“A nice way to wrap up the year,” as Lindeman hands out awards to Knights
Talking about freshman point guard Brady Arnold, who received his First Year award as well as the team’s Offensive Most Valuable Player award – after averaging more than 14 points per game, knocking down 26 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, dishing out 53 assists, and finishing third in the conference with 283 total points – Lindeman said, “Brady has obviously been blessed with athletic ability, but he has also worked very hard at his game. If he takes that effort to the defensive end as well, who knows where he’ll end up?”
Having also tied for the top spot in the OCC with 44 steals throughout the 2010-11 campaign, Arnold’s defense couldn’t be considered all that shabby to begin with, helping earn the West Holmes freshman First Team OCC honors as well as Second Team District Five recognition.
Both an OCC and District Five Honorable Mention, 6-foot-3-inch sophomore forward Gabe Snyder collected his Second Year award and garnered the team’s Defensive MVP honors after finishing fourth in the conference with 137 rebounds – 90 of which came on the defensive end – and averaging just under seven rebounds per game.
Illustrating Snyder’s defensive prowess, Lindeman pointed to Feb. 11, when the sophomore forward held Second Team OCC honoree Brandon Nardo of Ashland to only seven points, as “just one example, out of many, of Gabe stepping out and doing his job.”
But the second year head coach also joked (sort of), “I think Gabe doesn’t always want to assert himself on the offensive end because he doesn’t like to have to talk to the media afterward,” challenging Snyder to continue to work hard on that aspect of his game to develop himself into an unstoppable force on the basketball court. (No offense taken by this member of the media who thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Gabe Snyder during the year).
Hard work was a constant theme of Lindeman’s throughout the season and again on Thursday evening, as the West Holmes floor general quoted the late, legendary former coach of the UCLA men’s basketball team, John Wooden, when he said, “There is no substitute for hard work. If you’re looking for the easy way, if you’re looking for the trick, you might get by for a while, but you will not be developing the talents that lie within you. There is simply no substitute for hard work.”
“If we have guys that work hard, a 9-13 season will be an afterthought because of what we can accomplish,” added Lindeman before presenting senior guard and Second Year award recipient Sam Meyer with the Hard Work Award.
“There were times last year when he must have thought his name was ‘Good Night’ Sam Meyer,” said Lindeman in reference to one of the coach’s favorite expressions when he gets angry or frustrated. “I was very hard on him last year, and this year, because there are a lot of qualities in him I wanted to make sure were maximized.”
Lindeman also praised the leadership qualities of the OCC Honorable Mention and OCC senior All-Star Game selection, who will participate in that game on March 23 at Ashland High School following the girls All-Star Game, featuring Lady Knights seniors Lindsy Snyder and Paige Asche.
“These seniors this year really took the torch and set the bar high for what leaders have to do,” said Lindeman before presenting the Knights other two departing seniors – backup guard Trae Wright and backup forward Adam Polen – with team Leadership awards, to go along with their Second Year awards. “That’s something, I’m going to go back a couple years from now and really thank them, when we hopefully have things where we want them, because I really think they helped establish that.”
Showing a glimpse of that senior leadership, compassion and maturity, Wright stepped to the podium and presented sophomore JV player and varsity team manager Matt Miller – whose battles with cystic fibrosis were chronicled in the February issue of GAME magazine – with a varsity letter jacket that he and the rest of the players had chosen to purchase for their inspirational teammate, an idea born solely from the players, without input from the coaching staff or parents.
In fact, Lindeman said the idea originated with sophomore post player Donnie Dowling, one of three varsity players to receive his First Year Award, along with Arnold, sophomore guard Grant Hay and sophomore guard Michael DeWitt, who also received the Most Improved Award after being called a “relentless worker who has grown leaps and bounds as a basketball player and also as a leader,” by Lindeman, who saw DeWitt play a full JV schedule and provide offensive sparks off the bench during varsity contests with a deadly shooting touch from the perimeter.
In addition to Snyder, Meyer, Polen and Wright, others receiving their Second Year Award were sophomore guard Keaton Leppla, sophomore post Brock Macaulay, junior guard Matt Stonebrook and junior forward Taylor Owen.
Also recognized by Lindeman for their hard work and dedication to getting themselves back in basketball shape were junior guard Joey Gonzalez, who started as a sophomore but missed almost the entire 2010-11 season after suffering a knee injury during football season, and sophomore forward Dylan Wengerd, who broke his wrist during pre-game warm-ups, prior to the Knights season opener against Hiland back on Dec. 3.
Stepping back and looking at the future of the program, head coach Tyler Renner talked about his 5-15 junior varsity team, which he said, “really learned to play basketball this year,” while freshman coach Don Hall thanked the West Holmes administration “for allowing me to continue to pursue a passion, that is coaching,” after guiding the first year high school players to a 1-14 record, while working with “a group of guys that really want to learn. If I handed out awards, you’d each get a Most Improved award, easily.”
Eighth-grade coach Ben Ogi said his kids, “need to continue to work hard on basketball skills,” as they move up to the high school level, after wrapping up an 11-6 season and going 7-1 in games decided by single digits, while seventh-grade coach Ron Hay talked about how his team “worked on a ton of fundamentals and getting out and playing as hard as you can,” while going 6-13 on the season.
“We took some steps in the right direction and I was real proud of how we developed as the season went along,” said Lindeman, whose wife is expected to deliver the couple’s first baby any day now. “And to be able to recognize that and share that with the parents and kids is a nice way to wrap up the year.”
Published: March 17, 2011
