(The last time Wellsville and Andover played in boys’ basketball was in 1935 in the old East Avenue School in Andover. Wellsville played in the lower gym, which was later called the ‘girls gym’ and today hosts the weight room)
Despite the short drive, Andover and Wellsville have not played much in sports over the past 80 years.
In fact, the last time they played in boys’ basketball, it took the Wellsville duo of John Giopulos and Gus Rigas to stop the powerful Bob Jackson of Andover.
During his research on this incredible historical column on the two schools (and their many, many connections), Brian Cannon talked to former Andover Athletic Director Rich Gill who said Andover was too busy trying to win a tough Class D and county titles.
The times have changed. Whitesville, a school with sectional success, had a long-standing girls’ basketball rivalry with Wellsville. Today, there are no high school or middle school classes at Whitesville, they all attend Andover. The sports teams are merged. Winning the Allegany County League is not the same. You don’t have Frank Cady at Allentown taking set shots that either go in or get put back by one of the Glass Brothers, and Cuba, Rushford, Bolivar and Richburg are forming one team. The same with Angelica, Belmont and Belfast.
As a result, Andover/Whitesville has a new goal, bring home a Section V title, even if it means taking on larger schools during the regular season. While Wellsville lost an incredible senior class last season and Andover/Whitesville is undefeated, Brian points out, records won’t mean a thing tonight.
LOCAL HOOPS HISTORY COMES TO THE WELLSVILLE LIONS’ DEN
ANDOVER-WHITESVILLE BOYS PLAY WELLSVILLE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY 1946
Guest column by BRIAN CANNON
Local high school basketball fans can witness a long overdue historic hoops game tonight (Dec. 19. 2025) between two old basketball rivals that have not played each other in decades.
Andover-Whitesville playing in Section V Class D this year will invade the Lions Den to take on their larger neighbor, The Class B1 Wellsville Lions coached by Tom Muska, are currently seeded 8th in a very tough classification of larger B schools. Andover-Whitesville is coached by Jimmy Joyce and currently is the top seed in Section V Class D with a 4-0 record. Wellsville enters Friday’s game at 1-3 with a very tough schedule, but secured a big win over Bath Haverling earlier this week.
Both coaches played on very successful teams at their respective schools that they coach at and both are in their 4th seasons. Both coaches focus on playing tough team defense and going to an up-tempo fast break offense whenever possible. In addition, both coaches want to play the toughest schedules that they can to get ready for sectionals.
When the opening came up on the schedules, both Coach Muska and Coach Joyce jumped at the opportunity to play each other regardless of sectional points won or lost.
The history of these two schools in sports goes back to 1923 when Wellsville’s legendary Coach Sid Miles regularly scheduled Andover home-and-away, playing Andover in the old East Avenue School in Andover. The Wellsville boys then played in the older lower level Wellsville High School Gym which is now a very large weight room on the River Side of WHS.
Sid’s Wellsville teams swept the Andover Purple (They were not named Panthers until 1944) boys basketball teams until March 1, 1935 in Andover, where the Purple beat the Orange & Black in a come-from-behind 31-29 varsity basketball game on East Avenue.
John Cannon, my father, was the center on that 1935 team and guarded Les Dye who eventually played Pro Football for the Washington Redskins and later was the Syracuse University Athletic Director.
There was a McEnroe, McCarthy and DeBarberi playing that night for Wellsville-all familiar Wellsville families. Andover also had Howard McAndrew, Bruce McGill, Ed Kemp, Eddie Alderson and John Cannon in their lineup.
The next season, Andover and Wellsville split their home and home series with Andover again winning at home at Andover’s old East Avenue School gym, 24-23.
In addition to Les Dye in the Wellsville lineup, there was a Dahlgren, Shine, Ludden and McCarthy while Andover lineup again had John Cannon, Edwin Kemp, Leo Fulkerson, Ed Alderson, Ray Briggs and Don Lynch to defeat the Orange and Black for the second time. 1936 was the last year of a center jump ball after every basket scored which led to higher scores and faster games in subsequent years.
Over the years pre-World War II, Wellsville won more games vs. their rivals in Andover did in the series. Wellsville even beat a Whitesville Boys team in the early 1930s in a preliminary game and then beat Andover in the second game! Andover’s current school was built by L.C. Whitford in 1939 with what was considered a large gymnasium in the day but is now called the “old small gym” at Andover.
