The length of the high school boys basketball season was a benefit for Shady Side Academy.
First-year coach Jim Dudas and his team had an opportunity to spend the first month of the season ironing out the kinks that come with a program transitioning to new leadership. The Bulldogs won their opener, then dropped seven straight games.
Shady Side Academy ended up figuring things out defensively and rebounded to reach the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs. The results of the No. 13 seed Bulldogs’ game with No. 4 Bishop Canevin were too late for this edition.
“It just took time,” Dudas said. “The buy-in was there right away. When you are teaching a different type of system, you have to go through the battles and the tough situations and experience tough things to come through in a game situation.”
The Bulldogs (8-14, 4-6 Section 3-3A) showed life when the calendar flipped to 2026. Shady Side Academy pulled out of its skid with wins over Apollo-Ridge, Steel Valley and Northgate.
While the Bulldogs had another tough stretch in January, Dudas feels the team’s improvement was shown in the scores of the games down the stretch.
“We improved in every facet,” Dudas said. “We got better at everything we did. If you look at the scores from the first part of the season, the defense improved. We had a tough schedule.”
Dudas said that Shady Side Academy has a group of players, led by captains Alex Demchak and Cam Mallory, that is in-tune with what they are being asked to do. Dudas has been happy with how quickly they have picked up on defensive concepts.
The Bulldogs allowed 49.1 points per game, which was second in the section behind South Park.
“I think we have good length and athletes,” Dudas said. “We have some kids who are pretty smart. They ask questions when they don’t understand things, and the interaction with staff has helped them get better at the little things. They pay attention to the scouting plan. We can put something on the board and they can explain it to me like they are mimicking my words.”
Shady Side Academy is hoping it can lean on its defense and get good shooting in the playoffs. The Bulldogs had trouble scoring consistently in the regular season. Shady Side Academy averaged 46.2 points per game.
Dudas said he thinks the Bulldogs have strong leadership to keep things stable.
“Alex and Cam have done a nice job as the captains,” Dudas said. “At different times, different kids have stepped up to say things that needed to be said and things that needed to be done.”