“Overall I thought we had a very positive season,” says the Tigers’ 3rd year Head Coach, Jeff Manikowski, “I don't think too many people expected a lot out of us this year and we used that as motivation to start the year. I knew we would probably have some growing pains at the beginning of the season after having lost eight seniors .. we had a lot of newcomers who didn’t have a lot of varsity experience having to step into key roles for us.”

The Tigers’ two returners with varsity experience .. seniors Andy Hermansen and Jason Harer .. stepped up huge for Manikowski.

“We were very fortunate to have great senior leadership,” says Manikowski, “Andy (Hermansen) and Jason (Harer) were responsible for doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us this year .. on both ends of the floor. Night in and night out they were responsible for providing the bulk of the scoring on offense. On defense, Andy would guard the opposing teams' best player every game and Jason was responsible for protecting the rim and would gobble up rebounds and block shots like a mad man.”

Hermansen, the Tigers’ lone, non-senior starter in ’24-’25, increased his role and his productivity this year, putting up more than twice his points per game (14.9) from a season ago (6.9), hitting 34 threes and shooting 73% from the free throw line (61-84). The 6’ 4” guard scored in double figures in 19 of Mansfield’s 23 games and had 20 or more points four times. 

Hermansen also grabbed 6.2 rebounds per game, handed out 3 assists per outing and while drawing the opposing team’s best player, had 2.4 steals and a block per game.

Harer, the 2024-’25 NTWSR All-Tioga County 6th Man of the Year (7.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg), had 14 double-doubles this year and averaged 14.4 points and 10.4 boards per game. He scored in double figures 15 times, had 17 games with double-digit rebounds to finish with 14 double-doubles and added 10 assists to his 22 points and 11 rebounds for a triple-double in a win over Wyalusing. 

The Tiger big man also handed out 3.6 assists per game and had 2.3 blocks and 1.7 steals per outing. 

The Tigers remaining starting rotation took some time to get acclimated as Mansfield suffered five early losses in their first eight games. 

“We played a pretty challenging early season schedule,” says Manikowski of his squad’s 3-5 start, “with teams like St. John Neumann, Loyalsock, Notre Dame, Montoursville, Corning and Wellsboro .. we had to grow up pretty quickly. I felt we gained a lot of experience playing those caliber of teams, so by the time the new year rolled around and we started league play, the team was ready.”

NP-Mansfield rattled off four straight wins .. over Athens, Wyalusing, North Penn-Liberty and Large School champ Towanda .. before dropping two games, to Troy and Small School and District IV AA champ Northeast Bradford, before again winning four straight, culminated by avenging their earlier loss to Wellsboro.

The Tigers finished the regular season off with two single-digit losses .. to Troy and Athens .. a win over Wyalusing and their second loss to Towanda, to wrap up their regular season with a 12-10 mark and the No. 8 seed in the 3A playoffs. 

“I thought we played as well as we possibly could in the NTL,” says Manikowski, “The large school division was especially cutthroat this year .. it seemed any team could beat you on any given night. We found ourselves involved in a lot of close, exciting games and battled for the large school right up to the final week of the season so I was very happy to be playing meaningful games right to the end of our schedule.”

A three point rubber game loss to No. 9 seed Wellsboro in a Class 3A play-in ended the Tigers’ season.

Manikowski points to his remaining starters and his bench as big contributors to the Tigers’ season. 

“Our other two senior starters .. Patrick Youmans (5.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and Keven Clemente-Vazquez (5.5 ppg, 21-3’s) .. contributed a lot to our success,” says Manikowski, “Patrick would do the dirty work and make the plays that you do not see show up in the box score. And Kevin improved a lot as the season progressed and helped us win some big games with his scoring and clutch free throws down the stretch in close games. I also need to give a shout out to our other two seniors .. Bryce Route and Ray Nickerson .. who although they didn't start a lot of games, they contributed in other ways. This senior class will be greatly missed and I feel privileged to have had the chance to coach them the past few years.”

Manikowski knows that with a senior-lead team in 2025-’26, the Tigers will once again be looking to replace a number of players next year.

“We’ll be faced with some of the same issues next season that we faced at the end of last year,” says Manikowski, “Next year's seniors .. Collin Oakes (4.2 ppg, 1.2 apg, 1.6 spg), Colton Pellett (3.1 ppg, 3 rpg, 1.5 spg, 1.1 apg), Keaton Manikowski (1.7 ppg, 2 rpg) and Layne Cummings (3.4 ppg, 1.1 apg) will be asked to step up and provide the scoring and leadership that this past year's seniors provided .. but I have no doubt they will be up to the challenge.”

Manikowski is thankful for his whole team and the growth and resilience they showed, saying, “I truly enjoyed coaching this years' team. They showed up to play every practice and game and battled hard every night. We joked that we never did anything easy .. we always seemed to be involved in tightly fought games. I feel those games brought out the best in us and although we weren't as successful win-wise as the past two years, I couldn't have asked for a better group of young men to coach night-in and night-out.”