For Cavs, basketball programs a true ‘team effort’

Ronald Steele has a unique challenge this year, but he’s as prepared for it as anyone could be.

The former star basketball player at John Carroll Catholic High School is in his second year back at his alma mater as the athletic director. He’s hoping to re-establish a winning culture in several of the school’s athletic programs.

Steele played on back-to-back state championship basketball teams in 2003-04 at John Carroll, so he has seen the school at the pinnacle of its athletic prowess. Just last year, the girls soccer team brought home a state title.

The potential to win is there.

“We’re getting better,” Steele said of the school’s programs across the board. “A lot of our programs are more competitive, but obviously we’re not where we want to be. We’re making a lot of progress. People are seeing that athletics are important and a priority just like everything else. I’m excited about where we’re going the next few years.”

And this season, Steele has taken on the task of leading both the boys and girls varsity basketball programs as head coach. He coached just the boys program last year, but he has liked what he’s seen so far from both squads.

“I’ve been real pleased with both programs,” he said. “The guys and girls worked really hard in the offseason, and they’ve seen a lot of that pay off.”

But Steele is equipped to take on the role, from a basketball perspective at least. He was the girls coach at John Carroll in 2015-16, when the Lady Cavaliers advanced to the regional final before falling to Homewood. His next stop was Cornerstone School in Birmingham, where he spent a year before coming back to John Carroll.

He has to coach the boys and girls teams differently, not only from an Xs and Os standpoint, but also from a personality management one. 

“Basketball is basketball, but relationships are different, motivations are different,” he said. “A lot of the girls I knew when I was the girls coach [previously]. They were young, but you kind of know a little bit about them. Being here at John Carroll, I’m not sure I could do that if I was somewhere else where I wasn’t familiar with the families and the kids.”

As far as dividing practice time, Steele credited assistant Angela Napolitano for helping with the girls program, which recently started a junior varsity squad as well. He called it a “team effort” to coordinate practices and games amongst all five teams in the basketball programs (two varsity, two JV and a freshman boys team). 

As far as on-court tactics go, Steele said it was a positive “not starting from scratch” when it comes to building a style of play, despite the boys team losing five of its top scorers to either graduation or transfer. 

“We knew they were a young, talented group. Now, it’s trying to get them playing experience in varsity basketball,” Steele said.

John Werszner is a player Steele believes could play college basketball one day. He’s one of four seniors along with D’wan Williams, Jacob Talyor and Kevin Hand. 

Other players on the boys team include Jaylen Craig, Jake Willett, Gage Langan, Jeff Martin, Kevin Hand, Pearson Jackins, William Ydarraga, Quinn Binder, Michael Grondin and Oneal Merchant.

The girls team looks a little different this season following the graduation of do-it-all playmaker Josie Wannemuehler, who is now a freshman at Birmingham-Southern. Sydney Swindall has led the Lady Cavaliers in scoring several times already and could fill a similar role.  

Summer Killin, Emma Bauer and Amanda Hall are all solid players with previous experience as well. The team also includes Macey Ogle, Kennedi Langan, Harper Simmons, Ebony Wilson, Zoey Williams, Claire Boone, Amaya Morgan and Sydni Dysart.

“On the girls side, we probably don’t have the depth that we probably have on the boys team, so we have to play a little bit different,” Steele said. “The girls are really an unselfish team, and they’re a high-IQ team. I always say about our girls, they’re all really good students and are involved in so much, so I think that translates into high-IQ players that know how to play.”

Both John Carroll basketball teams will have a challenging road to the postseason, as the Cavs play in an area with Briarwood, Woodlawn and Ramsay. Steele said that both teams believe they have the talent to compete against anyone they face.

Steele said, “Can we compete against the best teams we play? I’ll be happy with that this year. Not that we don’t want to win every game, but where we are, I feel our kids can go out and compete with anybody on the other side.”