The Tigers are coming off of a 21-win season a year ago and a 17-win 2023 .. Manikowski’s first year at the helm.

“We lost eight seniors off of last years' 21-win team so there's a lot of experienced players that need to be replaced,” explains Manikowski, “We’re going to have a relatively inexperienced squad at the beginning of the season.”

North Penn-Mansfield returns a lone starter from last season in senior Andy Hermansen (7 PPG, 22-3’s, 3.3 RPG, 3 APG, 1.6 SPG), while classmate Jason Harer (7.7 PPG, 5.2 RPG) will see his role increase.

“Andy (Hermansen) and Jason (Harer) are two returning seniors who played a lot last season,” says Manikowski, “Andy was a starter and Jason was our sixth man who played starter's minutes.”

The Tigers scored 60 points per game last season, but graduation took nearly 73% of that.

“We’ll need to be a very gritty, tough, defensive minded team night in and night out,” says Manikowski.

Manikowski points to a pair of returning seniors who will join Hermansen and Harer as leaders this season.

“Patrick Youmans and Kevin Clemente-Vazquez are also returning,” explains Manikowski, “they were both part of last year's rotation. We’ll be looking to those four to provide leadership to our younger players.”

Manikowski has a promising group of juniors who will be looked at to contribute this year, including Keaton Manikowski, Colton Pellett, Collin Oakes, Layne Cummings and Jediel Ocasio-Vazquez, along with seniors Ray Nickerson, Bryce Route and Alex Bentley.

“We know we may experience some growing pains at the beginning of the season as the new players are learning their roles and adapting to the speed of the varsity level,” says Manikowski, “but we hope to be playing our best basketball as we get into NTL play.”

The Tigers went 15-2 in the NTL last season, and 8-2 in the large school division, falling only to league champ Troy.

“I feel the league is as balanced as it has been in the past few years,” says Manikowski, “so we need to grow quickly so we can compete in league play.”

Mansfield has a scrimmage at Coudersport on Monday, November 24th and another at Waverly on Tuesday, December 2nd before opening the 2025-’26 regular season at St. John Neumann on Friday, December 5th.  

After a road game at North Penn-Liberty on December 11th, the Tigers host Cowanesque Valley for their home opener on December 16th.

“I like what I’ve seen from this group this pre-season,” says Manikowski, “We’re getting good senior leadership and are competing every practice. I’ve coached teams like this before and they’ve been some of my favorite teams to lead. I’m looking forward to seeing these boys get out on the court and compete this season.”