It’s a new game in North Chicago
Players’ roles shift after star leaves the team
North Chicago has lost rising senior JaVairius Amos-Mays, the team’s leading scorer last year.
“We no longer have AmosMays,” North Chicago coach Gerald Coleman said. “Different guys are going to take on a part of his responsibilities.”
Amos-Mays is said to be transferring back to Zion-Benton, the school he attended as a freshman before coming to North Chicago.
In that and other ways, the 201314 basketball season will mark the end of an era at North Chicago.
As freshmen, Kurt Hall and JayQuan McCloud played in Peoria when the Warhawks brought home a fourth-place trophy from the 2011 Class 3A state finals.
As sophomores, they were back in Peoria, this time playing for the state championship, and they returned to Lake County with the second-place trophy.
Last year, as juniors, they were on target to repeat as second-place finishers at state to champion Morgan Park before the team completely imploded for reasons not related to baskets and rebounds, and the season ended with a humiliating performance in a round-of-8 loss.
Now comes the senior season for Hall and McCloud, who have wanted all along to bring Lake County its first-ever state championship in boys basketball. They are leaders of a team that, in all likelihood, is good enough to challenge for that elusive state crown.
“This is going to be a very interesting season for us,” Coleman said. “This is a great, coachable group of kids. It should be fun.”
He’s especially excited that Hall and McCloud are good students, which opens up all sorts of doors for them.
Look for them to play different positions next season as Coleman helps prepare them for play at the next level. That means McCloud — a shooter — will play a lot at the point, and Hall —an inside force — will spend time out on the wing.
That means a post player is needed, and there’s one in the program: Cortez Zinnerman-Dixon, a 6-4 junior who learned from the bench last season.
“I’m expecting him to give us 16 to 18 points a game,” Coleman said. “He’s playing that well right now. We played up at Carthage College a couple weeks ago and went 7-0 up there. Cortez was one of our leading scorers. McCloud and Hall have really taken him under their wing, like he’s their baby brother.”
Also returning are junior Jamero Shelton and senior Arnold Shead. The team’s stars understand that there is work to do without the leading scorer coming back.
“We understand that we have to go two times harder to make up for what we lost,” McCloud said.
The loss of one star might mean additional playing time for some of the prized freshmen on the varsity level, as Coleman tries to keep his program at the elite level.
“I have a very good freshmen group coming in,” Coleman said. “A couple of them will probably wind up on the varsity.”
He also has 5-6 sophomore Marreon White, who was brought up to varsity last year as a freshman. While he did not see a lot of action, he will add another shooter to the rotation this year.
“We have to find some pieces and fix the puzzle,” Hall said. “We lost a good player. Now, everybody has to learn a different role.”