Football part of Hartley’s basketball strategy
The way Randy Kortokrax figures it, he really coaches two Hartley basketball teams. The one that truly matters is the team that takes the floor during sectional and district tournament play in late February.
“I coach one team for seven weeks, then another one for seven weeks when all of my football players get back and actually get in some level of cardio shape to play at the level we expect them to play,” Kortokrax said. “It’s a fact of life that our football team is always going to be playing past Thanksgiving. And our focus is always going to be to peak out at tournament time.”
That’s exactly what happened last year. The Hawks won 12 of their final 16 games and reached the Division III regional title game at Bowling Green before falling to eventual state runnerup Lima Central Catholic.
“It’s a situation I deal with every year, and we’re used it to by now,” Kortokrax said. “It throws practices off kilter for a while because there’s no second group to go against the older kids. When freshmen and second-teamers are guarding your team’s best kids in practice, it’s a mismatch. Usually, our physical presence is made up of the five or six football players we get, but it takes at least three weeks to get them in shape, and then there’s the matter of everyone jelling as a unit.
“It’s a process, really, and sometimes it takes until February to get it all together.”
Adding to the puzzle is that Kortokrax is rather particular about the style and personality his team takes on.
Hartley rarely has a featured scorer and relies primarily on its half-court defense. Its four returning starters — junior guardforward Jake Fischer, senior guard Michael Morgan, sophomore forward Garrett Tipton and junior guard Terrell Crowder — averaged between five and 10 points per game last season.
“In our program, you’ve got to play defense and rebound before you score,” Kortokrax said. “You don’t play if you don’t do the first two. A wise man once told me that some games the ball is not going to go in the hole, but you can control the other two facets of the game, and you always have a chance when you own the backboard and play hard.
“As a coach who emphasizes defense, I’ve always found it much more difficult to defense a team with four double-figure scorers than one big scorer. You can always scheme to hold down a big scorer. We tell our guys, ‘It will be your night some night; other nights will be somebody else’s.’ I think the kids have learned to embrace that philosophy.”
Morgan, who emerged as the team’s go-to player late last season and also is a lock-down defender, said the Hawks thrive in their coach’s system.
“Our mindset is we’re one pass away from scoring and that we’re helping each other become better players,” he said. “On defense, technique is a big part of it. Coach is really big on doing things the right way when boxing out, clearing out and setting screens. When we do things right, we seem to be successful.”
The return of 6-foot-6 junior Conor Collins, who missed last season because of a broken leg suffered in football, could offer Hartley a valuable presence in the paint.
Despite all the returning experience, Hartley’s goals won’t come any easier. Each of its Central Catholic League rivals returns at least four starters, and the Hawks have been reclassified into a deeper, more competitive Division II tournament field.
“Having some success in the tournament last year will be really valuable for us because we see what we’re capable of when we’re clicking,” Morgan said.