Cam Polak: Steel Valley senior scores in variety of ways with average of 31.5
Cam Polak can score in a lot of ways. Cam can shoot 3-pointers. He has knocked down seven in a few games this season.
Cam has a dangerous step-back, whether it’s a two or three. It’s no wonder James Harden, who has nearly perfected the move, is one of his favorite NBA players.
Cam can drive to the basket and finish, and gets to the free-throw line often. But Cam can’t jam, can he?
Well, up until last week, he had not this season, but that changed in an emphatic way. In a game at Clairton, Polak corralled a pass in the right corner, dribbled around a double team and slammed on a Clairton defender.
“I never did anything like that before,” Polak said.
So, maybe Cam can score any way after all.
Polak, a 6-foot-1 senior guard at Steel Valley, is a walking bucket. He’s averaging 32 points through 14 games and has scored at least 40 three times, registering a season-high 43 against Burrell.
“I may be a little biased, but I believe he’s one of the top guards in the WPIAL,” said Steel Valley coach Dale Chapman.
Polak ranks second in the WPIAL in scoring behind Aquinas Academy freshman Vinnie Cugini (33.9 ppg). The two could be on their way to making history. Only four times in the past 40 seasons have two WPIAL players finished the season both averaging at least 30 points a game.
Polak averaged 22.8 points a game last season and has scored 1,516 career points, but even he said this scoring explosion has come as a surprise.
“I had a couple of 40-point games [last season], but I wasn’t expecting this,” he said.
Steel Valley is 10-5 overall, and with a 6-2 record in Class 3A Section 3, is a likely playoff team. The Ironmen are averaging 64.3 points per game, so Polak has accounted for almost half of their scoring.
He’s filling the basket in a variety of different ways, too. First, there’s the 3point shooting. He knocked down seven shots from behind the arc against Shady Side Academy and Burrell. Last Wednesday, he made six and scored 39 against Clairton. He made a career-high 11 in a game against South Allegheny last season.
“His range from the outside, he can really hit 3s. He’s very good,” said Clairton coach Matt Geletko.
And then there’s the jump shots, drives to the basket, and his ability to get to the line and convert, which he does frequently.
Oh, yeah ... Polak can dunk, too. “That dunk really got us going,” Chapman said. “He does things like that to lift our team. He’ll hit a deep 3 from college range or will get banged up and get an and-one.”
South Allegheny coach Tony DiCenzo is quite familiar with Polak’s game. Polak torched the Gladiators for a careerbest 48 points and those 11 3-pointers last season, and went for 42 against them Dec. 19. This is a South Allegheny team that sits atop Section 3, and at 13-1 is one of the best teams in Class 3A.
“He’s the best player that we’ve faced and probably will face all season,” said DiCenzo. “This is the best that he’s been playing, but he’s been this good the last couple of years. Every time you play them, he’s who you need to stop. You almost have to concede the fact that he’s going to get 25 or 30. You hope he doesn’t get 40 or 50 and hope to contain the rest of his team and not let anybody else add 12 or 15 points. Our philosophy is to play our regular defense.”
That typically hasn’t been the case for
most of Steel Valley’s opponents.
“We’ve seen it all,” Chapman said. “Box-and-one. Straight man with help. Teams have doubled him and just left someone wide open. They’ll double him off the inbounds and double him in the backcourt.”
Polak, who lives in West Homestead, has come a long way the past four years, Chapman said.
Polak was a 5-7, 130pound, 15-year-old thrust into the starting lineup the first game of his freshman season because he was a strong shooter. He has gotten much stronger, physically and mentally, since. He’s now 6-1 and 185 pounds, which helps when he’s banged around when he penetrates to the basket.
Chapman called Polak a “gym rat,” and for good reason. This fall, each day before school, Polak woke up at 4:30 a.m., got in a lift at Crunch Fitness in The Waterfront, and then spent an hour by himself at the Carnegie Library of Homestead, working on his ball handling and shooting in the building’s secondfloor gym.
Basketball is in Polak’s blood. He’s actually a thirdgeneration basketball star. His dad, Jamie, was a point guard at Steel Valley and averaged more than 20 points a game as a senior in 1993. He went on to become an allconference player and team captain at Clarion University. Jamie’s father, Eddie, was part of the final graduating class at old Homestead High School in 1971. Eddie was a starting forward on the Homestead team that lost to Midland in the WPIAL Class 2A championship game. A two-sport standout, Eddie then played football at Youngstown State.
About a half century later, Youngstown State is one of the Division I schools showing interest in Eddie Polak’s grandson. Central Connecticut State and Delaware are two other programs at that level that have reached out.
“I’ll go anywhere where I can play, but I would love to play at the Division I level,” Cam said.
Polak is also being recruited by Division II PSAC schools. Chapman said Polak could play at a smaller Division I school, but would be “a great highlevel DII player.”
Added DiCenzo: “I’d say he’s on that spectrum. He’s probably a low DI, but definitely a Division II caliber player.”
Steel Valley travels to South Allegheny for a big section game Friday. A Steel Valley win would keep its section title hopes alive. The Ironmen last won one in 2016, when Polak was a star eighth-grader at St. Therese in Munhall. Winning a playoff game is a big goal of Polak’s. The Ironmen have reached the postseason twice in his career, but they lost in the first round each time.
How far Steel Valley advances this season is anyone’s guess, but you can pretty much count on one thing — Polak will be scoring a lot of points.