The mental side of basketball has taken priority for Oak Lawn’s boys this season.
“We want to have the right attitude going into everything,” senior Omar Saleh said. “Whether it is a practice, a game, schoolwork, being outside with friends, everything — attitude has been an important key for us this year.”
“Those guys are the standard bearers for our culture,” Oak Lawn coach Jason Rhodes said of Saleh, Jack Dempsey and Marc Harvey. “They each have had a tremendous, positive attitude on everything that we’ve done.”
It’s paying off.
Saleh’s 3-pointer with 50 seconds left helped to lift Oak Lawn to a 58-54 victory over Crete-Monee in the championship of the inaugural Len Scaduto Classic on Dec. 1. The game was postponed from Nov. 29 because of an early-season snowstorm.
Dempsey, the tourney MVP, scored 23 points in the win. Saleh, who had five points and eight rebounds against Crete, was named all-tournament team along with Harvey, who had 20 points and eight rebounds in the final.
“It feels good seeing me and all my senior guys get recognized for all the work we’ve put in through the years,” Saleh said.
While the individual accolades are special, the Spartans are aiming higher this season.
“We are still building from our previous conference (titles),” Harvey said. “Our goal is to get … the conference (again). But this year we are really hoping to get a regional championship.”
“It’s important to not settle down,” Saleh said. “We’re past conference championships at this point. We want to hit the regional mark.”
Oak Lawn’s last regional title came on Scaduto’s watch in 1988.
Winning the tourney named for Scaduto, a program icon, was a good start.
“We’ve had a really positive response from all the alumni,” Rhodes said. “He was a pillar of the basketball community and an IBCA Hall of Famer. I think it’s definitely deserving, and obviously great we won the first one.”
Andrew trending younger
Andrew split four games at the Len Scaduto Classic, beating Ag. Science and Bremen while losing to Oak Lawn and Crete.
Thunderbolts coach Justin Stirn liked the fight shown by his team.
“To come out with a win when you’re kind of going through some growing pains is a positive,” Stirn said after the Bremen victory. “We found a way to win a basketball game with a bunch of younger guys, which is really good.”
Stirn said that at any given moment three to five guys playing are very new to the varsity level.
“We’re really young,” Stirn said.
Junior Ryan Dinnon averaged 15.5 points and 12.3 rebounds during the tourney. He had a 20-20 performance against Ag.Science.
“He’s done a really nice job for us through the first four games and is stepping up in big ways,” Stirn said. “I challenged him this summer to take on more of a leadership role and he’s definitely embraced that.”
Dinnon and teammate Kenny Peters made the all-tournament team.
“It’s great, it’s more of a team award,” Dinnon said. “I can’t do anything without my teammates. I’m sure Kenny would say the same thing. It’s a nice feeling, but I know it comes from my team.”
Improving on last season’s 13-19 record is a goal.
“Having a losing record last season and thinking about it all summer and fall — none of us liked that feeling,” Dinnon said. “We all want to bounce back and have a great season- I think we will.”