Small Venango Catholic basketball is playing big

When it comes to basketball in Western Pennsylvania, Venango Catholic (Oil City) isn't the first place one thinks about. After all, the small catholic school in Oil City has the 21st smallest male enrollment in Pennsylvania and has never been mistaken for a basketball powerhouse.

But the Vikings are out to change that this year.

Through an 84-43 win over Youngsville Saturday, Venango Catholic is the lone unbeaten boys' team in District 9 – a district that has produced two of the past five Western representatives in the Class A title game including 2006 champion Elk County Catholic. And the Vikings feature maybe the best player in District 9 in 6-foot-1 shooting guard Maxx Rynd.

Rynd is averaging a District 9-best 29 points per game and has scored 30 or more twice while going over 20 points in all seven games. He was a first-team D9Sports.com District 9 performer last season when he led the district in scoring at 26.5 points per game while adding 10.6 rebounds per game, and he was also the D9Sports.com District 9 Rookie of the Year and a third-team All-District selection as a sophomore when he led the district in scoring at 23.4 points per game. Rynd has 1,339 career points through Saturday's game and needs 173 points to break the school record of 1,512 that was set in 1969 by Dave Lynch. He is currently the fourth all-time leading scorer in Vikings history.

"We rely a lot on him," Venango Catholic head coach Ed McIntyre said. "On offense Maxx does really well. He goes to the rim as well as anybody I've seen, and he also finds guys who are open."

Rynd's ability to get his teammates involved is most evident in the nearly five assists per game. He also averages 13 rebounds per game, and his shooting, something he said he worked on, has also improved greatly this year, as he was hitting on 60.8 percent of his shots from the floor going into Friday's 83-71 win at North Clarion. Last season, he was a 47.2-percent shooter.

"I worked on my mid-range game in the offseason," Rynd said. "I could get to the basket when I really wanted to, but my mid-range really needed to step up. I worked on that during AAU and in open gym and stuff."

Rynd said his personal goal is to be all-state this year, but he knows that in order to achieve that the team will have to achieve big things as well.

"We need to get to the playoffs," Rynd said. "The state playoffs is really my goal and really the whole team's goal. We are so happy (with how we are playing). We talk about it all day in school how we are undefeated. It's really a team effort."

Venango, though, has been a lot more than just Rynd.

Junior Ben Guth, a 6-foot-3 forward, is averaging 15.5 points per game and 13.5 rebounds per contest and has two 25-point games on his resume this season. The addition of 6-foot-2 senior center Mark Kulinski, the all-time leading passer in District 10 history at Oil City and an all-state Class AAA selection at quarterback, has also been a big plus. Kulinski, who has always gone to Venango Catholic – the Vikings play football in a co-op with District 10's Oil City – played basketball as a sophomore and averaged 5.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game while helping Venango Catholic to the District 9 Class A playoffs. But he decided not to play last year when the Vikings went 10-12 and didn't qualify for the postseason. Kulinski is averaging six points and, more importantly, 10.8 rebounds per game.

"I think having Mark, the big center in there getting the rebounds, is a difference," Rynd said.

Venango Catholic's surge actually started last season when the Vikings won eight of their final 10 games after starting the year 2-10.

"All the guys have matured," Rynd said. "Last year, we took some bad shots and we didn't always mesh. We worked hard all summer."

HIGHLAND'S MASON IS MAKING A NAME FOR HIMSELF
Highland's junior guard Micah Mason had 36 points in a win over Knoch Friday night, and it was the fewest points he had scored in a game in four games. That's because in his previous three games he had gone off for 44, 51 and 42, all with the help of overtime, including a triple-overtime loss to Greensburg Salem when he scored 51 just before New Years Day.

Mason is averaging a little more than 33 points per game on the year.

In the game he scored 44, against Trinity between Christmas and New Year's, he wasn't even the leading scorer in the game. Trinity's Josh Valentic scored 51 in helping his team to an 89-87 overtime win.