What were your main goals for your summer program? What were some of the best things you ever did with your summer program?
Both communities have proud basketball traditions. Taylorville and Dolph Stanley had been a state power in the 1940’s in boys basketball. Galesburg and John Thiel had been a power in the 1960’s in boys basketball.
In 1997 both communities were out in huge numbers to support their girls basketball teams. The result was largest crowd in IHSA girls basketball history, and the largest attended girls basketball State Tourney.
I knew I wanted to have my teams play man to man defense, but early I made an horrible mistake. I looked at everything that I thought needed to be taught, and decided that teaching man to man to the first teams would be too much. So I took the easy route. Although we pressed some 1-2-1-1 and some 2-2-1, our primary defense was to sit in a 2-3 zone. It was not a 2-3 “matchup”, it was a straight zone. As a player had never played 2-3, I knew nothing about it, we just sat in a 2-3 zone.
The 1963-64 Corpus Christi team had a very good year, going 19-5 on the season. They were coached by Rex Davis, who was in his second year. His first year they had gone 15-10.
Key players were Pat Prina, Jim Kennedy, John Noonan, Mike Hanrahan, Jim Kemmer, and Bob Scott. They took second in the Little Six Conference, won the Knox County Tourney, and earned the #2 seed in the Galesburg Regional. Other team members were Mike Prina, Bob Calderone, Mike Rice, Bob Scott, and Craig Wilke.
The student fans think what they are doing is funny. Two people on the bench- Allen Massey and Matt Pogue have been around Coach Reynolds enough that they know it is not a time to smile.
A great idea is to run one of your regular sets as a “false action.” Pick out something that you use a lot. You run this action again for maybe the 15th time in a game, but in the middle of it or at the end of it, you go into your “trick play.” Often the defense is caught off guard- they are busy defending your false action.
In 2003, Amanda Gunther was a 5’8” All-State post player. We lost to Fenwick in the Elite. On our run to State, Gunther was averaging close to 25ppg and we as a team were scoring only 55ppg. Amanda had a knack of catching the lob and either scoring over some 6’2” posts or drawing fouls. Vs. Fenwick, we wanted to slow the game down, so we might run our basic zone reversal action 4-5 times and then run this lob action for Gunther. She had a big game and kept us close but eventually we lost.
Key Events in Streaks History
1913- State Championship
1929- Gerald Phillips hired
1931- Streaks 3rd in State
1950- Gerald Phillips resigns
1955- John Thiel hired
1959- Streaks 3rd in State
1966- Streaks 2nd in State
1968- Streaks 2nd in State
1972- IHSA goes to 2-classes in basketball
1972-3- Girls Basketball Started
1973- John Thiel resigns
1976- Streaks in Elite 8
1982-3 GHS becomes 4 year high school
1982-3 All JH sports were cut (some for 1 year, others longer)
1993- Wicall Gym built
1998- Streaks finish 2nd in State
2008- IHSA goes to 4-classes in basketball
2014- Kimbrough Fieldhouse built
A great idea is to run one of your regular sets as a “false action.” Pick out something that you use a lot. You run this action again for maybe the 15th time in a game, but in the middle of it or at the end of it, you go into your “trick play.” Often the defense is caught off guard- they are busy defending your false action.
I am not saying to use my false action, pick out something in your playbook to use. Draw it out and then see how you add one of your tricks at the end.
