Bill Lidinsky is a free lance sports writer for Valley Free Press and the Ottawa Daily Times. You can also catch Bill's publications there.
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Eleven Reaper Threes
Help Undo Huskers
Serena
Outgunned at Plano
By
Bill Lidinsky
For
the Ottawa Times
There
won’t be many times a high school varsity basketball team will taste victory
when an opponent cans eleven three point field goals in any given game. Add
to that getting out rebounded on the night by 10 and the prospects of a victory
in said contest are slim and none for the team on the lopsided side of the ledger.
Unfortunately
for the Serena boys hoop squad the aforementioned scenario took place at Plano
on Tuesday evening as the Reapers hit eleven blistering triples on the night
along with besting the Huskers on the boards 41-31 to come away with a relatively
easy 77-53 decision during a non-conference matchup for both teams.
Plano
senior guard Josh Gorzney was the main gunslinger of the Reaper attack as he
knocked down seven threes on the night and registered a game high point total
with 23.
Meanwhile,
6’7” junior center Harold Ridgeway was a terror on the boards against Serena
collecting a contest leading 14 rebounds to go with 14 points, while senior
guard Ryan Campisi chipped in with 14 tallies including four three pointers.
If that weren’t enough for the red-hot Reapers, senior Dan Thom and Robert Hearon
each notched 10 points each, while Thom pulled down seven boards. Junior Brady
Johnson led the Huskers with 14 points, but it wasn’t nearly enough to counter
the incredibly balanced Plano attack.
“We
knew that Plano had the Ridgeway kid inside and then Gorzney and Campisi outside.
We really wanted to defend better than we did,” said Serena head basketball
coach Jonathan Immel. “A lot of times, I think we caught ourselves helping too
much defensively in the half court. Give Plano credit. They knocked down shots.
Any time we let up eleven threes for the game, it’s going to be difficult for
us to win and it certainly was tonight.”
“The
three pointers are what everybody sees and obviously Gorzney and Campisi did
a great job in that regard tonight,” said Plano head basketball coach Eric Bryant.
“But the rebounding by Ridgeway and Thom started that three point shooting.
When they can’t guard you off fast breaks and a lot of those threes came off
the break. When they’re going in it’s hard to beat and we had our way with it
tonight.”
Gorzney
canned his first two triples three minutes into the ballgame as Plano took a
6-5 lead. The Reapers owned a 10-7 advantage before going on a 13-0 run to close
out the first quarter leading 23-7.
Serena
battled back to open the second period with a 9-0 rally to cut the deficit to
23-16 on Johnson’s deuce at the 5:05 mark.
But
Gorzney put a halt to the Husker run with his third triple to put Plano up by
10 at 26-16. The Reapers closed out the half with a 12-8 burst that included
Gorzney’s fourth three ball with 25 clicks left and Plano was in command at
the intermission 38-24.
“In
the first four or five minutes of the second quarter we were forcing the tempo
of the game. We were forcing turnovers and it was what we wanted to accomplish
after having a very tough first period,” Immel said. “We got back into it, but
then we surrendered some easy baskets and rebounds and it kind of got away from
us again going into halftime. Then in the third quarter it didn’t get any easier
for us.”
Plano
(8-8)blistered the nets for 28 third period points including three more treys
from Gorzney as the Reapers outscored the Huskers 28-12 to take an insurmountable
66-36 advantage going into the final eight minutes of play.
From
there, the benches emptied and Serena was left with closing the gap to 24 as
the final seconds ticked off the clock.
“It’s
all about putting four quarters together for us. I’ve said it all year. When
we see flashes of a pretty good team like Plano , we don’t seem to compete.
We didn’t defend well tonight and we need to learn how to defend better against
a good team like Plano ,” Immel said. “Hopefully we can rectify that going in
to our next two games against LaMoille and Putnam County .”
“Give
Serena credit tonight. They’re a very good team and they’re very scrappy. Night’s
like this when we’re shooting the ball so well and rebounding are hard to come
by,” Bryant said. “I think the ball bounced our way a little bit this evening
and we were able to hit some shots against a quality opponent.”
In
addition to Johnson’s 14 points, Kevin Kreinbrink added eight for Serena (6-8).
Blake Chapman also chipped in with six for the Huskers.
LeCuyer Brings Home Bronze
Plano Grad
Impressive At Submission Grappling World Games
By Bill Lidinsky
ack in October of 2008, The Valley Free Press brought you the story
of Tom LeCuyer, a 30-year-old current Plano
resident and 1996 graduate of
Plano
High School.
