Hersey posts first victory under coach Hess, beats Jacobs
One of the more interesting boys basketball stories this winter comes from Hersey, where former Huskies player and former assistant coach Dave Hess was tabbed last summer as coach.
Hess was a three-year varsity letterman (1996-99) earning all-Mid-Suburban League as well as a Daily Herald All- Area honors his senior season. He attended Millikin University, where he lettered in basketball, baseball and golf before coaching at Hersey, where he served as an assistant to Don Rowley in 2004. Rowley happens to serve as one of Hess' assistants this season.
After his club posted its first win of the season 62-47 over Jacobs at Palatine's Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday afternoon, Hess may hand out passing grades to his team. The Huskies went on a decisive 19-2 run that spanned seven minutes covering the final 2:50 of the first into the first 4:10 of the second quarter. That left the Huskies (1-2) ahead to stay 30-17 on a Brody Variano free throw.
The Golden Eagles (0-3) could got no closer than 30-22 on 5 of senior swingman Treval Howard's 11 points before another Hersey surge over the final 2:27 of the half left the Huskies comfortably ahead 38-23 at halftime.
Hersey junior Center Jackson Hupp, who began the second half with 8 of his game-high 28, spoke of his coach's guidance during the transitional period and how it carried over to the players, particularly returning senior Jared Ryg, juniors Ricky Divito, Variano and himself.
"Coach Hess did an amazing job (of) bringing us together," said Hupp, who also pulled in a game-high 10 rebounds. "It was also a part of (our) leaders from last year just getting everyone in the gym and they did their jobs. They went in (and) worked hard."
Variano (13 points) and Ryg (10 points, 4 assists) also led Hersey, which opens Saturday's slate with an 11 a.m. game against Glenbrook South.
Junior guard Ben Jurzak's 17 points paced the Jacobs effort. The Golden Eagles will face the host Pirates in Saturday second game. They will look to continue learning from this week's season-opening experience, which coach Jim Roberts addressed after the game.
"Our kids are really good kids," Roberts said. "(They) always fight, always compete and they play hard. They listen and they're coachable and when things like today happen we as coaches need to reflect first on what's going on, what are we not doing to allow us to get to this point."