Signing time in Tiger Town
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| Princeton’s Fab Five of seniors, including Jon Fisher (from left), Daniel Murray, Garrett Youngren, Brandon Dressler and Derek Wagner, pictured with Tiger coach Jesse Brandt (third from left), are all taking their talents onto the next level in one sport or the other. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus) |
PRINCETON — Good things come in threes for the Princeton Tigers on the basketball court. Good things are now coming in fives for the Tigers.
Five members of Princeton’s Elite Eight basketball team are moving on to bigger and better things in the college arena. Four will continue their basketball careers — Jon Fisher and Derek Wagner at Aurora University, Brandon Dressler at Olivet Nazarene University, Garrett Youngren at Monmouth College — while classmate Daniel Murray will go to Aurora by the way of the ball diamond. Youngren will also play football for Monmouth.
Tiger coach Jesse Brandt said it’s rewarding to see his players earn the opportunities to move up and show others what can be done with hard work.
“It says a lot about the hard work these kids have put in over the last four years with me, and also all the tournaments they traveled to before high school,” he said. “I hope it excites other kids in the community, and they understand they do have a chance to play in college if they want to put in the time and effort.”
The Tigers’ season was highlighted by an upset victory over Peoria Manual in the sectional finals to earn the school’s first Elite Eight berth since 1955.
They lost to Winnebago in the supersectionals to finish 25-6.
Two Tigers better than one
Jon Fisher certainly took the hard road getting to Aurora. He battled knee injuries throughout his high school career, endured not one, but two knee surgeries.
He feels as if the scholarship offer is a reward for his trials and tribulations.
“I guess you can say hard work did get me through it, even though I had some unlucky things happen to me, but in the end, it all worked out,” he said.
“I am glad Jon is getting a chance to play in college,” PHS coach Jesse Brandt said. “He had a couple of rough years. I think through his hard work, he will develop into a solid college player.
The 6-2 senior guard averaged seven points and 2.2 rebounds, known as a slasher. He will be forever remembered as a sophomore coming back from his first knee surgery for providing a spark for the Tigers in an upset bid of state-ranked Putnam County in the regional finals.
Fisher, who signed a letter of intent Thursday afternoon with the Spartans, first found Aurora because of it’s academic program in sports psychology. Aurora then found Fisher because of his basketball talents.
“Before basketball even started, I was looking at colleges for academics, and the coaches got into and started recruiting me, and now I’m going there,” he said.
He has since veered away from sports psychology but wants to remain in the sports field, perhaps in commentating, he said.
Derek Wagner is following Fisher to Aurora, completing his paper work Thursday night. He said he never discussed the school with his Tiger teammate. He found out about Aurora via the Internet.
“My and dad got on the Internet and looked at all the D3 schools and NAIA in Illinois and picked ones that were kind of close to home, but not too close,” he said. “We applied and visited them all, and Aurora suited me the best. I really like the campus, and their style of basketball is similar ours.”
Wagner said it came down to Aurora and Illinois College, and he also looked at Monmouth, McKendree and Elmhurst.
“I think all little kids are always hoping to play in college and continue to go further. It’s always been a dream, and hopefully, it will work out,” Wagner said.
The Tiger tandem will join an Aurora program which are the reigning North Athletics Conference champions at 10-6, finishing 16-13. Aurora had just two seniors, so there are 14 returning players for coach James Lancaster.
“Coach Lancaster said in all is years as a coach, this is a good year for freshmen coming in. We’ll have an equal chance to play there,” Wagner said.
“(Lancaster) told me he wants to bring in kind of a Fab Five. Five really good freshman and work them into the system together at their own perspective positions,” he said. “He wants to play me at the 2 (guard). I’m looking forward to that. Sounds like a lot of fun.”
Lancaster has coached 15 years at Aurora, compiling a 278-112 record. The 1986 Aurora grad has built the Spartan’s program into one recognized for being competitive with an annually strong schedule.
