- at Champion      14-- at Lakeview      18-- Liberty      21-- at Badger      28-- LaBrae Feb. 1-- Brookfield      4-- at Newton Falls      8-- Champion      11-- Lakeview      13-- at Liberty      18-- Badger      25-- at LaBrae.

By The Herald Sports Staff

During head boys basketball coach Bernie Tarr's first five years at Hubbard, the Eagles have set an annual goal of winning more games than the season before.

Hubbard has attained that goal each of the five years. The flip side of the coin, however, is that the Eagles will have to win 19 games during the 1999-2000 campaign in order to do it again.

Hubbard finished last season with an overall record of 18-4 and a ledger of 12-2 in the Trumbull Athletic Conference. According to Tarr, reaching 19 victories is not out of the question, but it's a question that shouldn't be seriously posed at this early stage of the campaign.

"It's not an unreachable goal, but it's not one that we should set right now," said Tarr. "First and foremost, we want to have the fourth consecutive winning season at Hubbard. If we can do that, then by February we should be playing in the upper half of the league."

Leading the Eagles in the quest for their goals will be five seniors and three returning letterwinners. The letterwinners are 6-4 senior forward Scott Ridel, 5-10 junior point guard Marty Kanetsky and 6-1 sophomore guard Anthony Smith.

The team's other four seniors are 5-10 point guard Ryan Caesar, who missed all of last season due to a shoulder injury; 5-10 guard Brock Oros; 6-6 center Jerry Fye; and 5-10 guard J.T. Marshall. Adding support will be 6-0 sophomore guard Matt Smith and 6-2 freshman forward Jason Lenzi.

As talented as Hubbard may be this season, they will more than likely still feel the effects of losing a player of Brian Conklin's caliber.

Conklin, a first-team all-league selection, is now playing at the University of Nebraska.

"Basically, we need an all-around team effort," said Tarr. "Last year when you played Hubbard, the names that came to mind were Brian Conklin, Matt Kanetsky (Marty's older brother), Scott Slovesko, Nick Halcomb and Brian Zuzik. This year, we have certain guys who have stepped up as far as scoring goes, but right now it's going to have to be a team effort."

What hasn't changed from last year is the fact that Liberty is public enemy number one in the eyes of the Eagles. Hubbard has lost only four TAC-8 games in the last two seasons, and all four defeats were at the hands of the Leopards. In fact, Liberty even bounced the Eagles from the Division II sectional final last year as well.

Tarr indicated that while beating the Leopards is certainly a priority, there are other matters to which his team must attend, such as the rest of its conference slate.

"We hope to knock them (Liberty) off, but it seems that the bottom part of the league has stepped up," said Tarr. "Last year, it was Newton Falls, Liberty, us and Lakeview. Even though those teams are still solid, the bottom teams from a year ago have caught up. The league has sort of shrunk, which is good for the league."

Tarr hopes that the shrinking doesn't extend to his players' confidence levels. He knows that growing pains will be inevitable, however.

"When you're a young team, you're going to make some youthful mistakes, and that's where we're at right now," said Tarr. "We're just trying to get over that hump."

Regardless of how may youthful mistakes his team commits early in the season, Tarr firmly believes that the frequency of those mistakes will diminish in time.

"I am very confident in the fact that we are going to get better as the season goes on," he said. "I'm very adamant about that."

His assistants this year are Brian Hamilton (varsity assistant), Jason McCray (junior varsity), Eric Marino (ninth grade), Maurice Anderson (eighth grade) and George Lanterman (seventh grade).