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Homewood-Flossmoor’s Roy Condotti: Captain of A New Ship
Michael Brooks (The Real Brain) www.realsports.2itb.com March 19, 2004 Email Questions/Comments To [email protected] 18 years, 357 victories, 2 Public League crowns, 2 state appearances including a third place finish in 1992 as Westinghouse coach, and the resurrection of a Homewood-Flossmoor basketball program that hadn’t seen state since the 1985 Don Laketa led team. Working with countless young men to help improve their life, and leading them in the right direction: Roy Condotti will tell you priceless. The veteran coach has this year’s Viking team headed in the right direction as they head to Peoria to as Brian Nussbaum stated, “represent the S.I.C.A. East and South Surburbs the right way.” For the last three years that has been the job of the Thornwood Thunderbirds, but with a talented array of players and stout coaching staff that also includes asst. coach Joe McLaughlin and Dwayne Van Slyke the Vikings find themselves in the State’s Elite Eight. Games are not just won with talent, they are won with indepth scouting reports, and great preparation for the team that opposes you. Condotti and his staff have been masterminds at preparing their team for battle. They have successfully made it through arguably the toughest sectional in the state by upended top teams such as Bloom, Joliet, Rich Central, and Thornton. Not to mention regular season wins over Chicago Westinghouse, Chicago Julian, Glenbrook North, Rockford Boylan, Chicago St.Ignatius and Chicago Hales Fransciscan. Condotti has kept a team that has received a surplus of media attention, content and focus on the goal at hand. Standout junior Julian Wright (10 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assist vs. Thornton) explained that Coach Condotti keeps him concentrated on the task at hand, ” If I score 20 points and we lose what is the point in that. My job is to find open teammates and distribute the ball.” Coaching a team with so much talent isn’t as easy as it looks. Egos and personal goals sometime becomes a problem internally with teams equipped with so much talent. Condotti has done an exceptional job of keeping all of his players happy. “At first we wanted to do it for Coach,” senior guard Excell Hardy explained. “He’s kept us together as a team, and helped us realize that we are a special group, and we should also want to do it for ourselves.” Not many coaches have led a city team to state as well as a surburban team. The well respected Condotti is a coaches coach as well as a players coach. Instilling the fundamentals that make a bad basketball team good, and a good basketball team great. Roy Condotti has cemented himself as one of the great basketball coaches of this era just by teaching young teenage boys the “ABC’s” of basketball as well as life to succeed. Attitude, Basics, and Confidence. With that in mind, the next stop for the Viking voyage as well as ChicagoHoops.com is Peoria. I’m the Real Brain, and I will see you there. |
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