Messer's moxie helps Huskies

Steve Messer will see some familiar faces tonight.

The first-year Hersey coach will face the school he coached the last nine years when Elk Grove comes to Arlington Heights and Ken Carter Gymnasium for a Mid-Suburban East matchup.

And Hersey's players are starting to get a good feeling for their new coach, who returned to his alma mater after Don Rowley retired.

''He's an awesome coach,'' said Hersey senior guard Griffin Dwyer of Messer.

''He's teaching us that we've got to fight through adversity and play as a team,'' said 6-foot-4 senior forward Ryan Moran.

After the Huskies split their four York tournament games, their only loss in their last 4 games was by 2 points at Palatine.

''The results are encouraging,'' Messer said. ''Going to the (Rolling) Meadows game (a 66-56 win), the team improved as much as I've had a team improve in a week.

''And they weren't satisfied with 1 win and kept working.''

Messer wasn't the only prominent new face for Hersey. No one other than 6-9 Dayton-bound senior Luke Fabrizius saw significant time on last year's 22-6 team.

Dwyer has averaged 17 points in the last 4 games.

"I'm not surprised by that -- I was more surprised he struggled the first 4 games," Messer said of Dwyer's 9.5 ppg at York.

''I'm definitely doing what I can do to help the team out,'' Dwyer said. ''If I'm down, there are four other players on the court who can help.''

And guys such as Moran and 6-4 Andrew Petro help by knowing their roles aren't to put up big offensive numbers.

''We grab rebounds, set good screens and open things up for our scorers, Griffin and Luke,'' Moran said. "If we set good screens they get good shots.''

Which has the Huskies thinking they have a good shot in what figures to be another down-to-the-wire division race.

''We're starting to meld together and things are looking good for the road ahead,'' Moran said.

''With new people we needed to work on chemistry and we needed to get to know coach better and what he wanted us to do,'' Dwyer said. ''Everyone has been clicking, everyone knows where to be at the right times and we're playing together.''

Another 'W' for 'Z':ŒLong-time Buffalo Grove assistant coach Dave Sczepanski was in his usual self-effacing mode after running the team in a 62-51 win at Wheeling last Thursday.

''You just have a long Polish name instead of an Irish one,'' Sczepanski said of Ryan O'Connor missing the game with strep throat.

Sczepanski also filled in and won 2 games two years ago when O'Connor had to tend to a family emergency.

O'Connor was at practice the three days before the Wheeling game but called Sczepanski four hours before tipoff to tell him the head coach's decision was to bench himself at home.

''Ryan went through everything Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,'' said Sczepanski, who was assisted by T.J. Brooks and sophomore coach Pete Duffer. ''He prepared them for the game and they just played.''

Senior Paul Timko, who has been on the BG varsity for four years, said he also talked to O'Connor on the phone before the game.

''We went over some of the stuff to do and I relayed it to all the seniors,'' Timko said. ''He prepares us well enough in practice that come game-time, all of us are confident we'll step up and do what we've been taught.''

Finding the right route: Wheeling coach Lou Wool can determine his team's readiness to play based on an expression from his dad, Leon.

''We call it, 'Getting off the bus,' '' Lou Wool said. ''You've got to get all the guys getting off the bus, figuratively speaking, and ready to play ball.''

And there were times during a 62-51 loss to Buffalo Grove last week where some of Wool's players appeared to miss their stop. It underscored the Wildcats' 3-4 start after an overtime win over Glenbrook South on Saturday.

''With our kids it's a mindset of literally showing up to play every game,'' Wool said after a 19-point second-half turnaround against BG. ''We always have a little bit of a struggle to just hammer home the point that you've got to come to play every night, and within the game you've got to come to play on every offensive and defensive possession.

''Right now we just don't fully understand that and we've got to keep emphasizing that.''

But Wool believes the Wildcats can get rolling in the right direction with talented veterans such as guard Chris McClellan, forward James Kurtz and much-improved forward Al Chery.

''Definitely,'' Chery said of believing they can turn it around. ''We're still young and as we go on we'll get more experience.

''We've got me, Chris and James back and Mike (Barton) and 'Zim' (Mike Zimmer) are learning as they go along.''

Barton and Zimmer are starting after playing reserve roles as sophomores on last year's 16-11 team.

Rejoining the rivalry:ŒEven though it was Steve Messer's first time as Hersey head coach in the battle for Arlington Heights, he had a good idea of what to expect Saturday at St. Viator.

''It was what I figured,'' Messer said after Hersey's 54-37 victory. ''I've known Joe (Viator coach Majkowski) since I was a young assistant trying to scrap my way to the top.

''He's just an excellent coach. His kids play their tails off no matter what the score is all the time.''

Post-Christmas packages: While a lot of attention is on upcoming holiday tournaments, there are a couple of events in 2008 to break the winter blahs.

The 11th annual Meijer High School Hoops Showdowns will feature a tripleheader on Jan. 19 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

The 4:30 p.m. opener will feature girls powers Warren and Fenwick. At 6:30, Jacobs' boys and Northern Iowa-bound John Moran face Fenwick with Batavia and Northwestern-bound Nick Fruendt taking on Marshall at 8:30.

The 13th annual City-Suburban Showdown will be held Feb. 16 at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.

The 6:30 p.m. game features Waukegan and sophomore Jereme Richmond, who has committed to Illinois, against Oak Park and Georgia Tech-bound Iman Shumpert.

At 8:30, New Trier and Harvard-bound Peter Boehm take on East Chicago Central, the defending Indiana Class 4A champions, and 6-10 Memphis recruit Angel Garcia.

For information on ticket prices and purchase, go to The Integrity Group Web site at www.integritygrp.com.

Mileposts ahead: ŒFour MSL coaches are closing in on career milestone victories.

• Ed Molitor is 3 wins from 500 in his 39-year career at Palatine and Marist.

• Tom McCormack is 12 wins from 400 in 24 years at Conant and Immaculate Conception.

• Bill Wandro is 12 wins from 300 in 17 years at Hoffman Estates.

• Steve Messer, in his first year at Hersey after nine at Elk Grove, is 5 wins from 150.