Three Jeannette boys basketball players left Monday on a senior class trip to Costa Rica.
They might have preferred a voyage to Central Pennsylvania over Central America, but Hershey will have to wait.
The Jayhawks saw another lengthy season come to a close two wins shy of the state finals in a wrenching, 59-58 loss Saturday to Mercyhurst Prep in the PIAA 2A quarterfinals at Sharon.
Jeannette finished 24-3, a year after going 25-3 and reaching the state quarters.
The team went 70-16 the past three years with a WPIAL title, a WPIAL runner-up finish and two state quarterfinal appearances.
“We had a great run with this group,” Jeannette 18th-year coach Adrian Batts said. “We knew it was going to be tough to repeat (as WPIAL champions). Everyone is a a year older and better. We weren’t a surprise anymore. Everyone was coming to try to knock us off.”
Jeannette put together a 20-game winning streak going into the WPIAL final, where it lost to Sewickley Academy, 52-38.
A couple of blowout wins to open the state bracket followed before the Jayhawks were tripped up against Mercyhurst Prep.
A much-anticipated rematch with Sewickley Academy never came to be.
Saturday’s narrow loss brought and end to the prep playing careers of senior starters Kymon’e Brown, Xavier Odorisio-Farrow and Noah Sunder – the trio headed for Costa Rica. Brown was a four-year starter who scored over 1,000 points and orchestrated a talented rotation.
“It’s a great senior group,” Batts said. “You look at what they did. … They are winning in life. We didn’t always win WPIAL and PIAA championships, but it was fun to go and chase them.
“Kymon’e is going to play Division I football at Robert Morris. Sunder is playing football at Waynesburg. X is going to play (football) somewhere.
“It’s our juniors’ turn to take it now. Markus (McGowan) and Jayce (Powell).”
McGowan averaged 18 points a game and Powell 10. Both are primed to be four-year starters. McGowan is over 1,000 career points, and Powell is within earshot of the milestone with a season to go.
Juniors Noah Clary and McAlister Steele also are due to return after playing key reserve roles.
“That’s four guys for next year,” Batts said. “Who is the fifth guy? Who wants to do it? We’ll have to find out.”
Jeannette’s two-year run has its place in program history.
“We didn’t lose to a public school this year, for whatever that is worth,” Batts said. “We talked to our guys about creating their own legacy. When you think about Jeannette basketball, you think about the Terrelle Pryor teams. I was an assistant when we went to the WPIAL finals three years in a row. These guys made their own mark on the program.
“We made the community proud. I think everyone who came out and followed us is proud of what we did. We’ll be back.”
In his 20-plus-year coaching career, Batts has been to eight WPIAL finals: Two as an assistant at Franklin Regional, three as an assistant at Jeannette and three as the Jayhawks’ top man.
He also was an assistant on Franklin Regional’s 1997 PIAA runner-up team.