To say that the head coaches of the varsity boys basketball team, Coach Bonk, and varsity girls team, Coach Connell, are ready for the season is an understatement. Both coaches are ecstatic to have started off the season off with a bang.
The varsity girls team has a current record of 9-3 after claiming the title of Tournament Champions at the Elgin Academy Thanksgiving Tournament, and Co-Tournament Champions at the Riverside-Brookfield Thanksgiving Tournament. The varsity boys team is also off to a strong start with a record of 4-1, thanks in large part to leading scorer and All Tournament member John R. Bonk, leading rebounder, Tim Kuckalis, and All Tournament team members, Kevin Connelly and Dan Kienzle.
Both Coach Bonk and Coach Connell look forward to the teams turning a new page this year and to being successful in their conferences. Coach Bonk said he thinks that the team has “matured well” and that they have realized that basketball is both a mental and physical sport which makes the team pay more attention to detail.
In terms of expectations, Coach Connell said, “We are going to compete every day in practice and compete on game nights.” She also said that since coming on board and working with this team since the summer, she has been preaching, “We are better than 1 – 8,” which is last season’s record. Coach Connell remains devoted to working towards bringing the girls varsity basketball team to the respectability she believes they deserve.
Coach Bonk explained that his expectations were for the team to be competitive and put themselves in position to win every game. He further expressed that the players need to take one game at a time and to place all of their focus onto the opponent that they are playing.
In addition to expectations, both Coach Bonk and Coach Connell expressed that the varsity teams certainly have many strengths, but challenges as well. Coach Bonk stated, “One strength will be our depth at every position; we have more players that can play more than one position which helps our rotations. We can go big or we can play smaller depending on our match ups.” He also mentioned that he thought their perimeter shooting would be another strength and they were going to look to run the ball more than they have had in the past, but that they need to guard the ball better on the half court and they also need to rebound to win consistently.
As for Coach Connell, she stated that her seniors would be the key to their success this year, and that she hopes they will “leave their mark on this program, and leave their legacy.” Though very hopeful Coach Connell also expressed that, “Learning a whole new system and philosophy always has its challenges in the first year, but [the] girls have dedicated themselves to what we are trying to do here at Nazareth.”
With the season well underway, both coaches expressed that all players play an integral role in the teams’ overall successes. Coach Bonk stating that “Some guys will perform and do things that will not show up in the box score but will be very important to our success.”
Nazareth fans hope to see both teams grow and advance to playoffs later this season.
