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Upper St. Clair's basketball team is soaring this season thanks to winning culture and senior leadership

Upper St. Clair basketball team relying on senior leadership and winning culture
Upper St. Clair basketball team relying on senior leadership and winning culture 01:46

UPPER ST. CLAIR, Pa. (KDKA) -- The basketball team at Upper St. Clair High School is off to a stellar start this season thanks to its winning culture and its roster full of senior leadership.

The team is 14-1 so far this season following a big rivalry win against Mt. Lebanon and a big part of their success is because of 6'10" forward and Miami (OH) commit Tyler Robbins.

Robbins says this season is going well, but the team wishes they could have the one game back that they lost. 

The senior forward is a top ten player in western Pennsylvania, but you wouldn't know it by talking to him -- because of how humble he is. 

"I don't really think I'm anything special," Robbins said.

"He was highly recruited and he wants to play at the next level," head coach Danny Holzer said. 

Holzer has been with the program for over 30 years and has built a culture of winning at Upper St. Clair.

"We have 10 seniors and every single one of them has been a community-based kid," Holzer said. "They've been coming to my little kids camp since they were in first grade."

One of those program players is senior Niko Gidas, who didn't play very much until this year. 

"Freshman year, I didn't play at all," Gidas said. "Sophomore year a little bit. Junior year, I kinda got my chance, but it didn't really work out. Then I guess between junior and senior year, I just really focused on like, the controllable things."

"I mean, every year, he's worked hard, but this past summer, he worked so hard to become a much better player," Holzer said. "Now he's a starter and one of our best shooters."

Gidas says he's living the dream right now.

"We've embraced it," Holzer said. "We've had fun with it. We enjoy it. I've always said we can be the UConn of the WPIAL."

Upper St. Clair is the top-ranked team in the WPIAL's 6A classification with the goal of going back-to-back as champions this season. 

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