Sting of Defeat

1997 was a great year for the Streaks. They finished the regular season a perfect 27-0 on the way to 4th place in the State tourney. Four of the five starters were gone. Going into the 1998 season, the Streaks returned only two players who had played significant minutes.

The 1998 Streaks had no seniors on their roster. The starting lineup was made up of three sophomores and two juniors. The first players off the bench were three freshmen and one sophomore. It was certainly not a lineup that had the experience to bring fear to our opponents.

Sabrina Clay- Impressive Start to College

Too often in “big-time” college athletics, we find sad stories of the athlete who is so invested in their sport that they don’t take advantage of getting an education and don’t position themselves for the future. The expression is “don’t let sports use you, you use sports.”

And sadly, we read stories of the athlete who feels entitled, people owe them something. These athletes never seem to give back to society or others, they are too busy expecting to be given something for their talents.

Sabrina Clay is not one of these negative stories about college athletes. Sabrina has used her passion and ability in basketball to further her education, and to help position herself for success. And while she was getting her education at Sandburg, she was giving back to her school and her community.

It is going to be exciting to follow her successes as she continues her education. She is not only headed for great things- she will make her community a better place.

I had a chance to do a Q/A with Sabrina.

2001 Sectional Revenge Over Sterling

In 2000-1 season, the Streaks lost a tough game at Sterling, 50-48 in Overtime. Sterling had a good ball club, but we felt it was a game we should not have lost. Sterling packed it in a zone to take away our inside game of Sarah Pacheco and Ashley Shepherd.

Our scoring during the season was- Rachel Bicego 6.1ppg, Shanell Jackson 8.8ppg, Shannon Williams 10.7ppg, Ashley Shepherd 12.0, and Sarah Pacheco 17.1ppg.

Sterling feared our inside scoring enough that on the opening tip, they put one player in the circle to jump, and the other four back in the lane to get ready to defend our inside game. This strategy worked well in their overtime win when we shot only 30% from the field.

Kevin Walden- Knox College Basketball

(From Knox website)

Kevin Walden is headed into his 6^th year as the Knox College men’s basketball coach. Becoming a college coach at any level is a real journey. To succeed in college coaching, you have to have toughness. Often when a coach starts the journey, they are starting with very low pay as an assistant, grad assistant, or video coordinator.

Kevin graduated from Knox in 2001 as an Elementary Ed major. He became assistant coach for Tim Heimann at Knox immediately. In his first position, he was not just assistant basketball coach but he also had 2-3 other job titles to try to make ends meet. My point, it wasn’t a life of luxury. Whether on D3 or D1 level, becoming a college coach requires someone to have a strong vision of where they want to get. And no matter the bumps in the road, they have to just keep going.

To reach your goal in any field, you have to be willing to challenge yourself. Sometimes you have to be willing to do the “uncomfortable.” For Kevin Walden, the comfortable was to be willing to leave his job as Knox assistant to go to St. Ambrose as an assistant. This was a challenge but a way to grow. Then he made the move across country to become the head coach at Warren Wilson in Ashville, NC. When the Knox head coaching job opened up in 2012, Kevin had experience at Knox, at St. Ambrose, and head coaching experience at Warren Wilson. He had been willing to prepare himself.

Jon Gordon's 11 Thoughts About Teamwork

Raining Threes

2009-10 was the first year the Streaks ran "The System". The year before we had gone 14-18 on the season. It was the first losing season for a Galesburg in 22 years. And averaged only 48 points per game. "The System" was instituted to jump start our program. While it could be argued there were weaknesses to running "The System", it was assured players would have to play hard. So the number one priority of the season was to get players to play hard.

In 2008-9, we had scored 48 points per game, and made a total of 113 threes. In 2009-10, we jumped up to 365 made threes and 72 points per game. Some games, we rotated 14 players into the game. There was no time for anyone to "coast", they were only going to be in for 35-40 seconds. Mickey Rodriguez and Jess Howard had 87 and 118 threes. We improved to 17-14 on the season.

But the 2009-10 season served as build up to our 2010-11 season when we set the National HS record for threes made in a season with 397 threes. And we went 28-7 and made it to the Elite 8.

