It seems like the hardest job in the Glenbrooks is either coaching the GBN varsity football team or the GBS varsity basketball team. These teams’ overall records do not reflect how hard the players and coaches have worked.

Rewind six years ago to former head coach Scott Nemecek’s arrival when he took the reigns of the Titan men’s basketball team from John Meyer, social studies teacher. At that point, GBS had not won a sectional title in its 44-year history. As imagined, turning the program around would be no easy task for Nemecek.

Before the sun comes up on an average day, Nemecek is in the building, grading papers and making preparations for the team’s next practice.

Nemecek’s former players Jake Kalnitz and Jack Ryan both concluded that Nemecek is the most devoted and passionate coach anybody can ask for at the high-school level. Why, then, didn’t the Titans reach ultimate success under Nemecek?

With all the work that the coaching staff put into the program, the logical answer would be a lack of talented players. Still, looking at all the hours of practice put in and the history of basketball experience on recent Titan squads, talent doesn’t seem like the right answer. After careful consideration, I think I’ve found the missing piece: attitude and a sense of unity.

Players needed to buy into what Coach Nemecek was saying and apply it on the court. In all sports ranging from the pros to high school, team chemistry, not just between players but between players and coaches as well, is often considered a key factor.

Currently playing at Stanford, graduate Jack Ryan explained why the team that won the regional title under Nemecek was successful.

“We just had a really good team top to bottom, and guys bought in to what coach was saying,” Ryan said. “We really gelled and had a good year.”

Let’s face it: no coach at the high school level has the same coaching capabilities as professional, and sometimes even collegiate coaches.

“He isn’t John Wooden or Phil Jackson when it comes to [being a] strategical genius, but who is?” Ryan said.

The bottom line is that it shouldn’t matter whether or not Nemecek was a good coach. What matters is how the players received his message and took his attitude for winning out onto the court. I don’t think the majority of his athletes did this to their full potential.

South has had its share of talented players in the past, some of whom play college basketball today including Ryan, Trent Monckton, Corey McMahon and better-known Jack Cooley who just concluded a successful junior season at Notre Dame. Ryan credited Nemecek for his career at Stanford and considers himself a player that bought into what Nemecek was preaching.

On the other hand, there are former players who believed that it was not the players’ fault, but Nemecek’s for not properly adjusting to what they had to offer.

“He didn’t allow players to feel comfortable and show their strengths because of the restrictions of his one dimensional, scrappy style of play,” an anonymous player said. “He didn’t blend with what [the players’] specific talents provided.”

In my opinion, Nemecek would need to find a place where his coaching methods will be used by a team truly hungry for wins. As Ryan put it, he must find a team truly worthy of his countless hours of time and deep passion for winning.

“Hopefully [Nemecek] can get out of the North Shore because he deserves tougher, more dedicated players,” Ryan said.

The bottom line is this: in 50 years, South still has not won a sectional title. In the unfortunate case of Scott Nemecek, he came to the wrong place at the wrong time.