The Whiteford Bobcats tip off the 2018-19 boys basketball season Friday with a home game against the Bedford Mules.

The game will mark the debut of new Bobcat head coach Nick Abalos.

Three Whiteford players are back from the 2017-18 team that won 18 games and the Tri-County Conference championship before bowing out to No. 1 ranked Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central in the District finals. Seniors Hunter Lake (10.1 points per game), Bradyn Clark-Gilmore and Isaac Badenhop are back from that team.

Abalos is a Temperance native who played high school basketball at State Line Christian. He has coached for the past five seasons at Blissfield at the freshman, junior varsity and varsity levels.

Abalos is a 2006 State Line graduate. He was coaching an AAU team in northwest Ohio when Blissfield head coach John Vandecaveye asked him to join his staff in Blissfield as the junior varsity head coach. He did that for one year, was an assistant for two under Ron Estes with the varsity and coached freshman basketball for one year and junior varsity last year.

Bedford is coached by Frank Scheuer, who is in his 7th season coaching the Mules.

The last time Bedford played in the Whiteford gymnasium was 1979. In that game, won by Bedford, the Mules got 14 points over the final three minutes of the game, including the game-winner, from Doug Huff to come back and defeat the Bobcats, 68-67.

Bobcat basketball rosters for 2018-19: