Tri Cities captain: Basketball a family tradition for Geneva's D'Amico

When Jeremy D'Amico thinks back as far as his mind can remember, to those very first memories as a child, there's always a constant.

Basketball.

That's what happens when your dad is a Hall of Fame high school basketball coach, and when you and your older brother spend their childhood emersed in this great game.

What else happens?

You are around the game from such an early age. You learn to love it. You meet high school players that you look up to, and those players show great enthusiasm shooting baskets and setting a positive example for a couple little kids.

That's the background D'Amico has that got him to where he is today - the 2009 captain of the Daily Herald All-Area basketball team.

In a season full of players who took their games to another level, nobody did it better than D'Amico. There was Kevin Senechalle at St. Charles East who improved from 12 points and 7.8 rebounds to 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Anthony Kelley went from 7.4 points and Aurora Central's fourth-leading scorer to 19 points a game. Ben Potter got his first chance to start at Batavia and exploded from 2.3 points to 13.6 a game. Nick Neari went from St. Charles North's third-leading scorer at 9.2 points a game to 14.5.

Then there's D'Amico, who as a junior averaged 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds. This year, he wound up leading the area in scoring at 20.7 but was much more than just a shooter. He topped Geneva in rebounding, steals and blocks while also creating for his teammates with 2.6 assists a game.

He did it for a team that won by slowing the pace and excelling on defense. Geneva averaged 52.7 points a game, meaning D'Amico accounted for 39.8 percent of his team's offense - 49.7 percent factoring in his assists. Last year the Vikings averaged 70.2 points.

And most impressively, he and his teammates turned Geneva into a winner. For only the second time in 29 years, Geneva won a conference championship, sharing the Western Sun with Glenbard South and DeKalb. The Vikings won 21 games and they took home titles at their Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments.

None of it would have been possible without this 6-foot-6 senior swingman.

"Having a kid who can score inside and out makes it a lot easier to coach," Geneva's first-year coach Phil Ralston said. "He's done a real nice job this season. He's worked hard. Any accolades he's gotten this season he's earned."

Like father, like son

Ralston brought in D'Amico's dad Mark, the one who got Jeremy and his older brother Brandon introduced to basketball at such a young age, as an assistant this year. Mark D'Amico won over 400 games in 22 very successful years at Lisle, capped by becoming a 2007 inductee into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Mark recalled many road games when his sons were in third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade driving home from a game late at night. It was Jeremy's job to watch for deer.

"Both of them, they were always around the gym," Mark D'Amico said. "Whenever I could bring them I did. I think just being around it, they loved the game, they loved watching basketball, they had role models they saw, and my kids at Lisle were always good to the little guys. They kind of fed off that. And they always wanted to come to the games because they knew the players."

Jeremy saw some pretty good teams. D'Amico won 411 games at Lisle, including 20 or more games in his final six seasons and 13 times total.

"When I was younger almost every weekend I was at one of his games, home or away," Jeremy D'Amico said. "We saw a lot of basketball. I learned a lot. Watching good players play, even after games shooting around."

Mark D'Amico left Lisle three years ago. He didn't get to watch his oldest son Brandon play as much as he has Jeremy. Brandon lit up the scoreboard over and over again at Geneva, averaging an area-best 21.8 points as a senior in 2006.

"Brandon was a good influence watching him play," Jeremy said, with Mark adding: "I think Jeremy saw what Brandon did and wanted that."

In Jeremy's junior season, he scored in double figures and helped Geneva rebounding, taking a back seat offensively behind Max Cary and Alex Turnowchyk.

Then came a change in coaching, with Ralston taking over. Then came the summer games, with Mark D'Amico watching his son and a group of seniors he's known most of their lives, and Ralston extending an offer to the elder D'Amico.

The result has been a plus for all involved.

"Phil has been great," Mark D'Amico said. "I wouldn't have had this opportunity unless he offered me to come coach. It just kind of opened up, I was just coming to watch the games in the summer. I was very content. I thought he did a great job with the kids in the summer. Honestly, I didn't think this team was going to be very good. I remember saying to him, 'Man, you are winning in the summer, but I was thinking this season could be a different story.'"

Elevating the intensity

A different story indeed, with Jeremy D'Amico front and center.

Not many Geneva games - at least the ones with the outcome in doubt - go by without some sort of hard foul or physical play around the basket. D'Amico is usually in the middle of it.

His aggressive style puts the pressure on officials to call something. If the whistle sends D'Amico to the free-throw line it often angers the opponents (see North Grand's meltdown at the Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament as one example), and if a foul doesn't get called, you'll usually see Geneva even more aggressive on defense if that's how the game will be called.

