Under new leadership, Harrison Central boys basketball set for season

In more ways than one, the Harrison Central boys basketball team will have a new look when they take the floor of “The Hangar” in Morristown to face Union Local come the first week of December. The season opener will see first-year head coach Nick Yourkovich take over the reins on the bench, but it’s far from the first time he’s called the shots from the top chair.

Yourkovich spent 13 years at the helm of the Harrison Central girls program, winning two OVAC championships and two cectional championships along the way. It won’t be Yourkovich’s first time leading a boys program either, as he served as the head coach at Bellaire St. Johns’s (now defunct) for two seasons before coming to Harrison in the late 2000s. Yourkovich replaces three-year man Aaron Foldi, who moved on to Franciscan University in the early spring.

Direction from the bench won’t be the only big change for the Huskies. Graduation claimed the team’s leading scorer from a year ago in Brady Elliot, as well as a mainstay in the paint known as the physical Reed Arbaugh. A sizable senior class last season means a great deal of opportunity awaits this season. In total, the coaching staff will be looking to fill the hole left behind by seven members of the Class of 2025.

Senior Bryson Kamarec will be looking to step in and lead the offensive charge this year, the athletic guard averaged 12 points a game as a junior and will be the most experienced varsity player on the roster. Classmate Brady Hyre, the Huskies quarterback in the fall the past two years, flashed signs of versatility last season at the varsity level, able to play the perimeter and in the block when needed. Yourkovich will be also be looking for seniors Jacob Quito, Chaz Culbertson, Cooper Thompson, and Hunter Fulton to step in to more impactful roles in the final year of their respective careers. 

Junior Austin Dulkoski could provide some size and strength under the hoop when called upon, and sophomore Lance Smith will look to build on a freshman season that witnessed him emerge as a capable playmaker on both ends of the varsity floor. Yourkovich also touts sophomores Olin Wade, Zach Harbold, and Zayden Warrington as having strong preseason practices, putting them in the mix for time at the varsity level as well.

There will also be two freshmen to keep an eye on, and both are two names that Huskies football fans will be familiar with. Colson Crothers and Kingston Smith haven’t shied away from varsity competition as was witnessed in the fall, and both have shown glimpses of potential early on.

The Huskies scrimmaged Claymont, Bridgeport, and Buckeye Trail in preparation for the slate that gets busy in December. The schedule is filled with many familiar faces from the Buckeye Eight, including the newest addition to the league in the Brooke Bruins. Malvern, of the Inter-Valley Conference, is the only opponent that doesn’t carry either the Buckeye Eight or OVAC flag with them.