Stagg\u2019s Petar Zoko took a year off from basketball for personal reasons, but the Chargers herd has been very welcoming since his return.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo issues,\u201d Stagg coach Marty Strus said of Zoko rejoining the team this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great addition and he\u2019s done a lot for us,\u201d junior Mohammad Farhan said. \u201cLike, it shocked me when he did not play.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning one game last season, Stagg jumped out to a 10-2 start this winter with Zoko back in the fold.<\/p>\n
One of his better games came in a 61-53 win over St. Charles East at Sandburg\u2019s Shot Clock Charity Shootout on Dec. 20. <\/p>\n
The senior scored 12 points \u2014 including a contested, buzzer-beating 3-pointer at halftime \u2014 and grabbed four rebounds. He might not always be the top scorer, but usually makes impactful plays for the Chargers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has some things you can\u2019t coach, you can\u2019t teach,\u201d Strus said. \u201cHe just keeps getting better as the year goes on and as he\u2019s gotten reacclimated to playing organized basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was winded going into practices, and it took a bit to get back into rhythm,\u201d Zoko said. \u201cBeing back with the guys and playing has been great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farhan, who had 20 points and seven rebounds vs. St. Charles East, has long appreciated his teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying with Petar before, I thought he was just the best player I ever saw play basketball,\u201d Farhan said. \u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n
So is Zoko, who is excited to see what the Chargers can accomplish this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know we are a good team,\u201d Zoko said. \u201cWhether nothing is going good or everything is going good, we know how to keep our confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helping hand<\/p>\n
Sandburg coach John Daniels surrounds himself with assistants he trusts deeply who step in to coach in-game at times. <\/p>\n
A big part of the Eagles\u2019 defensive success is assistant coach Bob Curran, a longtime head coach at Thornwood, Lincoln-Way North and Lincoln-Way Central.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe deserves all the credit,\u201d Daniels said of Curran, who led Thornwood to a pair of state trophies (second in Class AA in 2003 and fourth in AA in 2006). \u201cThey should get rid of me and thank him. The defense is much better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stagg\u2019s Petar Zoko took a year off from basketball for personal reasons, but the Chargers herd has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-377444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}