TP_070518

36 | July 5, 2018 | The tinley junction sports
tinleyjunction.com
New coach hopes hoops can catch on at TP
PHIL ARVIA, Freelance Reporter
Ryan Honan has learned
a lot of things about Tinley
Park High School in his four
years teaching there.
The Andrew graduate
(Class of ’05) is comforted by
that knowledge — gleaned in
part as an assistant coach for
girls volleyball — as he takes
the reins of the Titans’ girls
basketball program.
“Our school has had a lot
of success in girls sports,”
the 31-year-old social studies,
economics and history
teacher said. “There are a lot
of good athletes here.
“We need to attract those
athletes to play girls basketball.”
In volleyball, the Titans
won a sectional title last season,
a regional in 2016 and
another sectional in 2014.
The softball team is coming
off an undefeated conference
season and has won seven regional
championships since
2009. The girls soccer team
won eight regional titles from
2009-17.
Girls basketball hasn’t
seen nearly that success. Last
season’s squad went 5-20.
The team last won a regional
in 1992. The Titans have lost
three straight regional play-in
games.
Yet, Honan has been excited
by what he’s seen so far
this summer.
“It’s been great,” he said.
“I know there hasn’t been
a lot of success, but I think
coach (Michelle) Beary left
me with a group of great kids.
They work hard. They listen.
“I don’t feel like I’m taking
over a job that has a huge uphill
climb. I don’t think we’re
far away.”
Emily Kleffman, a 6-foot,
3-inch junior-to-be is a “real
good volleyball player and
has had a real good summer
so far,” Honan said.
“The athletes are out there,
we just have to get a few
more of them,” he added.
“Our depth right now, we
don’t have strength in numbers.
In camp, we have about
11 varsity players and four or
five sophomores right now.
“I feel really good about
who we have, we just don’t
have enough.”
Besides Kleffman, Honan
has been impressed by sophomores
Autumn Jones (5-9)
and India Robinson (5-11).
“They’ll be up for us,” he
said. “If they do what they’re
supposed to, they should
start.”
Senior Kayla Serafini, a
varsity holdover, hasn’t seen
a lot of success on the hardwood,
but she’s got two seasons
of varsity softball under
her belt.
“She’s tough. She’s a good,
athletic [guard/forward],”
Honan said. “She’s been
great. She’s at camp and she
wants to win.
“The girls we have, they all
want to win. They’ve bought
into the idea of high expectations.
We’re not using words
like ‘rebuild’ or ‘competitive.’
We want to win.”
The question is, how?
Honan, a forward at Andrew
for four years and at
St. Ambrose for one season
before a career-ending knee
injury, will “run an offense I
haven’t run yet — to fit the
players.”
“Numbers-wise we’re a
little short, but we have decent
size,” he added. “In the
girls game, you see a lot more
zone. We have to be prepared
to play against a zone. I spent
the spring figuring out who
we were going to have, I met
with some other coaches,
talked about my personnel
and came up with something
that suits my personnel.”
In the short-term, though,
defense will be the Titans’
New Tinley Park coach Ryan Honan talks with Brooke Davis during a practice this summer.
PHOTOS BY JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
calling card.
“Our improvement on offense
is going to be gradual,”
he said. “We can become
good defensively much
quicker.
“We want the identity of
our team to be that we’re real,
real tough defensively and
we are good rebounders.”
If that identity is realized,
success should come.
“To start, we need to have
high expectations of ourselves,”
Honan said. “We
raise our expectations, we
have some success — that attracts.
“How we can sustain a
good program is to attract
better athletes to play basketball
— and Tinley Park has
them.”
No one said trying to get better would be easy. Two tired Tinley Park players take a break
after a drill this summer.