Moriah High School boys’ basketball has dominated Section VII basketball for the past decade, claiming its tenth straight sectional title. While players have come and gone on the Vikings roster every season, one piece has remained consistent: the head coach. For the past 24 seasons, Brian Cross has been the guy that helm. Announcing before the season that year 24 will be his final season as head coach, Cross is pleased to know that it will end with a sectional championship trophy for Moriah’s collection. “It’s always fun to win,” Cross said. “It’s never easy and it doesn’t get any easier, but this will be my last one, so I guess I can say it’s easy now because it’s over.” Cross has built an illustrious career during his over two decades of coaching for Moriah, winning 13 total sectional championships and earning the program its first New York state championship in school history back in 2017. His resume is what led many in Moriah to acknowledge Cross as a local legend. “He’s great,” said one of his players senior guard Evan Fleury. “He’s one of the best basketball coaches that there ever is around here. He’s won a state championship with my brother’s basketball team and he’s such a great coach.” Cross knowledge of the game basketball shines in the Moriah box scores and records, but also their play style. Consistently Moriah is running by their opponents in transition with their heavy focus on proper conditioning to run efficient Fastbreak offense. That style of play helped them this season to score over 64 points per game (PPG) leading to a first-place finish in the CVAC and the no. 3 spot on the New York State Sportswriters Association’s Class C rankings entering the state tournament. But Cross doesn’t ignore the defensive side of the ball either, something that Moriah senior forward says he even emphasized during a preseason scrimmage in 2023. “He tells us we got to talk on defense,” Olcott said. “In our scrimmage after the game he was talking to us for about 10-15 minutes with everything wrong about what we did. He just knows a lot about the sport.” Keeping it real, and keeping his Vikings focused will only help his team try to win the second state championship for the school before Cross retires. “At this point, you are still playing against good teams,” Cross said. “You still have to show up and play well in order to win. Where you play doesn’t mean that much it’s just how to play during the game.” Moriah will get a bit of a homecourt advantage on Saturday, March 8. The Vikings are part of a group of four teams who will host regional finals games at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, New York, against four other high schools from the Albany area. A Moriah win will clinch a berth to the New York state final four at the Cool Insuring Arena in Glenns Falls, N.Y. the following weekend.
Moriah High School boys’ basketball has dominated Section VII basketball for the past decade, claiming its tenth straight sectional title.
While players have come and gone on the Vikings roster every season, one piece has remained consistent: the head coach.
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For the past 24 seasons, Brian Cross has been the guy that helm. Announcing before the season that year 24 will be his final season as head coach, Cross is pleased to know that it will end with a sectional championship trophy for Moriah’s collection.
“It’s always fun to win,” Cross said. “It’s never easy and it doesn’t get any easier, but this will be my last one, so I guess I can say it’s easy now because it’s over.”
Cross has built an illustrious career during his over two decades of coaching for Moriah, winning 13 total sectional championships and earning the program its first New York state championship in school history back in 2017.
His resume is what led many in Moriah to acknowledge Cross as a local legend.
“He’s great,” said one of his players senior guard Evan Fleury. “He’s one of the best basketball coaches that there ever is around here. He’s won a state championship with my brother’s basketball team and he’s such a great coach.”
Cross knowledge of the game basketball shines in the Moriah box scores and records, but also their play style. Consistently Moriah is running by their opponents in transition with their heavy focus on proper conditioning to run efficient Fastbreak offense. That style of play helped them this season to score over 64 points per game (PPG) leading to a first-place finish in the CVAC and the no. 3 spot on the New York State Sportswriters Association’s Class C rankings entering the state tournament.
But Cross doesn’t ignore the defensive side of the ball either, something that Moriah senior forward says he even emphasized during a preseason scrimmage in 2023.
“He tells us we got to talk on defense,” Olcott said. “In our scrimmage after the game he was talking to us for about 10-15 minutes with everything wrong about what we did. He just knows a lot about the sport.”
Keeping it real, and keeping his Vikings focused will only help his team try to win the second state championship for the school before Cross retires.
“At this point, you are still playing against good teams,” Cross said. “You still have to show up and play well in order to win. Where you play doesn’t mean that much it’s just how to play during the game.”
Moriah will get a bit of a homecourt advantage on Saturday, March 8. The Vikings are part of a group of four teams who will host regional finals games at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, New York, against four other high schools from the Albany area. A Moriah win will clinch a berth to the New York state final four at the Cool Insuring Arena in Glenns Falls, N.Y. the following weekend.
