Barrie graduates to continue hoops careers in college

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Recent graduates Ian Masone and Jeff Whitaker were key components in the quick re-establishment of the Barrie School boys basketball team as one of the best in the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference.

Looking for that sort of challenge on the hardwood again, Masone and Whitaker decided to take their skills to Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.) and Goucher College, respectively, Barrie coach Jack Mitchell announced Sunday night. Both are Division III NCAA schools.

‘‘Both [programs] are in the rebuilding stage, and we thought both Jeff and Ian could help in that rebuilding,” Mitchell said. ‘‘The kids have an opportunity to get a great education and play basketball. That’s kind of special. Barrie offers young kids like Jeff and Ian, who may have wanted to play basketball at the collegiate level but weren’t able to play in the Catholic league, a chance to be multi-sport athletes. They’re able to keep footsteps with what [Frank] Mason and [Bobby] Sharafeddin did.”

That high-scoring pair left Barrie after securing the program’s first PVAC title in 2002 to play at Johns Hopkins University.

While Masone and Whitaker couldn’t deliver a PVAC tournament championship, the pair helped Barrie capture the PVAC’s North Division crown (13-4 league mark) and compile an 18-11 record overall. The Mustangs had won a combined 18 games the previous two years.

Masone, a 6-foot-3 small forward, was the team’s second leading scorer, averaging roughly 13 points per game to go along with about nine rebounds a contest. He chose Stevens Tech over Virginia Tech and the Rochester Institute of Technology, among others, for the opportunity to play basketball.

Stevens Tech has a new coach in Josh Loeffler, who is only the program’s ninth head coach since its inception in 1916. He inherits a squad that went 15-12 last year, the team’s first winning season since 1995-96.

‘‘[Stevens Tech] is one of the top engineering schools on the East Coast,” Mitchell said. ‘‘He’ll get a great education and the engineering discipline he wants and play for a quality basketball program.”

Whitaker, a 6-2 guard, drew Barrie’s toughest defensive assignment each game and added roughly 10 points and eight rebounds a contest. His desire to play basketball led him to Goucher instead of Maryland or Morehouse (Ga.).

Goucher, a traditionally strong program under coach Leonard Trevino, dropped to 3-21 last season.