Peering into the Future

Zach Miller's education in Rams basketball didn't start and end in the living room.

Sure, it didn't hurt learning at the feet of his dad, Glenbard East varsity boys basketball coach Scott Miller.

Most coaches' sons do have a leg up on their peers.

But Zach's real baptism into the Glenbard East way came in fourth grade, when he joined the Future Rams travel basketball program.

Zach and his friends did the same drills as Mike Capocci and the varsity Rams. Ran the same offense. Had the same practice schedule.

So when Zach's name was called in January to suit up and play with the Glenbard East varsity, he maybe didn't harbor the trepidation that other freshmen would.

"When you know all the plays and know what you're doing," Zach said, "the game is a lot slower."

Learning the system

After losing four starters, including a Division I recruit in Capocci, from a team that won a school record 25 games, it didn't take a genius to surmise that Glenbard East would be rebuilding this winter.

At times the Rams have taken the court with two sophomores and a freshman. That they maintain a winning record, coach Miller said, is in no small measure due to the success of the Future Rams.

Miller started the travel program from scratch at Glenbard East nine years ago. He picks the coaches. Games for the four teams in grades 5-8 run in January and February, as an extension of the junior high school season.

The Future Rams play home games in the DuPage Youth Travel Basketball League at Glenbard East; varsity Rams referee the fifth-grade games.

Future Rams run Glenbard East's out-of-bounds plays and press break. Terminology is uniform from grades 5-12.

"That transition for freshmen is not as great," coach Miller said, "and we can bring up kids from the lower levels and really not miss a beat."

In Wheaton the system run in the Wheaton Park District Travel/Feeder basketball program is "literally verbatim" to that at Wheaton North, according to eighth-grade coach Tom Norris.

Norris is no basketball novice; he played collegiately at Baylor and Illinois-Chicago, was an assistant coach at UIC for two years and has coached Wheaton travel teams for 14 years.

Two of Norris' sons have played at Wheaton North and a third is on his way.

Still, Norris sits through Wheaton North practices and summer camps run by Falcons varsity coach Jim Nazos. He picks Nazos' brain on how he runs defenses.

Drills mirror what Wheaton North runs in practice. Nazos even visits the eighth-grade team's practice on occasion to break things down.

"Coach Nazos has encouraged me to be creative," Norris said, "but the basic offense, defense and out of bound plays are the same.

"It's huge, in my opinion. By the time they are juniors and seniors, they are much further along."

The Wheaton travel program's season runs from late December to mid-March; Nazos said they are careful not to overlap with the Wheaton junior high season.

"The biggest thing is they're playing 40 games or more," Nazos said. "The benefit of doing some of the things we do is great. But I think the most important thing for seventh- and eighth-graders is just to play."

Part of the program

Norris looks at the core of the Wheaton North varsity and typically sees 8-9 alums of the youth travel program.

To get a closer view of that synergy, check out the Falcons' locker room some Friday nights.

Nazos invites members of the travel team to meet at halftime of the sophomore game. They go to the varsity warmup. The younger boys watch how the Falcons prepare for a game.

"Almost all the varsity players know the kids," Norris said. "It's a nice mentor system."

In District 204 the basketball teams from middle schools Hill, Granger and Still play at least one, if not more games every year at Waubonsie Valley High School.

"You get a feel of Waubonsie and the main court," Hill eighth-grade boys coach Tony Ivkovich said.

Warriors varsity coach Steve Weemer catches a few games at each middle school. Waubonsie Valley also hosts a pizza party for the eighth-grade boys. Ivkovich often takes his team to a Waubonsie Valley freshman game.

"You want them to feel a part of the program here at Waubonsie Valley," Weemer said. "It's where they will come and spend four important years of their life."

Learn to compete

Coaching at a high school that draws from 34 different towns -- and one with strict academic standards -- Benet boys basketball coach Marty Gaughan admits that "reaching the clientele," or future players can be difficult.

Contact is made through coaching clinics and summer camps. Just as useful, Gaughan invites youth coaches to bring their teams to view a Benet practice.

"Hopefully, to show them the intensity and the things you need to do as a high school player," Gaughan said.

That's the idea Gaughan's dad, Wally, had at St. Tarcissus School on the northwest side of Chicago when Marty was in grammar school.

Wally would bring high school coaches from Weber and Gordon Tech in to show their drills, then incorporate them into his own practice.

Weemer agrees that be it through middle school or travel programs, kids need to be introduced to competing.

"Kids have to learn how to play hard," he said. "Every level is a big jump. Kids are faster, stronger and play harder. Kids have to see that progression."

Ivkovich said middle school kids must bring that intensity to practice. Forget participation rules at the next level.

"If kids aren't playing hard in high school," Ivkovich said, "they don't play."

Fundamental focus

Naperville Central boys basketball coach Pete Kramer has seen young kids who can't even do a layup, let alone the more advanced basketball skills.

Kids are playing at a younger age. But Kramer said there is a "dire need for kids to work on fundamentals."

Kramer has little contact with his District 203 middle-school coaches. He is involved at some level with his son's fourth-grade travel team. Kramer is not as concerned that incoming freshmen have the Naperville Central playbook memorized.

"As long as they know how to screen and pass and shoot," he said, "they can pick up stuff pretty easy. We keep things pretty basic at the freshman level."

Gaughan laments the youth basketball schedule that wedges one practice in between five games.

"If you talk to a lot of high school coaches, they will tell you that there are too many games and not enough practices," he said. "It should be the reverse."

That player development is the focus at Gaughan's camps and clinics and those like it in the area. Youth coaches are taught different drills to take back to practice.

The focus on fundamentals never wavers, whether at Glenbard East or Benet or any other high school.

"The big message," Gaughan said, "is you're not teaching kids to play. You're teaching them how to play."