WHAT IS CURRENTLY A WORK IN PROGRESS COULD DEVELOP INTO ONE OF THE DEEPEST AND MORE VERSATILE TEAMS IN SAINT IGNATIUS’ RICH BASETBALL HISTORY.
WITH A FINAL, BUT STILL FLEXIBLE VARSITY ROSTER COMPLETED, COACH SEAN O’TOOLE’S WILDCATS ARE GEARING UP FOR SATURDAY NIGHT’S SEASON OPENER AGAINST A VETERAN AND TALENT-RICH DETROIT JESUIT TEAM.
"DANCE LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING...SING LIKE NO ONE IS LISTENING...AND LIVE LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW." - PRACTICE PLAN QUOTE OF THE DAY FOR 12/12/11.
BY EDDIE DWYER
COPYRIGHT, DECEMBER 2011
Anyone who truly knows Saint Ignatius’ Sean O’Toole ’87 will tell you he is not one to offer excuses.
Never has been. Never will.
Let’s line them up and play has always been Coach O’Toole’s approach.
For the second time in what will be O’Toole’s fourth season as the head basketball coach at his alma mater, his Wildcats will enter their opener a bit behind in terms of preseason preparation.
And how that occurred, said Coach O’Toole, is “great” for the school.
After Saint Ignatius won a record 11th state football championship on Dec. 3, the significant number of basketball prospects from the football program did not make their first appearance on the Sullivan Gymnasium floor until Tuesday of last week.
That’s nothing new for Coach O’Toole, as he also patiently waited for some vital pieces following the ‘Cats’ 10th state football title in 2008.
“We’ll get through it,” said O’Toole, who will send his team against the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy in Saturday’s season opener at Sullivan Gymnasium. The junior varsity game will begin at 6 p.m., and the varsity encounter will take place at approximately 7:30.
The Saint Ignatius Student Broadcasting Network will provide live audio and video coverage on Saturday’s game. John Fanta ’13 and Paddy White ’14 will call it as they see it during the JV encounter and Lewis Backus ’12 and Greg Ziton ’13 will provide their candid and colorful insight on the varsity match up.
Last season, Saint Ignatius, behind a career-high 24 points by Jack Tupa, defeated Detroit Jesuit, 73-60, in the Motor City.
However, Tupa won’t be in the lineup on Saturday night. The outstanding senior guard broke a bone in his foot during preseason and is not expected back until early or mid-January.
Detroit Jesuit, regarded as a serious contender for state laurels in Michigan this winter, returns an impressive nucleus from last season’s 14-8 team.
Leading the way for the Cubs is 6-foot-7 senior Chris Jenkins, a Colorado recruit who can solve defenses with his perimeter game and down-low skills, 6-2 senior guard Cameron Fowler and 5-10 junior point guard A.J. Horde.
In its season opener, Detroit Jesuit defeated the highly touted Ypsilanti Phoenix and its big front court, 55-49, on a neutral floor. The Cubs rallied from a nine-point early third quarter deficit. Jenkins had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Fowler tossed in 16 points and dished out five assists, and Horde had 11 points, four assists and did an exceptional job of handling the ball against pressure. Horde scored 19 points, including four 3-pointers, in the loss to Saint Ignatius last season.
Versatile juniors Malik Howze and Mike Wroblewski also came up with some key baskets, as the Cubs outscored Ypsilanti, 21-14, in the fourth quarter. Detroit Jesuit is coached by Rocky River graduate Pat Donnelly.
“Detroit Jesuit has three Divison-1 kids (Jenkins, Fowler and Horde) on its roster and they’re extremely well coached,” said O’Toole, who enters this season with a career mark at Saint Ignatius that is 30 games above .500. “As a team, they do a lot of things well and playing them (the past two seasons) has definitely made us better.
