Proven pain fighter

Posted: March 31, 2009 |(0) Comments

The fact that Bryan Stave played four years of high school varsity basketball puts him in pretty exclusive company.

The leaps and bounds of progress he made during his career at Whitnall were so substantial that one would guess he spent hours upon hours honing his skills and conditioning.

Such a guess would be wrong - not so much because Stave did not, but because he could not. Truth be told, what he has accomplished under his circumstances separates him even more from his peers, even his fellow members of the 2008-09 CNI All-Suburban Boys Basketball Team.

Stave remembers the lumps that were inflicted upon him and classmates Josh Pelkofer and Bryan Donaldson as varsity freshmen in 2005-06, when the Falcons suffered through an 0-21 season. But that pain was nothing compared to what awaited him in the coming year and beyond.

"I have never really worked on my game all that much outside of the season," Stave said. "The last time I played AAU was my freshman year and I injured myself lifting during sophomore year. I developed permanent stress fractures in two different vertebrae from squatting and have had to deal with that for the last two seasons.

"Due to this injury, I spent each of the last two offseasons concentrating on getting my body physically ready to withstand the pounding of a full season as opposed to really working on improving my game."

Though his basketball activity was restricted, Stave did not let his time go to waste. He worked three jobs during the summer months.

"Once practice started," he said, "I really put some time into my shot, but during the summer I considered working and getting myself physically able to play more important than shooting."

Stave obviously showed what a difference proper shooting mechanics can make. Always a capable perimeter shooter, he gained consistency as the years went by. He averaged 7.5 points as a sophomore, 12 as a junior and a team-best 16.8 as a senior, when he showed the ability to not only hit the 3-pointer consistently, but put the ball on the floor and attack the rim.

He and his team progressed together. The Falcons went 9-13 in his sophomore year, went 14-8 and won the Woodland Conference South Division in his junior campaign, then repeated as Woodland South champs, won a regional title and topped out at 17-6 this year.

As Stave reviewed his four varsity seasons – particularly the adversity of his freshman year - he realized how much richer it made the rewards that followed.

"Playing varsity as a freshman was a very difficult but worthwhile experience," he said. "I was not used to being so physically and mentally overpowered that I put undue pressure on myself which kept me from playing loose and having fun.

"That season I learned a lot about challenges and dealing with difficult situations. I'm very proud of where I am now given that every day of the freshman season, I wanted to quit the team."

Stave is proud of his teammates and what they achieved together.

"As a team, we grew each year in talent and confidence," he said. "My freshman and sophomore seasons, we went into games hoping to stay close and maybe win, but these last two years, we've gone in knowing that we can win.

"Any other Whitnall team that I have been on would not have been able to recover from the start we had to finish with a 17-6 record.

"Winning back-to-back titles was extremely rewarding."

"From a personal standpoint I feel like my greatest improvement was also in confidence. In situations at the end of games, I always want the ball where in the past I would be content to allow someone else to take the big shot."

Coach Kent Kroupa saw the difference, too.

"Bryan Stave never quit," Kroupa said. "Two years ago, he would have quit shooting from the outside when his first few shots didn't go in.

"This year, he kept shooting and stepped up and buried them. He shot it with confidence."

Stave, despite his emergence, says his organized basketball days are over.

"I do not plan to continue playing in college," he said. "I am attending UW-Whitewater in the fall and majoring in accounting.

"Even though I love the game and would like to continue playing, I don't think my body will let me."

Here's hoping college basketball's loss will be overshadowed by Bryan Stave's gain.

 

Mark Hutchinson can be reached at (262) 446-6614.

All-Suburban Annals

Whitnall CNI All-Suburban Boys Basketball Team selections

1989-90: Eric Williams

1989-90: Glen Allen

1990-91: Glen Allen*

1995-96: Zach Kulasa

1996-97: Brian Suggs

2002-03: Jarrod Pelkofer

2003-04: Jarrod Pelkofer

2008-09: Bryan Stave

* Player of the Year