The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Top ’Topper sets sights on team goals
Chardon scoring record-holder wants to ‘get something on that banner’ in senior season
Chardon’s basketball team began its season with three consecutive losses.
An 0-3 start was inadequate for senior Alex Sulka. Especially after the Hilltoppers, a year earlier, completed their first winning season during his three years on the team.
Coach Chad Murawski noticed a difference in Sulka’s demeanor at Chardon’s practice following the third loss, 66-60, to South on Dec. 12.
“You had a really great practice today,” Murawski texted Sulka later that day.
“I’m sick of losing,” Sulka messaged back. “It’s not going to happen again under my control.”
The Hilltoppers proceeded to rip off seven wins in a row. The final individual milestone in Sulka’s impressive career at Chardon intersected with his team’s seventh straight win.
Sulka scored 25 points at Hawken on Jan. 13 after the Hilltoppers trailed at half. His second-to-last basket also made him the school’s all-time leading scorer.
Sulka finished the game with 1,224 career points and moved past 1983 graduate Paul Combs’ 1,221 career points into first place on Chardon’s scoring list.
“I was definitely excited and proud of myself,” Sulka said. “When it’s during the game and you get an award, I’m more focused on just finishing the game and getting the win. You don’t really have much time to think about it.”
Chardon honored Sulka before the team’s home game against Riverside on Jan. 16, a 74-70 loss to the Beavers in which Sulka scored 30 points. Otherwise, Sulka hasn’t taken much time to consider his achievement.
The 6-foot senior is listed as a forward, where he is traditionally undersized. Many of his points have been scored on bruising drives to the basket for layups, or trips to the freethrow line. He can step out to play a guard spot, where he likely profiles as a college player, but prefers playing on the interior.
Either way, he’s a matchup nightmare. Sulka’s too fast for most post players and too strong for most guards.
He began playing freshman year and worked his way into the starting lineup. Sulka’s scoring numbers exploded as a sophomore, when he averaged almost 20 points per game after he adopted a more aggressive attitude.
“I feel like freshman year I was honestly a little nervous to get out there,” Sulka said. “Sophomore year, I was just kind of like I’m just going to go out there and do my thing. I think it was a mindset thing.”
Sulka scored 20.7 points per game in his junior year, the area’s third-best average.
He opened his senior season with 32 points to surpass the 1,000-point plateau. He only needed nine more games to ascend past 1999 graduate Scott Mackar’ 1,131 career points and Combs as Chardon’s alltime scoring leader.
“I don’t even think I realize how awesome it is,” Murawski said. “I’ve always been able to coach Alex Sulka. I think it’s going to hit home in a couple years when he’s not around. Scoring 1,000 points is a big deal, let alone breaking the school record. I don’t even think I can wrap my brain around that.”
Through 11 games, Sulka averages a career-high 24.4 points per game.
Murawski’s watched Sulka each year of his career as Chardon’s JV coach for two seasons and the Hilltoppers’ head coach beginning last year. He’s learned if Chardon needs a basket, his leading scorer is almost guaranteed to score.
“He’s like a video game,” Murawski said. “It’s like LeBron James playing oneon-one with somebody in a video game. Every time he shoots it, I think it’s going in.”
Sulka’s intensity on the basketball court belies his personality off it.
He’s not loud, or eager to speak about his own accomplishments. Sulka has no interest in social media, an outlier among his peers connected on Twitter or Instagram.
Sulka doesn’t play football either, a further rarity on Chardon’s campus. He started playing basketball in fourth grade, tried football in fifth grade and never went anywhere with it. Basketball runs in the Sulka family — his brother Ben is a junior on the team while 14-year-old Nathaniel and 11-year-old Sam are in the program’s pipeline.
In the classroom, Sulka maintains a solid B-average and says history is his favorite subject. His government teacher happens to be his basketball coach.
When he isn’t at practice or in school, Sulka heads to his local YMCA to shoot around or play more pickup. He keeps a small circle of friends, who prefer to hang out at someone’s house but prefer “B-Dubs” — Buffalo Wild Wings, for the uninitiated — when they go out.
Sulka says his college decision is in the works. He’s been in contact with John Carroll, where assistant coach Pat Moran is more than familiar with Sulka from his tenure at Madison.
Until then, Sulka’s attention is geared toward the second half of his final high school season. Murawski anticipates he’ll finish strong.
“I think right now he’ll probably be more motivated for team success,” Murawski said. “Now he’s gotten everything, he’ll get all-conference awards. I think he wants team success first and foremost for the rest of the year. We’re going to ride him until his wheels come off.”
Sulka, alongside Mike Laudato, Joe Scerbo and his fellow senior classmates have been at the core of Chardon’s basketball turnaround. The Hilltoppers won only nine games between their freshman and sophomore seasons.
His name already etched into the program’s record book, Sulka hopes to leave a reminder of his legacy on the gym wall.
“I just want to get something on that banner before we’re gone,” Sulka said.