“Hopefully, we’ll play a lot of guys from a 15 or 16-man roster,” Coach O’Toole continued. “We have some young guys on the horizon who are also going to be in the mix. Right now, as we’ve told these guys, it’s a puzzle and we’re trying to put the right pieces together.”
As Coach O’Toole emphasized, the players and the coaches are going to have to be patient through this early season process. He added, however, that in just a short time it is obvious the ‘Cats are getting stronger and now it’s move forward time.
“This is a real game,” O’Toole said of Saturday night’s opener. “This is not, ‘OK, we’ll see how we are.’ We’re going out to win this game.”
As far as Saint Ignatius’ current roster is concerned, gifted 6-4 junior forward Derek Sloan is the only player other than Tupa that saw a large amount of varsity time last season.
The Wildcats will eventually benefit from the athleticism and toughness of such football mainstays as 6-3 standout senior quarterback Eric Williams, who played on a state runner-up basketball team at Jesuit High School in Oregon, Ohio’s co-Defensive Player of the Year in 6-2 senior Mike Svetina and 6-4 junior Matt Gawlik, who contributed significantly to the football run as a defensive end.
Sophomores Kyle Berger and Dameon Willis Jr., who played key roles on the Wildcats’ undefeated JV football team, have earned spots on the varsity basketball roster and rounding out Coach O’Toole’s team are players this corner is confident you will become familiar with this winter – senior guard Brian Joseph, senior forward Jack Mahoney, promising 6-5 junior post Alec Papesch, junior guard/wing Austin Sterpka, senior guard/wing Reggie Gross, senior guard Max Connor, multi-skilled junior guard Francisco Santiago and junior point guard Bryan Fisher.
Sophomore Danny Bova, a talented and basketball savvy point guard, will start the season on the junior varsity and will dress for varsity games, and Coach O’Toole emphasized that the 6-5 Black twins – sophomores David and Eric – are “right there” as being players who could be called up to the varsity at any time.
“We’ve told the guys that it’s wide open and to make the most of the opportunity when it comes,” Coach O’Toole said. “I think we’ll be able to pressure people, rebound and run. Now we’ll have to wait and see how well we put the ball in the basket.”
TRUE LEADERS AND GREAT SUPPORTERS: Coach O’Toole described his captains – Jack Mahoney, Brian Joseph and Jack Tupa – as being phenomenal and great leaders by example for the younger guys. He also emphasized that he is blessed to have a tremendous group of parents who do so many things behind the scenes and an outstanding coaching staff, a staff that saw him through probably the most difficult assembling of a roster that he has ever experienced.
FROM THE HEART: “There were a handful of kids who were here for 30 days busting their butt to represent Saint Ignatius,” Coach O’Toole said. “In the end, they didn’t make the team and I’m sick to my stomach for them. Their efforts were second to none and in the end it just came down to who were the best guys. The shame is that at a school like this there are so many kids who can play and in the end, unlike other sports, we had to cut down to 15 guys.”
THE UNSUNG EFFORTS: The corner would like to welcome aboard Patrick Gibbons ’13 and Mike Berry ’15, who will be assisting Coach O’Toole, the Wildcats’ outstanding veteran Head Trainer Hank Gaughan A.T.C. and the entire staff as the Wildcats’ varsity managers this season.
Patrick and “Mikey” have an exceptional knowledge of sports and a true passion for Saint Ignatius. And Patrick has a sense of humor that keeps this old-timer smiling. I laughed so loud at his Irish/potatoes joke during Monday’s practice that I almost got in trouble with Coach O’Toole. And the corner is 100 percent Irish.
Patrick has been a basketball manager during his entire time at Saint Ignatius, starting with the freshmen teams, then junior varsity and now varsity.
“We’re making good progress and it’s an honor to be in this position,” Patrick said. “I’ve been getting a lot of help from my assistant manager, Michael Berry, and I have big shoes to fill because Pat Carroll ’11 was an outstanding manager. He did everything the right way.
“We should have a great year. I can’t wait until we start playing.”