Get your popcorn ready for the bright lights.
It’ll be a rematch of last year’s Schuylkill League boys basketball championship when Pottsville (18-6, 12-2) and Minersville (22-1, 13-1) meet at Martz Hall on Friday night.
“Now we’re a little more familiar with these teams and we’ll be ready to go Friday,” Pottsville coach Tyler Heffner said. “It’s another game for us to focus on a different style team.”
Pottsville and Minersville each punched their ticket to the Schuylkill League Championship with semifinal wins over Tri-Valley and Blue Mountain, respectively, on Wednesday.
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“At this point in the season, you can feel it with this team, and see it in their faces that we know we can do it and make the plays down the stretch,” Minersville coach Chris George said. “We have to be better at executing little things, because Pottsville just doesn’t mess up little things and they’re fundamentally well coached.”
Prior to the Crimson Tide winning the league championship last season, Mahanoy Area won the league title during the 2023-24 season with a 66-51 win for the program’s seventh ever league title. Blue Mountain won the Schuylkill League Championship title during the 2022-23 season with a 57-54 win over North Schuylkill.
Now it’s time for Pottsville and Minersville’s stars to shine under the bright lights at Martz Hall for the second straight year after the Crimson Tide earned a 50-43 win in last year’s championship game.
“We feel like we can wear teams down with the depth we have,” Heffner said after the win over Tri-Valley. “We did that in the second quarter and it was a good all-around performance. I thought we played really well.”
Pottsville lost six seniors from last year’s championship winning squad while Minersville lost eight seniors to graduation, as well as Dante Carr, who departed for the University of Central Florida in January to get an early start on his college football career.
“Our seniors are great, and all credit to coach (Dave) Mullaney for laying the foundation here, and those guys did an awesome job,” George said. “We took their foundation and we knew it’d be different, so we took the pieces we have and tried to tweak it. We’re a little more up-tempo and it’s been great senior leadership and they don’t panic.”
The starting five of Camden Rogers, Chase Zimerofsky, Shazier Bethea, Jordan Bowers and Nolan Plesnarski accounted for all 50 of Minersville’s points in the comeback win over Blue Mountain.
“We’ve gone down a few times this year, and knowing that I have four guys behind me that have so much heart and no quit is fun to be out there with them,” Rogers said. “Everyone on our team is unselfish, and when the team puts that belief in me, it makes me believe in myself.”
Pottsville advanced to the league championship game with a starting lineup of Chris Hobbs, Christian Alvarez, Ryder Bowers, Davey Kunstek and Josh Kimber, who scored 56 of the Crimson Tide’s 70 points in the lopsided win over Tri-Valley.
Minersville is having a one-of-a-kind season.
The Battlin Miners’ finished 21-1 overall and 13-1 in league play to win the Division I regular season title, and are currently on a 19-game winning streak and have scored more than 60 points in 16 games this season. Pottsville has won 10 of their last 13 games and have outscored their opponents 58-45 per game and have scored over 60 points in 12 games this season.
What’s most unique about both Schuylkill League Championship teams is that they are both led by first-year head coaches, Pottsville’s Tyler Heffner and Minersville’s Chris George.
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Pottsville boys basketball head coach Tyler Heffner signals to the team as Blue Mountain hosts Pottsville, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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Minersville head coach Chris George yells out to his players as Minersville and Blue Mountain face off during the Schuylkill League boys basketball semifinals at Martz Hall in Pottsville, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
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Pottsville boys basketball head coach Tyler Heffner signals to the team as Blue Mountain hosts Pottsville, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
Heffner is a 2012 graduate of Pottsville and began coaching as an assistant for the Crimson Tide in 2016. Heffner coached the seventh grade boys for two years, the eighth grade boys for two years and then has spent three seasons as the junior varsity head coach and varsity assistant.
George took over at Minersville after former coach Dave Mullaney — who compiled a 53-24 record over three seasons — resigned last March. George spent the previous 10 years as head coach at Northern Lebanon.
Heffner has been helped out by his senior class —- Brody Herndon, Juleon Bainbridge, Grady Leskin, Christian Alvarez, Ryder Bowers, Davey Kunstek and Brandon Viars. Alvarez leads the Crimson Tide offense with 18.2 points per game, Bowers’ 11.2 points per game and Kunstek’s 10 points per game.
“We just want to focus on ourselves and do what we do well,” Alvarez said. “We know we can come out with the win if we do that.”
Pottsville and Minersville will meet for the third time this season Friday. The road team won each of the regular season matchups.
Pottsville won 62-51 on Dec. 11, and Minersville squeaked out a 62-58 overtime win on Jan. 20.
Kunstek led the Crimson Tide with 19 points, while Bowers scored 14 points and Hobbs scored 11 in Pottsville’s 62-51 win at Minersville on Dec. 11.
When the two teams matched up at Martz Hall on Jan. 20, Bethea and Alvarez combined for 57 points. Bethea led the Battlin’ Miners with 30 points and Bowers contributed 18 points in the overtime win.
“We feel like we can match up well with anyone and being in this type of atmosphere gets you ready for the championship,” Rogers said. “When (Bethea is) hitting, we all feed off his energy. He’s a great senior leader so feeding off his energy is awesome.”
Pottsville and Minersville will play for the Schuylkill League Championship at Martz Hall on Friday at 7:30 p.m.