At the time, LeCuyer, who was a three time Illinois High School
Association state wrestling champion during his years as a Reaper,
was preparing for the biggest athletic challenge of his very storied
grappling career.
In December, LeCuyer set off on an incredible journey that
brought he and his teammates from the
United States
to
Lucerne,
Switzerland
to compete in the Submission Grappling World Championships.
Not only did LeCuyer bring home a bronze medal with a 3-1 record
during the 70 kilogram No-Gi classification, but he helped the U.S.
contingent to a first place overall world team title as the red,
white, and blue easily outdistanced runner up France 135 points to
53 to capture gold.
The following is
a look at a special journey that brought a former state championship
wrestler from Plano to
the brink of a world championship in Europe.
Arriving in Lucerne,
the tournament was
scheduled to start on Saturday December 20 and run through Sunday
December 21, so LeCuyer wanted to arrive early enough in
Switzerland
and get established in the foreign country. He made sure he took
enough time to soak in all that Lucerne
had to offer. “It was my first time ever in Europe
and it was really neat to experience all the different cultures. It
was an amazing experience,” LeCuyer said. “We arrived in
Lucerne on Tuesday December 16 and weigh ins
were Friday, so we kind of walked around the city a few days while
squeezing some workouts in. Lucerne
is a very old and beautiful Swiss city. There’s so much old
architecture there because
Switzerland
was neutral during World War II so nothing was destroyed unlike the
rest of Europe. So you have thousand year old
buildings next to some that are 10 or 20 years old. It’s a really
neat contrast in architecture, let alone seeing some of the oldest
buildings on earth. It was a phenomenal way to start off the trip.”
A Good Start / Some Bad Luck
After seeing all the
sites that Lucerne
had to offer it was time to get down to business as LeCuyer started
his tournament on a high note with a submission victory over Patrick
Berisha of Kosovo. “I won by
submission and I think it was under two minutes,” LeCuyer said. “I
took him down and after a little scramble on the ground, I ended up
reversing him, got on top and arm barred him. It was the way an
opening match should go. Unfortunately, I got a bad draw for round
two.” LeCuyer drew fellow countryman and top rated grappler
Ricky Lundell as his round two opponent from the 28-person field.
Lundell also won his first round match and now faced the prospect of
wrestling LeCuyer with the loser having to count on the other making
it to the finals and bringing them back into the repechage (wrestle
backs) to fight for third place.
Despite a hotly contested matchup in which
both grapplers pushed each other to the limit, Lundell bested
LeCuyer 6-1. The Plano
native now had to root for Lundell to win out in order for him to be
able to collect some hardware.
“It was probably the worst draw any two
Americans had in any of the weight classes running into one another
so early in the tournament,” LeCuyer said. “Lundell is a tough guy
and he beat me. But he made it to the finals, got a gold medal, and
that’s what gave me the opportunity to fight back and get a bronze
medal. Had we not had that bad draw, I think we probably could have
made it to the final match to face another.”
Going For Bronze
LeCuyer had to wait a few hours to learn of Lundell’s success. He
then took on Canada’s
Angelo Panoussis and fought to a 10-4 victory advancing yet another
round toward third place. Once again he was successful
defeating Aleksander Milicevic of
Serbia
by the score of 7-3. LeCuyer then won the bronze match by default
when his opponent from Brazil
could not compete due to a foot injury. All in all, a great
performance by a great grappler, who has now seen phenomenal success
not just at the state or even national level, but on the biggest
stage in the world. “It was
very gratifying to win a medal at the world level. I think it’s now
my greatest accomplishment,” LeCuyer said. “I’ve had different
levels of success in high school and college, but this I so
different because it’s at such a high level of competition. It’s
just been an amazing experience.”
What’s Next?
The next world
championships will be in November 2009 once again in
Lucerne. Will LeCuyer be going for gold next
fall? “I suppose that’s
as good a goal as any to set my sights on. Trying to win a gold
medal this time surely would be a lofty goal,” LeCuyer said. “I
don’t think it would be unachievable, but there’s still some other
things I’m thinking of. There’s always the fight game and there’s
other big submission wrestling tournaments I’m looking at as well.
I’m still trying to decide what to do next.” Whatever he decides,
LeCuyer who trains at Atlas Xtreme Team in Yorkville, will always
know that his legacy is firmly in tact as now a “world” class
grappler. LeCuyer built the foundation for his success at the grass
roots level that brought him from
Plano,
IL.
to Lucerne
Switzerland
for the scene of his greatest triumph.
Archive
Articles for 2008
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4A
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Sandwich
2008
Strong
Mans 2008