Big Ben back on top

Posted: March 31, 2009 |(0) Comments

Players of the year make game-winning shots, break the press when needed, grab the big rebound in traffic and accept the accolades of the roaring crowd when the team is on the verge of a major triumph.

These are all things the public sees and all of which 6-foot-8-inch Germantown center Ben Averkamp has done the last two years while earning all-state honors and a Division 1 scholarship to Loyola of Chicago.

But those players also take the elbows, endure the double-teams and even hit the deck in a scramble for a loose ball and earn one of the hardest-fought assists anyone has ever seen.

Averkamp, this year's CNI/NOW All-Suburban Boys Basketball Team player of the year – an award he earned last year as well – did those things too, the last one at the state tournament March 19 in Madison where teammate Evan Gillespie got the reward of a silky smooth layup after Averkamp won a melee' for the ball and made a good but less-than-dignified pass from his backside.

Things like that are largely out of the public eye and are seldom the subject of highlight reels, which suits Averkamp fine.

Numbers do not mean much to him, unless you refer to the number of wins Germantown had in the three years since he was a varsity starter (62), or if you look at the number of state tournament berths and conference titles won on his watch (two each).

Other numbers Averkamp, just the third repeat CNI/NOW player of the year, concerned himself with was the number of new starters he would have around him this year (four). This was a major consideration for him as the Warhawks were trying to replicate the 2007-08 campaign, their best season ever at 22-2.

"I really didn't want a down senior year, but everyone stepped up," he said. "(Mike) Minsky hit shots from outside, Jalen (McCloud) played great at the point, but yeah I felt some of the pressure. This isn't like golf or some other individual sport. I knew someone else would have to make shots too.

"In a situation like that, you're never sure how it will work out. You're not sure how you will do, but even with all those changes we didn't drop down far at all."

Germantown coach Steve Showalter had brought the Warhawks to respectability in the five years he had coached prior to Averkamp's arrival, but needed someone of his caliber to lift the team to excellence.

"You look around at his record (62-9) and I guarantee you only teams like Milwaukee Washington and (state champion) Madison Memorial are better in that same time," Showalter said. "I've been going to state tournaments for 30 years and then I've been taking my sons there too, and if you had told me five years ago that we would be on this same court playing, I would have laughed at you.

"That's where he's lifted us. There's never been one like him before here. And it's a tribute to everything he's done. He put us on the map."

Whitefish Bay coach Dave Shaw, the CNI/NOW coach of the year whose team snapped Germantown's two-year reign as top dogs in the North Shore Conference said it took him "three-and-a-half years to figure out what to do against (Averkamp). Seven games and finally in the eighth I figured out that we just couldn't attack him. We just had to find another way. Just an intimidating factor."

Shaw was not the only one who thought so. Add Homestead coach Ray Curry to that long list.

"Ray was circling his name on the ballot (at the all-conference meeting) and just laughed," Showalter said. "He said, 'What, he's back again?' and then he said 'It makes me so happy to finally see the word senior next to his name.'"

 

Steven L. Tietz can be reached at (262) 446-6619.

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OTHER AWARDS: Tri-North Shore Conference player of the year along with Jimmy Sherburne of Whitefish Bay and Josh Gasser of Port Washington; Wisconsin Basketball Coaches

Association Division 1 first-team all-state selection; Associated Press first-team all-state selection; Gatorade state player of the year