Ludwick a true shooting star for Grayslake North

Shooting the lights out while on the sophomore team, Teddy Ludwick earned a promotion.

The 6-foot, lanky guard had been rolling up the points, scoring 20 and sometimes 30 points at a time. And he was particularly deadly from beyond the 3-point line.

Two years ago, the Grayslake North varsity basketball team was in desperate need of that kind of offensive punch. So about halfway through the season, Ludwick played in his first varsity game.

He attempted seven 3-pointers in that game. And missed all seven.

On the season, he went 0-for-18 from beyond the arc.

But to get himself through, and to get himself to where he is now as a confident 3-point shooting machine, Ludwick told himself the same thing that he tells the fifth- and sixth-grade boys he coaches twice a week through a park district program.

“Shooters keep shooting,” Ludwick said. “You might not make every shot, but you've got to keep shooting. That's one of the biggest things I want to teach my players.”

Ludwick has all kinds of wisdom to impart on the boys who are playing for him, his sister Shyanne and his father Scott (they are all co-coaches) this winter as part of an in-house basketball league within the Grayslake Park District.

Now a savvy senior, Ludwick knows all the tricks of the trade.

No wonder he's one of the best players in the area, leading one of the hottest teams in the area. Averaging 23 points per game, and coming off a career-high 29-point performance against Antioch recently that included a couple of spectacular 3-pointers, Ludwick has helped Grayslake North shoot out of the gates quickly.

The Knights' 6-1 record ranks as the best start in school history.

“We usually don't get much credit going into the season, so we're out to prove people wrong and I think we'll do that this year,” Ludwick said. “We have a lot of competitive kids on our team. No one on this team likes to lose, even in simple box-out drills in practice. Our practices are really competitive and it's showed on the court.

“The guys on our team really like competing.”

Ludwick could teach his fifth- and sixth-graders a thing or two about competing.

He says that he was blessed with some natural athletic ability but that his knack for shooting and scoring evolved only because he pushed the issue. He sought out a way to make himself better.

“Between my freshman and sophomore year, I went to a basketball camp at the University of North Carolina,” Ludwick said. “I've always been a North Carolina fan and it's kind of my dream school so I really wanted to go to camp there.

“It was an amazing camp. The competition was extremely good. There were 13-year-olds who were like 6-foot-11. I didn't even know that was possible. I had never played with kids that good.”

To fit in, Ludwick had to step it up. Big time.

“That camp showed me how hard I had to play to compete at a high level,” Ludwick said. “I had to work a lot harder to score. I had to make my shot and all my offensive moves better because everybody I was playing against was so good.

“I think I carried all of that with me because when I got home from that camp, my friends and teammates said they saw something different in me.”

Not long after, Ludwick started his scoring binge with the sophomore team.

And even though he never gained any traction from 3-point range during his stint on the varsity that season, he still played valuable minutes and averaged about 4 points per game coming off the bench.

During his junior year last season, Ludwick's production kicked into high gear and he averaged 14 points per game as a full-time starter.

“The thing that I really like about Teddy is that when he went 0-for-7 in that first game, he wasn't rattled at all,” Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said. “He loves basketball so much and he's been playing for so long. It's like, at this point, nothing fazes him. Even though he was missing all those threes, you could tell that he still belonged up on varsity just because of that. I remember telling him, ‘You have the green light.'”

However, Grunloh did caution that the light would quickly turn red if he caught Ludwick slacking on defense.

Being so offensive-minded, Ludwick often put defense on the back-burner during his younger years. Grunloh told him that if defense didn't become more of a priority, he wouldn't be able to play with the varsity.

“He really took that to heart and immediately started working on being a better defensive player and he's become a great defender” Grunloh said. “I remember joking with him during his sophomore year when he was missing his threes. I would tell him, ‘I know we told you to focus more on your defense, but that didn't mean we wanted you to forget how to play offense.'

“But we knew it (Ludwick's slump) wouldn't last for long. There have been very few games in his career where he's been cold from start to finish.”

Even so, Ludwick made sure to prepare for that scenario. Just in case.

He's spent many hours over the last couple of years working on his moves to the basket so that he can still be a scorer when his outside shot isn't falling.

“I really wanted to be able to beat people to the hoop,” Ludwick said. “But I wanted to be comfortable driving and finishing with either my left or right hand.”

Ludwick, a righty, says that he's now gotten to the point where he almost feels more comfortable using his left hand.

“I worked so hard on that, I did a lot of drills and I also did a lot of other little things that made using my left hand easier,” Ludwick said.

“If I was out in the yard kicking around a soccer ball, I'd use my left leg. I'd try eating with my left hand. Someone once told me that if you do everyday tasks like that with your opposite hand, it makes shooting a basketball and dribbling with your weak hand a lot easier.

“It was great advice.”

Sounds like Ludwick has another piece of wisdom to pass on.