Finally, the big class that boys basketball head coach Steve Yoder has been raving about is upperclassmen.

Twelve juniors make up 80 percent of the varsity roster for the Green Hornets. The group is led by forwards Joey Polczynski, Kevin Wambold and Brandon Rapose, who each saw their share of valuable playing time last year on a team that won 18 games last year and made it to the District 11 finals, also qualifying for the state tournament.

Jacob Feiertag, Greg Jaindl, Jake Scarnulis, Micaiah Fraction, Cameron Widdoss, Collin Riegel, Chase Detres, Jake Faust, and Ian Nakao make up the rest of the junior class.

The three other members all saw a lot of action last season. Lone senior Tyler Prescott and sophomore David Kachelries are returning starters, and fellow sophomore Matt Kachelries bring some dynamic playmaking and scoring ability at the guard position for Yoder.

"We're young, but we have a lot of experience from making that run at districts and states last year," Yoder said. "We're loaded in the guard area, but Brandon [Rapose], Jake Scarnulis, and Joey [Polczynski] are strong inside. We just don't have as much depth in the front court. We lose some physicality and scoring with Nate [Feiertag] and Joey [Nicolini]. They're going to be tough to replace inside."

Emmaus will have no problem getting tougher and gaining more game-time experience for this young team.

The Green Hornets will face defending Class AAA state champ Neumann-Gorretti, AAA runner-up Susquehanna Township, along with Steelton-High, and will have three games over the holidays in the Mirabito Stop DWI Classic tournament in Binghamton, NY.

"We have some high expectations," said Yoder. "We made a run to the final four of the Stellar tournament (during the summer). We're ready to get it started."

Emmaus will open play with a league game against Liberty in Bethlehem Saturday night.