"It happens," Jeremy said. "It gets physical in basketball, you just have to play through it."

"He's always had that attitude," Mark said. "I get mad at him about it because he's jawing with the other guy and he doesn't need to be. I'd rather see him get it done on the court. But he has always had a knack for getting things done."

Senior teammate Rob Tauscher has played with D'Amico since fourth grade park district basketball.

"He's a physical player, he's a tenacious player. Just real aggressive on offense and defense and sometimes that leads into physical altercations. But he usually has it under control, knows what to do," said Tauscher, adding, "He's a lot more calm in practice."

Tauscher is one of the ones not surprised by how D'Amico's numbers have taken off this season.

"He's had a great senior year. Last year he tailed off but during this summer he was scoring 20 consistently," Tauscher said. "From that standpoint we all saw it coming, we knew he could average 20 this season."

Fellow senior Sean Grady saw the same thing.

"He's a great kid to play with," Grady said. "I've known Jeremy since fifth grade so it has been great to see him blossom into the player he is now. "He can really take over a game."

Title town

D'Amico did that right off the bat this year. He scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half of a 43-40 victory over Naperville North to give the Vikings the title at the Oswego/Naperville North Hoops for Healing tournament.

In their second Western Sun Conference game of the season, D'Amico gave a glimpse of what was to come, scoring 7 of his 33 points in overtime to beat eventual co-champion Glenbard South. All the while he did it with a combination of scoring around the basket and stepping out and hitting 3-pointers (team-high 42 this season).

"You can see he loves to post up, but after posting up awhile it seems people sometimes forget he can shoot 3s," Tauscher said. "He'll step out and hit a couple on you. His versatility really opens things up for us."

"It's so much fun playing with him," Grady said. "You can get the ball to him and he'll be double-teamed - he'll get fouled and he'll make the bucket."

The year hasn't been complete smooth sailing - his scoring average came down slightly in the second half of the season as team's geared their game plans for him - but all the while Geneva has kept winning titles.

"He has ups and downs, he struggles sometimes now," Mark D'Amico said. "I think he's benefitted from it (me as an assistant). Early we were able to go to his strengths. I kind of knew what his strengths were so I think that helped him. He knew what was expected of him.

"It has been very rewarding to work with Jer."

That goes two ways - Jeremy D'Amico now on the court after so many nights as a kid watching his dad's teams play. And what a way to go out, with three championships.

"We haven't won two tournaments in a long time and we haven't won conference in a long time, so that's big," Jeremy D'Amico said. "That's just big for Geneva."

Past boys All-Area captains

1998: Eric Dodson, St. Charles

1999: P.J. Fleck, Kaneland

2000: Pete Schmit, St. Charles

2001: Eric Regan, St. Charles East

2002: Brian Schmit, St. Charles East

2003: Dan Izzo, St. Charles East

2004: Shaun Pruitt, West Aurora

2005: T.J. Marion, West Aurora

2006: T.J. Marion, West Aurora

2007: Nick Fruendt, Batavia

2008: Nick Fruendt, Batavia

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>All-Area basketball teams coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Cook County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276980">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276982">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276929">Captain: Ashley Wilson</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276927">Captain: Cully Payne</a></li> </ul> <h2>Cook PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/cook4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>DuPage County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276984">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276985">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276917">Captain: Toni Kokenis </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276915">Captain: Danny Crawford</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276916">Past girls captains</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276914">Past boys captains</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276931">The best of the girls season</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276930">The best of the boys season</a></li> </ul> <h2>DuPage PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/dupage4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Fox Valley</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276978">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276990">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276709">Captain: Kati Yohn </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276820">Captain: Marc Little</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276780">Captain: Conrad Krutwig</a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=19&type=video&item=88">Fox Valley captains </a></li> </ul> <h2>Fox Valley PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/foxvalley5.pdf">Page 5 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Lake County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276987">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276981">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276907">Captain: Lydia Bauer </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276908">Captain: Brandon Paul</a></li> </ul> <h2>Lake PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/lake4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> <h2>Tri Cities</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276989">Girls team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276988">Boys team</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276904">Captain: Taylor Whitley </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276905">Captain: Jeremy D'Amico</a></li> </ul> <h2>Tri Cities PDF pages</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities1.pdf">Page 1 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities2.pdf">Page 2 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities3.pdf">Page 3 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities4.pdf">Page 4 </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/images/allareapdfs09/tricities5.pdf">Page 5 </a></li> </ul> <h2><A HREF="http://dailyherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=706057&CategoryID=5971">Purchase PDF page reprints</A></h2> </div> </div> </div>