Best Team Pierson’s Kevin Barron Has Had ‘By Far’

March 23, 2019

In last Thursday morning’s brief practice session, Kevin Barron, Pierson High’s girls basketball coach, worked on breaking a full-court zone press, which had given his players some trouble in their 46-41 win over Mattituck in the Suffolk tournament’s B-C game.That they beat Mattituck, a traditional thorn in the Whalers’ side, all three times they played them this season is a feather in Pierson’s cap, though Barron and his charges are setting their sights higher. It’s been a generation since a Pierson girls team — led then by Katie Browngardt, Kyle Beyel, and Irene McMahon — has played in a state final (a 59-58 overtime loss in 1985 to Morrisville-Eaton).“It’s the first time in my [seven-year] career that we’ve ever beaten Mattituck,” Barron said during a conversation that followed the practice session. “It was very close going into the fourth quarter. We were up by 9 at the half, but they came back in the third to tie. It was back and forth in the fourth quarter. We’d had 13 turnovers facing a full-court zone press in the third — we kind of lost our heads a bit. But we were able to overcome that, we ground it out. Chastin [Giles, the junior point guard] hit a big 3 with a couple of minutes left, and we kept the lead after that. . . .”This is Barron’s last season as a coach — at least for a while. The “sabbatical,” he said, was occasioned by the fact that he is now a parent of two small children, the youngest being 6 months old. He will continue to teach biology at the high school, he added, in answer to a question.He’ll leave the program in good hands — the junior varsity, coached by Woody Kneeland, went 16-2 this year.Asked if this year’s varsity had been his best, Barron readily replied, “The best by far. They’re all very coachable; they’ve got good chemistry. I’ve got a lot of role players. I can bring in four or five off the bench and they’ll deliver — whether it’s defense, rebounding . . . whatever. I haven’t had that in the past.”That Katie Kneeland, the team’s leading scorer (and aspiring astronaut), had been sidelined for the first few games of the season owing to a broken wrist suffered in gym class had probably helped in the long run, said Barron, inasmuch as her absence required others to step up.Coincident with her return, the team set forth on a 19-game winning streak that wasn’t snapped until Friday’s loss to Mount Sinai in the county small schools championship game — a game that was within the Whalers’ reach with five or so minutes to go.In the B-C game, Kneeland scored her 1,000th point — a rarity in Whaler hoops history — “on a foul shot in the first quarter. She only needed 5 — she got 19.”Thus Kneeland joined the aforementioned Katie Browngardt and Robyn Bramoff as only the third female 1,000-point scorer in Pierson’s annals. Bobby Vacca, Darnell Coffey, Phil Carney, and Will Martin are among the few who have done it among the boys.What strikes one in watching Kneeland on the court is how well balanced and efficient she is. Not flashy, but always in control. “She’s improved a lot, just by playing the year round,” Barron said in reply to a question. “Katie and Chastin both played soccer, and they play basketball on travel teams, and they work out. That’s why they’re so athletic on the court. Katie’s also our leading rebounder, averaging 11 a game for us, and Chastin, the last time I checked, was averaging 12.5 points a game, five steals, five rebounds, five assists. . . . She’s all over the stats.”Win or lose, the game with Mount Sinai would be a welcome way to prepare for the state Class C regional game on March 9, “probably with the defending champion, Millbrook. We ought to know who we play and whether it will be at New Paltz or at Pace on March 5.” Millbrook is ranked number one among the state’s Class C teams this season by the New York Sportswriters Association, but Barron said he didn’t necessarily give much credence to that inasmuch as “they had us in with the B’s” (a mistake that has since been rectified: Pierson was ranked 12th among the C’s this week).“We’ll have to keep control the whole game,” said Barron, referring to the small schools championship — a first in his coaching tenure. “If you don’t keep control against a team like Mount Sinai, they will bury you.”While not buried Friday, the Whalers’ periodic lack of control did put them in holes. Presumably, breaking the press will be the Whalers’ most pressing business in practices this week.