Colts coach Banking on his team
Boys squad has plenty of youth and potential
Sylar Jones and Cloverleaf’s boys basketball team have an encouraging future. Photo by BRUCE BILLOW
Basketball fans and players tend to love the games. That’s where the fun is.
Coaches like the games, but practicing is what makes a lot of the good ones tick. Cloverleaf boys basketball coach Jack Banks is no different. Banks knows work will make his team better. It’s why he’s looking so forward to the first offseason as the Colts’ mentor.
Cloverleaf is coming off a 3-20 season overall, 2-12 in the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division. The Colts had a roster stocked with young players, including four freshmen and three sophomores.
The team was built to take lumps during the 2016-17 season and the Colts did that. Now is when they grow.
“The month of June used to not be the focus of the boys, and now I think it is,” Banks said. “The commitment for basketball that I’ve seen out of the underclassmen is getting better in terms of participation.”
Cloverleaf lost five seniors to graduation. Tyler Kapeluck, Dylan Starcher, Dillon Peterson, Jim Fazio and Ryan Gutschow may have been in on the ground floor of something special. That’s the plan, at least.
Next year Travis Hissom and Joe Rhode likely will be the only seniors. They will lead an up-and-coming roster.
This year, Nick Bailey, Donovan Nichols and Robert Rivera saw time as 10th-graders, along with freshmen Sylar Jones, Brycen Holliday, Cruz Severson and Matt Tank. The latter bunch was among 10 ninth-graders either on JV or varsity.
“I’m more excited now than when I first got the job,” Banks said.
He admitted having some concerns. The Colts started out 0-8 and Banks was wondering if things would ever turn. He spoke to Cloverleaf girls coach John Carmigiano for a little piece of perspective.
“He said, ‘I believe you’re doing the right things. Just keep doing it,’” Banks said. “From a guy who’s been there for a long time, wouldn’t you know it, after that talk, we won our first game.”
The Colts won another pair down the stretch. Banks said the team will play a bit of a revamped non-league schedule next year to make it a bit more user-friendly. The idea is to have a bit of success to breed some confidence.
There are no smoke-and-mirrors pathways to winning, though. Banks knows eventually it will have to come from kids buying in and working. He stresses constantly to his team things that have gone on at Buckeye, where Banks was an assistant to Tom Harrington, who previously was an assistant to Joe Mackey at Brunswick, where winning seasons against tough competition have become the norm.
“We probably talked about it every day,” Banks said. “A lot of the drills, I based it on what Buckeye did. Tom will keep me updated. It’s not just the Buckeye thing, it’s the Brunswick philosophy. It’s the outside shooting and how good they are. We can use that for us. I talk all the time about what Buckeye has achieved to the point the boys are tired of hearing it.”
Banks doesn’t expect miracles nor an overnight turnaround. He wants his team to make progress in whatever increment that means. Still, some tangible success can serve as a spur in the side of a program that has struggled for decades.
“I just want to see overall improvement over the program,” Banks said. “The basketball IQ needs to be a whole lot higher. I’m just hoping these kids get better every day.”
Coaches like the games, but practicing is what makes a lot of the good ones tick. Cloverleaf boys basketball coach Jack Banks is no different. Banks knows work will make his team better. It’s why he’s looking so forward to the first offseason as the Colts’ mentor.
Cloverleaf is coming off a 3-20 season overall, 2-12 in the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division. The Colts had a roster stocked with young players, including four freshmen and three sophomores.
The team was built to take lumps during the 2016-17 season and the Colts did that. Now is when they grow.
“The month of June used to not be the focus of the boys, and now I think it is,” Banks said. “The commitment for basketball that I’ve seen out of the underclassmen is getting better in terms of participation.”
Cloverleaf lost five seniors to graduation. Tyler Kapeluck, Dylan Starcher, Dillon Peterson, Jim Fazio and Ryan Gutschow may have been in on the ground floor of something special. That’s the plan, at least.
Next year Travis Hissom and Joe Rhode likely will be the only seniors. They will lead an up-and-coming roster.
This year, Nick Bailey, Donovan Nichols and Robert Rivera saw time as 10th-graders, along with freshmen Sylar Jones, Brycen Holliday, Cruz Severson and Matt Tank. The latter bunch was among 10 ninth-graders either on JV or varsity.
“I’m more excited now than when I first got the job,” Banks said.
He admitted having some concerns. The Colts started out 0-8 and Banks was wondering if things would ever turn. He spoke to Cloverleaf girls coach John Carmigiano for a little piece of perspective.
“He said, ‘I believe you’re doing the right things. Just keep doing it,’” Banks said. “From a guy who’s been there for a long time, wouldn’t you know it, after that talk, we won our first game.”
The Colts won another pair down the stretch. Banks said the team will play a bit of a revamped non-league schedule next year to make it a bit more user-friendly. The idea is to have a bit of success to breed some confidence.
There are no smoke-and-mirrors pathways to winning, though. Banks knows eventually it will have to come from kids buying in and working. He stresses constantly to his team things that have gone on at Buckeye, where Banks was an assistant to Tom Harrington, who previously was an assistant to Joe Mackey at Brunswick, where winning seasons against tough competition have become the norm.
“We probably talked about it every day,” Banks said. “A lot of the drills, I based it on what Buckeye did. Tom will keep me updated. It’s not just the Buckeye thing, it’s the Brunswick philosophy. It’s the outside shooting and how good they are. We can use that for us. I talk all the time about what Buckeye has achieved to the point the boys are tired of hearing it.”
Banks doesn’t expect miracles nor an overnight turnaround. He wants his team to make progress in whatever increment that means. Still, some tangible success can serve as a spur in the side of a program that has struggled for decades.
“I just want to see overall improvement over the program,” Banks said. “The basketball IQ needs to be a whole lot higher. I’m just hoping these kids get better every day.”