Bourbonnais bound
Brandon Dressler considered making it a Tiger tri-fecta at Aurora, opting for a better financial deal with Olivet Nazarene. He first heard about Olivet two years ago when his brother, Justin, considered going there, and then started being recruited by Olivet coach Ralph Hodge.
Along with a partial scholarship, Dressler said other selling points were the coaching staff and the “great” facilities at Olivet.
Hodge looks for Dressler to bring his ball-handling skills to the Bourbonnais campus as a point guard and develop within the program. Dressler averaged seven points, three assists, and three steals per game, and shot over 40 percent from the three-point line.
Hodge said Dressler handles the ball well and has the ability to make great decisions with passing. Brandon also has the ability to shoot the ball and play hard defensively. He also looks for him to be a team leader as point guard, he said.
“That’s what he’s looking for, get after it and hopefully come off the bench for them. They’ve got a solid point guard, but not too many,” Dressler said. “They’re a very up and down team, know there balanced and play man defense.”
The second team NCIC and all-BCR pick was named to the All-Tournament team at the Wethersfield Thanksgiving Tournament. He wanted to play college ball “ever since I touched the ball at Logan.”
An all-around talent who played the leader role in the Homestead Festival play as “High School Musical’s” Troy Bolton, Dressler will look into joining the school’s choir and thespian programs. He also may try to play soccer, though he has not had contact with that coach.
He plans to study education, “a math teacher maybe,” and become a coach.
Diamond duties
Murray likes basketball, but he said he’ll save the hoops at Aurora for his two teammates. He’ll concentrate on baseball and making the Spartans’ varsity team next season. Aurora also plays a F/S schedule.
As much as he wanted to continue playing baseball, Murray said it’s more important to get into a good academic program. He looked at other schools, including Elmhurst, but said Aurora suited him best academically. He plans to study business and marketing.
He received a dean’s scholarship for academics and leadership.
The four-year PHS varsity player is slowly working his way back from a sore shoulder this spring, pitching limited innings for John Cruz’s Tigers.
The Spartans are 24-9 this year under coach Shaun Neitzel, who in seven years has turned the Spartans into one of the top programs in the country. The Spartans finished third in the Div. III national finals in 2004 and seventh in 2006.
Double duty
Basketball was always Garrett Youngren’s first love. Then a funny thing happen — he had a breakout senior football season and really fell in love with catching the pigskin.
The PHS senior pursued continuing both sports in college, and Monmouth College was happy to oblige. He also considered playing both sports at Knox, basketball only at St. Ambrose, where he received a scholarship offer, and football only at Augustana.
In the end, he said it came down to Monmouth or Augustana; he received a more generous financial package from Monmouth. He said he also felt a strong pull to Monmouth and enjoyed meeting the athletes there the first time he stepped on campus.
He said honestly he can’t pick a favorite sports because he likes both the same.
“After this year, I had a pretty good football season and got a lot more interest and felt like I could do both at the next level,” he said. “I decided if it was possible, I’d still like to play both. If something happens, if I can’t keep up with both sports, I’d still have the opportunity to choose one over the other.”
There are four athletes at Monmouth playing both sports, Youngren said. Freshman David Milroy of Stark County, who plays both sports, told him the coaches do a lot for the dual-sport athletes to make it work at Monmouth.
At PHS, the 6-7 split end quickly became quarterback Brik Wedekind’s go-to guy, who could pull down most balls thrown his way. He averaged 14.7 yards per catch with 51 receptions for 757 yards and five touchdowns.
He will join a Fighting Scots football program under the direction of 10th-year coach Steve Bell, which won its first playoff games in Monmouth history last season as the team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
“Our program is excited to attract a player like Garrett to Monmouth College,” said Bell. “We know that we are getting a player who will make a great contribution to our program.”
In basketball, the Tiger center was a key contributor to the Tigers’ Elite Eight run, averaging 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds. He will have a good coach to learn more about post play in Monmouth’s Mark Vershaw, who was the leading scorer for the University of Wisconsin’s Final Four team in 2000.
Youngren plans to into secondary education and would like to coach one day.
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