Gene Pingatore knows the look.
It’s a look that says, to put it in polite terms, “Uh, Coach, what the heck are you talking about?”
It comes from young basketball players, usually about this time of year when the St. Joseph coach notifies a kid he needs to play harder than he did the year before, when he likely was competing on a lower-level team.
“Uh, Coach,” the look also says, “I’m playing as hard as I can.”
The odd thing is that while the kid is not telling the truth, he’s not lying either. He is playing as hard as he thinks he can; he just doesn’t realize he can play harder.
It’s like driving 50 m.p.h. because you don’t know your car can go faster, only to finally realize you could have been doing 65 (or 80 in the real world) all along. And it still drives Pingatore to distraction, even in his 38th season as St. Joseph’s head coach, although at least he realizes he’s not alone.
“This happens every year, all over,” he said Wednesday after his team had defeated Julian 73-61 at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament. “A kid comes up from grammar school and plays on the freshman team and is shocked because he thinks he’s playing hard.
“Then all of a sudden he’s at the sophomore level, and it’s the same thing, and then varsity and the same thing.
“I have two kids now who went from freshman to varsity this year who looked at me, `What do you mean I’m not playing hard?’ They had no clue.”
These partners in ignorance are center Louis Green and guard Diamond Taylor, both good enough to be providing depth on a powerhouse as sophomores and both hearing “intensity” so often from Pingatore they probably believe Chargers no longer is their school’s nickname.
“He always says to play with more intensity,” Taylor said of his coach. “I’m still trying to find out what it is.
“It’s just a different level. I’ve got to learn how to switch gears.”
Discussions of athletic effort often become debates of nature vs. nurture. Some people believe there’s a gene for non-stop hustle, but even if that’s true it usually takes someone to draw out the trait.
Brother Rice coach Pat Richardson summed it up perfectly last season when he said: “Effort has to be learned. People say you can’t coach it, but you do.
“I’d rather coach basketball than effort, but you have to coach both.”
A popular way to coach effort is with playing time, or lack of it. That appears to have worked for Proviso East senior forward Jamal Jones, whom Pirates coach David Chatman describes as a constant work in motivational progress.
“He used to think if he made a layup or a jump shot that was enough for the whole game,” Chatman said Wednesday after his team’s 60-47 victory over St. Patrick. “I told him if he did something he can do more.”
Jones has made significant progress in that regard, most noticeably after two encounters with major adversity. The first was when he spent his initial Proviso East season on the freshman B team; the second was when he lost his starting spot last season.
“I was kind of down on myself for not starting,” said Jones, who had 15 points and nine rebounds against St. Patrick. “Coach said I’d have to earn my spot back, so every night I played hard.”
Von Steuben coach Vince Carter hasn’t had to work much on senior guard Michael Horton’s effort. Neither has assistant coach Michael Horton Sr.
Michael Jr. said Michael Sr. has coached on most of his teams, which has been motivation in itself.
“I’ve had to give effort,” said Horton, who had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists Wednesday in Von Steuben’s 61-55 victory over New Trier. “If I don’t, people will say I played because I’m the coach’s son.”
That has made Horton a leader by example, along with junior guards Mike DiNunno and Deonte Lundeen.
“They practice hard, so the rest of the kids trying to get time practice hard,” Carter said.
The ultimate value of this, of course, has little to do with playing time, trophies and scholarships and a lot to do with developing the kinds of work habits that will help make you a winner in your classroom, your workplace, your community and even in your own home.
St. Joseph’s Green is making that journey, a somewhat bewildered but hopeful traveler.
“I didn’t know what going hard was, what he expected of me,” he said of Pingatore. “Now I know some stuff he expects of me.
“I’m still learning.”
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btemkin@tribune.com