Guess who who played Andover in the opening game on December 9,1940? Sid Miles again brought his Wellsville Orange & Black to Andover and beat the locals 34-23 in both the varsity and JV games that night with Steve Cretekos of Wellsville scoring 10 points to set the court record.
Wellsville won most of the early 1940 games between the two schools. The last Andover victory that I could locate on the Andover news Archives was a Bob (Moose) Baker-led Andover team that beat Wellsville in 1944 in Andover.
Wellsville won in 1945 and 1946 which was the last time that I could find that these two teams played each other which is almost 80 years ago. Wellsville’s Sports Hall of Fame Athlete John Giopulos led Wellsville to that Victory on January 14, 1946 almost 80 years ago along with Gus Rigas. Andover had a Dunham, Behn, Howland, Lynch and Horan in their lineup along with Bob Jackson who is the father of Mike Jackson and grandfather to Melanie Jackson, who played both in Andover and Wellsville. Back then, Section V sports only had 3 classes of boys teams, Class A, B and C. Wellsville was a large class A school and Andover and Whitesville were very small Class C teams, so it was very tough to win a sectional title back then with 30-plus teams per classification.
We spoke with Rich Gill, long-time Andover Athletic Director, and he did not recall scheduling or playing Wellsville in the late 1987 to 1991 era that has some great Andover teams which former Andover Coach John Dougherty played on with John Fanton and Aaron Whitehouse. Also, searching the Wellsville Daily Reporter archives did not turn up the two schools playing then. Even if they did, 35 years of not playing each other is just as rare as 80 years.
Back to tonight’s ame in Wellsville, A-W is very quick and brings a fast paced offense with a trapping man to man defense that has them out to a quick 4-0 start this season.
Andover-Whitesville has one of the area’s quickest teams but also has tough rebounding from Junior Vincent Joyce and Senior James Miller-Young. Juniors Brody Vance, Jake Mattison and Senior Colton Calladine provide A-W with strong offense with a mix outside shooting and drives to the basket in traffic.
Brody Vance just scored his 1,000 career point last Saturday in Wellsville during their win over Bolivar-Richburg (Courtesy “AW Sports Photos” on Facebook).
Coach Muska’s Wellsville Lions are young this year but are also very quick and play tough defense. Wellsville Seniors Trent Green and Derek Coleman have been on injured reserve to start this season and Green may be in the lineup against A-W. Trent will bring strong defense and offense to the young Lions squad that is improving each game. Wellsville’s Trent Green’s father, Chad Green, played on some great Andover teams in the latter 1990s and is another Andover 1,000 point scorer. Andover’s Gavin Frungillo is the grandson of Jon Rossrucker, who played for Wellsville in the late 1960’s and played for the great Lions baseball teams. Wellsville Varsity Freshman Forward Ben Helveston’s father Dan also played for Andover in the early 1990’s. Wellsville JV Coach and Assistant Casey Cowburn lives in Andover and his Freshman son Drew is a guard on the Wellsville varsity so there are many connections between the towns and schools in this long overdue game.
What about the School Administrators for both schools and who are they wanting to win?
Andover Superintendent Jennifer Scutt Joyce is in the Wellsville Sports Hall of Fame and is a former standout in basketball, soccer and softball, pitching for the Lady Lions. We know she will be cheering on her son Vincent and husband, Coach Joyce for this game! Wellsville’s High School Principal is Aaron Brubaker and he played basketball and all sports for the Whitesville Blue Jays so he should not be surprised that this is expected to be a closely contested basketball game.
My game prediction is that we will see a close, defensive oriented game with every basket contested. Both A-W and Wellsville are quick teams and both are well coached, defensive oriented teams so it should be a close and entertaining game. I hope both schools can schedule each season going forward! The A-W vs. Wellsville Boys JV Game Starts at 6 pm followed by this decades long-overdue varsity game between two common neighboring villages. Wellsville’s game announcer is John Anderson who started covering these schools in 1992 for the Daily Reporter and was able to help put this column into your hands. Check a detailed game summary in the Wellsville Sun with photos from Chad and Shannon (LaChance) Green’s daughter, Ella. The connections do not end!
Above, the Wellsville student section. Below, the Lions having fun at Media Day. Photos by Ella Green.
