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Mario Charles has reasonable expectations for his first season as the Green Bay Southwest boys basketball coach after being hired this week to replace Rodney Owens.
There is no talk of making the WIAA state tournament for the first time since 1974 or a hint of capturing a Fox River Classic Conference title for the second time in program history.
“The biggest challenge, I guess, is trying for us to win at least a conference game,” Charles said.
That’s how difficult the road has been for the Trojans the last three seasons.
Southwest has gone a combined 3-72 overall during that span, including 0-54 in FRCC play.
Its last league win came against Green Bay Preble on Feb. 24, 2023, which also marked the final season for former longtime coach John Polkowski.
Polkowski led the Trojans for a decade and is now at Pulaski.
Southwest went 12-13 in his last campaign, but they were 10-8 in league play and finished in a tie for fourth with Ashwaubenon in the 10-team conference.
Charles is now the next hope to turn the program around after Owens stepped down.
This will be his first varsity head coaching job, but he has plenty of experience working with Green Bay public school teams.
He spent the past three seasons as an assistant under Rick Rosinski at Preble and previously was an assistant for three seasons at Green Bay West under former coach Jerry Overstreet.
Charles also has coached with Team 1848 in AAU, which is owned and operated by former Green Bay East star Harry Boyce.
“It is very exciting,” Charles said. “I learned a lot being under Jerry Overstreet for a long time. Coach Rosinski, I was side-by-side with him, and he taught me a lot as he was somewhat molding me to be a varsity head coach. A lot of the varsity stuff that head coaches do, he had me doing.
“I was ready.”
That’s what Southwest athletic director Chris Williams thought after interviewing Charles.
“The biggest thing with him is that he’s really a no-nonsense guy,” Williams said. “He came with a plan with how he was going to instill discipline in our boys and get us on the right track. That was the first thing that stood out.
“Had a good basketball X and O knowledge base. But the main thing is, I felt like we needed someone that was going to come in there and hold kids accountable.”
It won’t happen overnight, but Charles believes the program can get back on track over the next few years.
“I definitely do,” he said. “With this incoming freshman class, they are very talented. They are young, though, so we have got to get them in the weight room. Get them faster, stronger, and just get them to buy in and compete.”
While Southwest is dealing with declining participation in several sports, the good news for Charles is that numbers for boys basketball are quite strong.
The program was able to field all three levels this season, which along with varsity included a junior varsity team and a JV2 squad.
But none of that translated to success on the court.
Southwest started the season with a 54-45 win over Sevastopol but lost its final 24 games while being outscored by an average of 28.1 points.
That was the worst point differential of any Division 1 or 2 team in the state and 15th among all five divisions totaling almost 500 schools.
Southwest is losing its top two scorers to graduation in forward Zachary Diemer (10.1 ppg) and guard JP Guinter (9.7 ppg) along with forward Noah Schroeder, who led the FRCC with 8.6 rebounds per game and was tied for first with 1.2 blocks.
Diemer, Guinter and Schroeder were team captains this season.
Is it really possible for the Trojans to dig themselves out of such a big hole?
“I do know it can be done, because it’s been done at Southwest before,” Williams said. “The main thing we need from a coaching assessment is commitment from the kids and commitment from the parents that they are going to do the things that it takes to be a successful athlete.
“There are offseason things that need to happen when it comes to workouts and training and open gyms and summer leagues. We just haven’t had a lot of participation with that. Right now, you look at our offseason weightlifting program, only 29% of our athletes are participating. We do have enough kids in the school to where we could be at least better than what we are. A lot of that comes down to, are we holding an expectation for them to meet for them to be successful?”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Mario Charles hired as Green Bay Southwest boys basketball coach
Continue reading...
There is no talk of making the WIAA state tournament for the first time since 1974 or a hint of capturing a Fox River Classic Conference title for the second time in program history.
“The biggest challenge, I guess, is trying for us to win at least a conference game,” Charles said.
That’s how difficult the road has been for the Trojans the last three seasons.
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Southwest has gone a combined 3-72 overall during that span, including 0-54 in FRCC play.
Its last league win came against Green Bay Preble on Feb. 24, 2023, which also marked the final season for former longtime coach John Polkowski.
Polkowski led the Trojans for a decade and is now at Pulaski.
Southwest went 12-13 in his last campaign, but they were 10-8 in league play and finished in a tie for fourth with Ashwaubenon in the 10-team conference.
Charles is now the next hope to turn the program around after Owens stepped down.
This will be his first varsity head coaching job, but he has plenty of experience working with Green Bay public school teams.
He spent the past three seasons as an assistant under Rick Rosinski at Preble and previously was an assistant for three seasons at Green Bay West under former coach Jerry Overstreet.
Charles also has coached with Team 1848 in AAU, which is owned and operated by former Green Bay East star Harry Boyce.
“It is very exciting,” Charles said. “I learned a lot being under Jerry Overstreet for a long time. Coach Rosinski, I was side-by-side with him, and he taught me a lot as he was somewhat molding me to be a varsity head coach. A lot of the varsity stuff that head coaches do, he had me doing.
“I was ready.”
That’s what Southwest athletic director Chris Williams thought after interviewing Charles.
“The biggest thing with him is that he’s really a no-nonsense guy,” Williams said. “He came with a plan with how he was going to instill discipline in our boys and get us on the right track. That was the first thing that stood out.
“Had a good basketball X and O knowledge base. But the main thing is, I felt like we needed someone that was going to come in there and hold kids accountable.”
It won’t happen overnight, but Charles believes the program can get back on track over the next few years.
“I definitely do,” he said. “With this incoming freshman class, they are very talented. They are young, though, so we have got to get them in the weight room. Get them faster, stronger, and just get them to buy in and compete.”
While Southwest is dealing with declining participation in several sports, the good news for Charles is that numbers for boys basketball are quite strong.
The program was able to field all three levels this season, which along with varsity included a junior varsity team and a JV2 squad.
But none of that translated to success on the court.
Southwest started the season with a 54-45 win over Sevastopol but lost its final 24 games while being outscored by an average of 28.1 points.
That was the worst point differential of any Division 1 or 2 team in the state and 15th among all five divisions totaling almost 500 schools.
Southwest is losing its top two scorers to graduation in forward Zachary Diemer (10.1 ppg) and guard JP Guinter (9.7 ppg) along with forward Noah Schroeder, who led the FRCC with 8.6 rebounds per game and was tied for first with 1.2 blocks.
Diemer, Guinter and Schroeder were team captains this season.
Is it really possible for the Trojans to dig themselves out of such a big hole?
“I do know it can be done, because it’s been done at Southwest before,” Williams said. “The main thing we need from a coaching assessment is commitment from the kids and commitment from the parents that they are going to do the things that it takes to be a successful athlete.
“There are offseason things that need to happen when it comes to workouts and training and open gyms and summer leagues. We just haven’t had a lot of participation with that. Right now, you look at our offseason weightlifting program, only 29% of our athletes are participating. We do have enough kids in the school to where we could be at least better than what we are. A lot of that comes down to, are we holding an expectation for them to meet for them to be successful?”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Mario Charles hired as Green Bay Southwest boys basketball coach
Continue reading...
