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Coach Rob Belegrin is attempting to turn the Clay boys basketball program around, but he knows he can’t do it alone.
Fortunately, Belegrin is getting plenty of help this season from a number of players, in particular Patrick Booth and Ross Achter.
Booth and Achter rank in the top 10 in scoring in the highly touted Three Rivers Athletic Conference. Booth is averaging 17.6 points, good for fourth, and Achter is putting up 13.6 points, seventh in the conference. Achter, who stands 6-foot-4, is also second in rebounding at 9.1 per contest.
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Ross Achter shoots a jumper during
Clay's 55-36 loss at Springfield.
(Press photo by John Pollock/www.
pollock.smugmug.com) |
As a team, the Eagles have struggled at times, going 5-10 overall and 2-7 in the TRAC, but their record is slightly deceiving. Five of their losses have come by an average of 5.6 points, but most importantly, Clay is a marked improvement from last season, when it struggled to a 4-14 record and a 3-9 mark in the Toledo City League.
Belegrin, now in his third year, gave his take on how his team has performed.
“I think we’ve played some really good basketball,” said Belegrin. “We’ve let a few games slip away at the end (and) we should maybe be at .500 or a game above. We’re fun to watch, we can shoot it, we can score (and) we play a pretty good brand of basketball. I think we’ve made a ton of progress.”
The strength of the team is its offense, plain and simple. In 14 games, the Eagles are averaging 58.9 points, including 65.4 in their five wins.
Clay employs a four guard system that features a starting lineup of Booth, Achter, Jack Nagy (6-1), and Derek Belkofer (6-2) at point guard and Collin Carter (6-8) at center with guards James DeMaeo and Anthony Ramirez coming off the bench.
Offensively, the Eagles like to spread teams out and create shots for any number of players, giving them the opportunity to score and build a well-rounded scoring unit.
“We have such an equal opportunity offense, so everyone gets shots,” said Belegrin.
Belegrin says Achter’s success stems from his commitment to the game, which goes back a number of years. He is the son of Clay’s former girls head coach Roger Achter, who, in 16 years, compiled a 165-166 record and won three Great Lakes League championships. In preparation for this season, Ross, a three-year starter, chose not to play football so he could focus primarily on basketball and, thus far, it’s paid off.
Oddly enough, basketball isn’t even Ross’s best sport — that would be baseball. In fact, last November, Achter, who is a member of The National Honor Society and maintains a 3.3 grade-point average, committed to playing the sport next year at the University of Toledo.
As for Booth, he’s having an incredible amount of success as just a sophomore. A great outside shooter, he’s come up big a number of times this season with his highest scoring games having been 28, 25, 25, 22, and 21, respectively.
“He’s a pure scorer, he can shoot the three (and) he’s got a great mid-range game,” said Belegrin of Booth. “He’s just a pure scorer (and) he doesn’t get down when he misses. He’s a great kid with a great attitude.”
With the consistent performance from Booth and Achter, the team’s success tends to hinge on the performance of Belkofer, Carter (who is seventh in the league with 6.3 rebounds), and Nagy in particular, a man the team views as its X-factor.
As Belegrin puts it, “When he’s good, we’re real good; when he’s bad, we don’t do well. He’s our catalyst, he’s quick (and) can get to the rim; he’s a great defensive player and he has a motor that never stops.”
Achter agrees.
“Jack is like our Energizer bunny — he’s all over the place,” said Achter. “When he sets the tempo at the beginning of the game, we’re set. He gets us going on the defensive end.”
Playing in the TRAC, one of the top basketball conferences with three teams state-ranked at times this year in Division I, doesn’t make things any easier. The Eagles are trying to change their own culture. Despite playing against the likes of St. John’s Jesuit, Central Catholic, Whitmer, and Findlay, Achter sees it as a challenge.
“You hear about all these big players (from other schools) going to college, (and) it’s motivation for us to go out because we have nothing to lose, (so) play with a chip on our shoulder,” said Achter.
Booth also uses it as motivation.
“We’re going against a lot of the better teams, not just in the Toledo area, but in Ohio, (so) it makes me want to get that much better,” he said.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier, with the next two games coming against Central and Whitmer. The Eagles say that their next challenge comes in the tournament, where they’ll get a chance to do some damage.
The key, as Achter sees it, is getting better as the regular season winds down in the hope that they can build some momentum heading into the postseason.
“I’m impressed with how we’ve done, but we should be a lot better,” he said. “We should’ve won more games, but we’re getting better as the season goes. Hopefully, we can turn it around in the tournament and get past the first round.”
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