But it all started by just "Raining Some Threes!"

Casey Williams

I coached Casey Williams more years than any player at GHS. She was on the varsity all four years in high school. And she was on a YMCA team I coached when she was in 2^nd or 3^rd grade. When she was at the YMCA, all of the players fought over who took the ball out of bounds, and then who got to dribble the ball up the floor. Our solution was to give a black wrist band to the player who got to take it out, and then a red wrist band to the player who would dribble the ball up the floor. By the time Casey got to the high school, we didn’t need the wrist bands.

Casey has always had good basketball skills. She was skilled enough to play on the varsity as a freshman. She was an outstanding defender for GHS. Her senior year, there were times she guarded point guards, shooters, and even post players. But what stands out about Casey is that she is just so competitive. There was no one Casey would back down from.

Now Casey attends Benedictine University in Lisle. She jumped in and was a regular for the team her first season, and Benedictine plays in a tough conference. This past year, as a sophomore, Casey had to have surgery on her leg. But as one would expect, Casey competed in rehab and worked herself back into playing condition. Now she is headed into her junior year.

Going Beyond Tradition

Summer of 1994- picture in Michigan Stadium

In the summer of 1994 (preparing for the 1995 season), the Streaks went undefeated for the summer. But that was not their goal.

In the 7 years from 1998 to 1994, Galesburg had won 20 games every year. The Streaks had won the Regional every year. And GHS had won the WB6 four of the 7 years.

The 1994 team had gone 24-6, won the WB6, and the Regional. But, we had lost to IVC in the Sectional in Thiel Gym in the first round of the Sectional. We started two sophomores, two juniors, and one senior on that 1994 team.We had a good year- certainly a year to be proud of.

So we had high expectations for our 1995 squad. We didn't just have a good summer, we had a great summer of basketball. We did the usual things- Streaks Camp and Galesburg Summer League. We had two tourneys in Galesburg, and we made two trips to Maine West to play. Then the highlight of our summers in the 1990's, we went to University of Michigan for team camp. 

Q/A with Mark Makeever

Mark guarding Bruce Douglas of Quincy.

I had a chance to have a Q/A with Mark Makeever. Mark is a great lesson on the value of being focused on the process. It doesn’t matter if you are a player or a coach, you have to enjoy the grind. You have to enjoy going to practice. Psychologists say this is true of any career or profession- to succeed you must have a passion for what you do.

Mark grew up in Galesburg and loved basketball. In JH and as soph and junior in HS, basketball did not return the love. He was a part time player. He describes himself as having been a “20/20 guy,” getting in if Galesburg was up 20 or down 20. He went onto to be a highly successful player as a senior and then in college- on very good teams. And from there, he has had an unbelievable coaching career in Oklahoma and Texas.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think Mark has “worked” a day in his life. He is someone who just loves what he is doing. When he was as a sophomore going thru a 2-3 hour practice, going home to eat, and then going to play basketball at the Knox County YMCA- he doesn’t seem to see it as having been work. And while he did want to get better so he could play, that doesn’t seem like it must have been his main reason. He just loved playing basketball.

TBT-1990 Seniors

Senior year is an exciting time. It is a special feeling to be the top class in the school and in sports. Often it is a year players have looked forward to- "when we're seniors, we will ....."

In good years, the seniors take ownership. They have a sense of pride that this is going to be their legacy. They can be more focused and more determined. It is not unusual to find players make a real jump in performance from their junior to their senior years- senior pride!!

Kaylah Townsell- On the Wall

We put pictures of our players who rank in the top 50 on an All-State team. Kaylah Townsell becomes our 25th All-State player. There were many pictures to choose form. Kaylah is such a great athlete and there were some spectacular pictures of her almost jumping over someone to score. But I chose a picture of Kaylah on defense. Kaylah was one of the best defenders to ever play for Galesburg.

Shayli Florine's First Year

Shayli Florine has finished her freshman year at McKendree in Lebanon, Illinois. She had an exciting and challenging first year. As a high school athlete, she was always an in-season athlete playing three sports. So one of the big challenges was the intensity of off-season weights and conditioning at McKendree. And from the sounds of things, they "hit the ground running." And as would be expected, Shayli is not afraid of hard work!

