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LOCAL NATIVE TURNS AROUND STRUGGLING BASKETBALL PROGRAM
Monday, February 15th, 2010 -- 12:23 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Jason Schultz had four head basketball coaches during his four years at Granton High School.
“I think that’s part of the reason I do coach,” he says, “we went through some lean times. One of the things that really hurt us is we didn’t have any continuity.”
“Every year we had a new style, a new system.”
When he took over the struggling Minong-Northwood program in 2002, he made a commitment. “I basically said I am not going to do to them what happened to us. It was difficult. It was tough to go out there every night when you knew it was going to be a tough night,” he says.
That dedication has paid off. The year before he took over, the Evergreens were 2-19; this year, they’re 15-0 and ranked #2 in the state in D-4 girls basketball.
He took some program-building ideas from his time assisting with the Wautoma program. He’s helped develop youth programs and has the girls thinking about basketball, even during the off-season.
“It definitely helps to have some talent, but I truly believe you can be competitive night in and night out if you have established a program from early on, all the way through your high school,” Schultz says.
When Schultz was in High School, the Granton girls were one game away from the state tournament, losing to Suring in a Sectional Final. He said Minong (pop. 500) is starting to get just excited as Granton did that year.
“We’ve had a couple games at home where he had a pretty packed gym, that hasn’t happened too often for us. So, yeah, people are getting excited.
“That means we’re going in the right direction.”
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