OLIVESBURG — During the preseason, Crestview boys basketball coach John Kurtz likes to have early morning Saturday practices.
The earlier the better just in case anyone wants to get some extra shots up after practice, which every member of the team does on a daily basis. Or, if there is something special the Cougars need to work on, there will be plenty of time to do so and they won’t feel rushed to get out of the gym for the next team coming in.
Every Saturday morning, no matter how early the practice was slated to start, Kurtz would unlock the door, walk in and hear a bouncing ball in the gym. And a swish of the net soon followed.
Crestview sophomore Justice Thompson is already in the gym. How he got in is sometimes a mystery. It is likely he knocked on the door long enough for a custodian to walk by and let him in. Or he shot Crestview assistant coach Jordan Seiter a text, waking him up to come let him in. Heck, he may have found some way to hide in the gym until everyone at Crestview High School left for the night so he could pull an all-nighter.
Either way, Thomson makes it a habit of being the first person in the gym. And the last to leave.
“He is the first one in the building,” Kurtz said. “And he is highly competitive, which is probably why he is the first one in the building. It probably wouldn’t sit well with him if someone beat him here. It is great to have one of your better players never want to lose drills and keep that competitiveness in every aspect of practice. He is the first one here, and that is a big deal. I am very happy with his progress because he has a big season ahead.”
Thompson has powered the Cougars to their first 6-0 start in 24 years. The 1998-99 team went 6-0 before dropping its next game. He has averaged 17 points over the first six games of the year and has two 20-plus-point games under his belt, including a season-high 22 against Monroeville on Friday night in a 52-49 win to help the Cougars remain undefeated and alone in first place in Firelands Conference action at 4-0.
Thompson is one of just four returning lettermen for the Cougars after coming off the bench last season as a freshman. But his growth as a basketball player has landed him in the starting lineup this season and in possession of a key role for the FC championship hopefuls.
“I made varsity last year as a freshman and was coming off of the bench, so my goal for the entire summer was to get good enough to grab one of those starting spots,” Thompson said. “I have been grinding every day in the driveway or whenever the gym is open. It is so important to come to every open gym and just use every opportunity to get better.”
Mix that determination with his uncanny punctuality and you get a rare combo in today’s high school athletic scene. Thompson gets it honestly. His father, Norm, played for the Cougars on that 1998-99 team. He scored 3.9 points a game for the team that went 18-4 and 12-2 in the Firelands Conference, coming up just short of the league title.
So, Norm went to work preparing his son for this very moment when the Cougars had a team good enough to break a 23-year Firelands Conference championship drought.
“I got that from my father,” Thompson said. “He started me in basketball when I was little, and ever since all I have been trying to do is get better. I am usually here first because I don’t want to waste any time. But he is the one that got me hooked on this game.”
Thompson is so hooked, he wants to spend every waking moment in the gym putting in the work. The first thing he does when he wakes up is to start thinking about ways to get into the gym.
“He has Jordan’s number,” Kurtz said with a laugh. “I live a ways away, but I am sure he would be texting me asking to open the gym up if Jordan didn’t answer.”
It is that kind of dedication, work ethic and determination that can set an example for the future generation of Crestview basketball players. And those are the same attributes that many of the current Cougars possess.
“Younger kids look at that and see that is the bar,” Kurtz said. “That has been a problem here in the past. We have never set the bar very high, but this year the bar is set extremely high, and Justice is helping us achieve it and bringing kids along, which is huge. We have another sophomore who plays a lot of minutes in Tyson Ringler as well as a large junior class. All of these guys are close knit, and when the gym is open they are almost always here. We will be in the gym tomorrow. They want to shoot around tomorrow so we will be here.”
The bar was set high from the very beginning and, so far, they have achieved everything they set out to in the first six games. They went 3-0 before a huge Firelands Conference showdown with five-time defending FC champion Western Reserve, which the Cougars hadn’t beaten since Feb. 5, 2016. The Cougars cruised to a 59-45 win behind Thompson’s 16 points.
But those 16 points were scored because of the work he put in over the summer. They were the same shots he made in his driveway 100 times.
“It helped me grow a lot,” Thompson said of the summer work. “I can feel my skills improving and my shot improving every day. I also want to be a leader, and as an underclassman the best way for me to lead is by example. Whatever it takes to win.”
Whatever it takes. Even if it means getting in the gym on Christmas, right?
“Probably not Christmas,” Kurtz said with a laugh. “I am sure if it was up to them, they would be, but I probably couldn’t get away with that.”
But if there is one kid who could find a way, it is Thompson. Instead of jingle bells ringing through the gym and halls of Crestview High School on Christmas day, don’t be surprised if they are filled with the sound of a bouncing basketball and the swish as it goes through the net.
jfurr@gannett.com
740-244-9934
Twitter: @JakeFurr11
Justice Thompson leading Crestview to boys basketball special start – Mansfield News Journal