She played behind several experienced post players. The game I got to see, when she got in the game, she was ready to go. When she wasn’t on the floor, she was active and involved in the game. Quite simply, she was a good teammate.

It will be exciting to see how she develops over the next three years.

I had a chance to ask Shayli about her first year.

Massey- What attracted you to McKendree?

Shayli- What really got me was the way I clicked with the coaching staff.  I felt like we had a lot of the same ideas about basketball and like they genuinely cared about me on and off the court.  Also, I really liked the strength and conditioning program because I knew it would be hard but it would give me the chance to really improve my game and raise my potential. Also loved the small school environment.

Massey- How nervous were you when it came time to actually go to college?

Shot Clock- Yes or No

The NBA, FIBA, and NCAA all use a shot clock. Now the Wisconsin HS Association is adding a shot clock. It certainly seems to be a trend.

Some feel it is only a matter of time before Illinois will add it. People in favor believe it will speed the game up and prevent end of the game stalling. Those opposed are concerned about the cost and the need for trained operators.

What are your thoughts? Fill out the survey on this page.

I asked some high school coaches there thoughts....

Jay Hatch, Hall of Fame Coach

I believe that a shot clock would be a bad idea for high school. I don't think there is a big issue with teams holding the ball, so I don't see the need. Here are the negatives, I believe:

1. Having played with a shot clock in college, what happens is the last 10 seconds of the clock are a time pressure, so it is an excuse for a player to take a bad shot.

2. Shot clock tends to make it so the more athletic team will win the game.  Basketball is not supposed to be the decathlon.

3. I think scoring will go down.  Taking rushed shots does not lead to more makes.

The far larger issue in my mind is getting more qualified officials.  Calling the game better will lead to more scoring.  Basketball has become far, far too physical.

Lexi Daniels

As an 8^th grader at Lombard JH, Lexi Daniels was a dominant player. She was a point guard and was a scorer. She came to Galesburg HS, and made the varsity as a freshman. She never played freshmen or sophomore basketball. She played regularly for the varsity all four years. Lexi was one of the best three point shooters to ever play for Galesburg High School.

If people saw her play at Lombard, her high school success would have seemed predictable. But in athletics, it doesn’t always work out the way we might predict. Just because a player has great success early does not mean they are automatically going to have success later.

While a player may be a star in JH, to have the same success as a junior or senior requires a willingness to work on their individual skills. Being a 30% shooter is great in JH but it won’t cut it on the varsity level. A player must be willing to keep working and improving.

I read an article that said great pro shooters make 90% of open shots when shooting on their own. Great college shooters make 75% of open shots when unguarded, and great high school shooters will make 60% of their practice shots. By the time Lexi was a senior and shot on the Gun, she would consistently make 55-70% of her threes. She was a great high school shooter.

Coachable

This is our 1980 Streaks basketball team. They had an outstanding season....

- 21-4

- Ranked #7 in Illinois

- Undefeated WB6 champs

It was one of my most enjoyable years as a coach. Why? Yes, we won a lot of games. But look at the faces in this huddle. This was a group that competed but it was also a group who wanted to be coached.

My last year as an assistant in boys basketball, I remember trying to help a guy with his shot. His comeback, "That won't work." Clearly he didn't want to be coached. In order to be coached, you have to start with a certain degree of humility. You have to recognize the need to improve. The player I was trying to help either didn't recognize the need to improve or didn't see me as an effective instructor or was just lazy.

When I moved into girls basketball, I found girls who were eager to learn, willing to work, and wanting to compete. We could go upstairs and run repeats in the upstairs hallway. A lap was 300 yards and we would run a lap, rest 2 minutes, then run another. We would do this six times- it was a track workout. But the players never questioned, they just ran and competed. We were in great shape, we ran people and pressed people off the floor all year.

Are girls more coachable than boys? I will leave that to experts to research the topic. I have had the pleasure of coaching very coachable young men in cross country and basketball. So it is not a gender thing.

I was just very lucky to fall into the GHS girls coaching position when a group of very talented group was coming thru, and a group who wanted to be coached. Nothing could be better for a coach. One of my most enjoyable experiences!!