Timothy Christian boys basketball coach Payton Wyatt liked what he saw this summer.
“I was pretty happy with the way the summer went,” he said. “I feel like we have a good group of guys who play really hard.”
Timothy played in the combined Downers Grove North/Downers Grove South summer league and also took part in the live period shootouts at Chicago St. Patrick and Ridgewood in Norridge
Wyatt noted the Trojans went 8-2 over the last two weeks of the summer schedule.
“And we beat some good teams,” he said. “It’s summer and you have to take that with a grain of salt, but more than anything the guys have the belief now that we can be pretty decent.”
Returning seniors Dylan Drye and Charles Rieger both played well during the summer, Wyatt noted.
“I would tell you with the main returners, the two guys who played the best in the summer were Dylan and Charles,” he said. “Add in Charles’ twin brother, Lewis. Those three are kind of the pack here. Isaac Plaisier (son of former Timothy coach Scott Plaisier) is right there with them. There is enough experience there to not be what I would consider a young group.”
Wyatt noted he mainly had eight players in the summer with two others injured (a pulled hamstring and a broken foot). “We have five seniors and five juniors. We have a good mix,” he said. “We lost eight seniors with Marc Gamble (Timothy’s leading scorer last season) in that group. Despite that, we have still found a way to be a little bit of an older group that has some experience.”
Wyatt said he saw progress on both ends of the floor this summer. “I was impressed offensively,” he said. “We shot the ball pretty well. Full honesty, better than I expected. Defensively, with not having a lot of size, we were able to rebound. That’s why I said, OK we have the ability to win games because of our ability to rebound.”
Wyatt saw another key intangible on full display. “More than anything, they played really hard,” he said. “That was the main gist I got in the summer. Hey, these dudes play hard. OK, I was pleased with how we did toward the end of the summer, but more importantly they were competing their tails off. You either want to play hard or you don’t want to play hard. There is no in between. We were practicing in the morning and then playing games at night and they still played their tails off. This is good. They have bought in and are believing. There is something here.”
Wyatt added that being in his second year leading the program also was helpful.
“To the point, hey, I know the guys and they know me. They know what is expected,” he said. “We didn’t have to do a lot of new drills. Offensively, we tweaked it a little bit to fit this group. I do think there is a level of knowing each other going into year two, which is good.”
Wyatt said he doesn’t know if he believes in the philosophy of building on the previous season. “I say it every year, it’s a new year,” he said. “One year to the next it’s a completely new group. We have five guys who played on the team last year and three got quality minutes. Everybody else is a little fresh when it comes to roles. We have the opportunity to compete in our conference. The conference is always good and I think there is something there where we can compete.”
Wyatt noted Timothy did not play against teams in the Chicagoland Christian Conference this summer. “It’s kind of a mutual thing in the conference that we stay away from each other in the summer,” he said. “Wheaton Academy is, by far, the front runner. “They are awesome and have everybody back. They are absolutely loaded. Other than that, Christ the King reloaded and I assume Chicago Hope reloaded. I think it will be a very good Class 2A conference like it always is.”
The majority of those Timothy varsity summer players started boys soccer practice earlier in the week.
“Timothy is a big soccer school,” Wyatt said. “They will hit the ground running and will go until the middle or end of October and then it’s basketball time. Of the guys in the rotation, eight of 10 play soccer. When they come back, they will be a little rusty that first week until everybody gets familiar with the basketball again. The good news, they will be in condition so I don’t have to worry about that.
“With the success the soccer team has had, that’s helped with the experience the guys have playing in bigger games. We were a little disappointed last year where we played well at the end of the year and got beat in the playoffs against Richmond-Burton. It happens. I think there is a little taste in our mouth that the job is not done. In all that, I hope the soccer team makes a deep playoff run and then we start playing our best basketball come January and at the end of the season.”
