Stephens Facing Father, Former Coach During Homecoming Trip
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WHEELING -- Winfield boys basketball coach Chris Stephens will see a lot of familiar faces this weekend.
A Wheeling Central grad, Stephens and his team took on Linsly Friday night and will play his alma mater later this afternoon.
"It's nice to come back to the Wheeling area," he said after his team's 77-43 loss to the Cadets Friday night. "You know more people around here and you hope to come put a good product on the floor of how you grew up playing, physical, playing hard, diving for loose balls, all that stuff."
Beyond everyone Stephens will know from his time growing up in Wheeling and attending Central, two of the people he knows best from the area with will be the guys on the opposing benches.
At Linsly, Stephens faced coach Dave Wojcik, the man that coached him during his time as a student-athlete at Wheeling Central.
"You know what you're going to get when you play him," Stephens said of Wojcik. "They're going to play hard, they're going to be well coached, they're going to pressure and they're going to do all the little things."
Later today, Stephens will be taking on the Maroon Knights, who are coached by his own father, Mel Stephens.
"I send him a 'good luck' text every day, but (Saturday) probably not," Mel said with a grin after his team beat Oak Glen Friday night. "He's done a great job down there but when we play, for my kids' sake, I want to win."
Chris said his father and Wojcik are two of the people who have had the biggest impact on his life as a basketball coach and he is excited to have the chance to play against both this weekend.
"For my first 18 years or so, it was my dad coaching me and Wojcik coaching me," Chris said. "They've had a large influence over me."
As far as coaching goes, Chris said he has picked up a little bit from everyone he has ever played for, including Wojcik and his father. As for his sideline demeanor, however, Chris much more closely resembles the loud and animated Wojcik than his more quiet and reserved father.
"You probably see a bit more of Wojcik (in me) on the sidelines than my dad on the sidelines," Chris said with a smirk. "I'm a competitor and you want to win and do everything right."
Friday was the first time Wojcik has faced Chris as a head coach, as the Cadets won 77-43 led by Caleb Murray's 28 points. Wojcik said he was not particularly found of the experience.
"I don't like it, I don't like it at all," Wojcik said. "We're friends and Mel was my assistant coach, there's too much (personal connection) there. But once the ball's thrown up, you forget that and you coach your team."
Something Wojcik did like, however, was seeing the Winfield team emulate everything he used to watch Chris do as a player.
"He's one of the hardest working players I've ever coached. He played super hard, he was aggressive, very smart, very cerebral. He was a joy to coach," Wojcik said. "(His players) take on his persona, they play hard. They play like him, aggressively, hard, get on the floor, take charges. He's doing a great job there building that program."
Chris said he also saw a lot of things he remembered about Wojcik as his coach.
"I don't think (he's changed much)," Chris said. "He still gets after them, he still expects a lot of them and they respond."
For today's game, it will be the second time that father and son have faced one another, as Central picked up a win at Winfield early last season. Both men said that the other has changed a lot over the years.
"He's grown and developed more stuff than what we grew up doing," Chris said of his father. "We've gotten to know each other well these last few years competing against each other now that we're both in Class AAA."
"He's definitely changed a lot of the stuff that he does," Mel added. "He's got a lot of different experiences to draw from. They're really good and playing well so hopefully we can be competitive (today)."
While it might seem intimidating or awkward to coach against people you have such close relationships with, Chris said the best practice is to worry about it before and after the game and completely block it out during actual play. Beyond the personal relationships, Chris said his biggest reason for scheduling Linsly and Central was to play a couple of good basketball teams.
"Maybe before the game and after the game (you think about it), but during the game I'm not really paying attention to that, we're about coaching our teams," Chris said. "You schedule them because they're good teams and it's good to go against guys you know are going to have really good teams."