A season ago Northwestern Lehigh came into the basketball season with a new coach in Jerry Lloyd, who took over from Northwestern Lehigh graduate Billy Hallman after Hallman’s six seasons at the helm.

The story is similar this season as Cory Cesare stepped into the coaching job when Lloyd surprisingly stepped down two months ago. Cesare, who was an assistant on Lloyd’s staff, will be in his first season as a varsity coach after serving as the school’s junior varsity coach under Lloyd.

“It was definitely a whirlwind, it happened very fast,” said Cesare of the move to being the team’s head coach. “I like to think it’s something that I’ve been preparing for my whole life and something that I have definitely dreamed of doing in being a head coach.

“I’ve developed relationships with people here and we’ve started to work together very well because we’re all reaching for the same goals.”

Cesare takes over a team that finished 14-6 overall and went to the semifinals of the District 11 tournament.

The losses from last year’s team will be noticeable as Andres Garrido, Nick Henry and Jared Stitzel all graduated and have moved on to college.

The end of the football season brought another loss to the team when senior Justin Holmes, the school’s record setting quarterback, suffered a broken thumb in the district championship game. Holmes opted out of the 2021-22 basketball season to focus on getting healthy and preparing to play college football at Kent State next fall.

“As of now, he’s not playing,” said Cesare of Holmes’ status. “I totally respect that decision. I understand that he has big things ahead of him and things that he wants to achieve, and I respect that.

“We’re going to miss him, but obviously, it’s next man up and we have to fill that hole and it’s an opportunity for someone else to step up.”

The approach for this season is a continuation of a theme that started last year. Cesare is focusing on paying attention to minor details that can add up and result either in some big wins or agonizing defeats.

“We got better every game last year and we started to perfect things as the season went on,” said Cesare. “We perfected our rotations. We perfected how we need to time our plays. Those little things add up. In high school basketball and especially in the Colonial League, there aren’t many LeBron James’ out there, so a lot of times it comes down to who makes an extra pass on a possession or who gets back on defense on another possession. It’s those little moments in a game that can change things.”

While the team overall is decidedly younger, there is still some experience for Cesare to draw from. Senior Dylan Witkowski, whose family moved from the Emmaus area before last season, emerged as a team leader after putting together some late game heroics last season for the Tigers. Josh Heilman and Ethan Lazarus are the only two other seniors on the team and with Holmes gone, Lazarus will be the go-to guy in the post for Northwestern Lehigh.

Junior Cayden Fitch took over as the team’s point guard last season and after some early growing pains, put together a nice season for the Tigers. Classmate Cade Christopher also returns and will have an expanded role with the offense.

“Dylan is always the last guy to leave the gym and he’s the loudest guy on the floor, especially on defense, he’s always talking to his teammates,” Cesare said. “Cayden is a year older and a year better. We’re emphasizing scoring a little more this year and to attack the paint a little more. I’m of the belief that nobody is a finished product, and we all have room to grow, and I think guys like Dylan and Cayden realize that.”

The Tigers open their season December 14 at home against Pen Argyl and then play four of their next six games on the road to open the season. The schedule evens out with Northwestern playing host for five of its final six games.

“Coach Radocha and I were looking at the schedule the other day and it’s kind of quirky,” said Cesare. “We have six in the beginning that are almost game after game after game. We’ve been talking a lot about what our goals are to get through those six and then reevaluate from there because we don’t really have anything over Christmas, so that’s a time when we can nail things down.”

Cesare has been involved in sports throughout his life, having played basketball and football at Whitehall High School and then going on to play football at Wilkes University. He has retained coaches Jerry Radocha, Bob Mazziotta and Nate Hunsicker on his staff for the upcoming season.