- 2015 Highlights
Personal Statement
Relentless, gym-rat. Doing what it takes to take my game to the highest level possible. To do so I am in the gym every night lifting, working on my shot, ball handling, or particular moves. Senior season has very high expectations. Doing what it takes to exceed them!
Here is that article will be in the state journal for Thursday 1/8/15
They’re not predicting a second coming of Gillespie High School’s outstanding boys basketball teams of just over a decade ago. But with a brother duo leading the Miners to their first Carlinville Holiday Tournament title since 2002, their fans have to be reminded of those good old days.
This is the first season that Gillespie junior Evan Price and sophomore Nick Price have been able to play together on a school team. Gillespie’s seventh- and eighth-graders were kept on separate squads, and Nick was on last year’s junior varsity while Evan was on the varsity team.
Heading into summer basketball, Gillespie coach Casey Sholtis envisioned Nick starting on the junior varsity and playing some varsity minutes. But Nick had other ideas.
“I agreed he needed some varsity minutes,” Evan said of Nick. “But I don’t think he accepted the idea just doing that. By the time we started playing summer games, I realized he was going to be a starter. He really worked hard.”
Nick, who matches his brother in height at 6 feet 1, finally worked his way into the lineup early this season, and the chemistry has provided a winning formula. After a slow start, Gillespie is 8-5 after sweeping its way to the title at Carlinville last week.
It was the Miners’ first holiday championship since they won it back-to-back in 2001 and ’02, when brothers T.J. and Zak Allan played for their father, former Gillespie coach Terry Allan.
All-tourney
The Prices played big roles in the championship at Carlinville, where they both earned all-tournament honors. Nick averaged 19.2 points over four games and Evan averaged 18.5. Nick hit 14 3-point field goals in the tourney and was 17-for-18 at the free throw line. Evan made 26 of the 30 free throws he tried.
“By the end of Nick’s freshman year, it was clear to us he’d play some major varsity minutes this year,” Sholtis said. “But this summer, it became more apparent he’d have a bigger roll.
“Nick’s more of a perimeter shooter. He was only two off the (Carlinville tournament) record for 3-pointers. But he can take it to the basket, too. Evan’s a good shooter, but he has more of an old-time game. He’s good with his feet. He sees the floor well. He has a nice mid-range shot.”
As for their free throw accuracy, Evan credits half of Gillespie’s brother duo from the early 2000s. T.J. Allan is a personal trainer in Gillespie, where the Price brothers are among his clients.
“In our training sessions, T.J. will have us shoot free throws after about an hour of training,” Evan said. “He says shooting free throws is toughest when you’re tired.
“But he also says free throws are mostly mental. It’s all about mental toughness.”
Nick said Allan helped push him to a higher level to get him ready for varsity play this year.
“He said if I wanted to play varsity, I had to be able to handle the ball more,” Nick said. “And I needed to be a knock-down shooter.
“T.J. comes to all of our games and supports us. He works with a lot of guys on the team. He’s helped Evan and me a lot.”
Unfortunately, a gap in the Miners’ schedule means there aren’t any games for a while. They don’t play again until Tuesday against Hillsboro. Gillespie then hosts the Macoupin County Tournament beginning Jan. 17. The Miners are seeded second behind Piasa Southwestern for that one.
Evan said the Miners should have a strong home-court advantage at their gym, where fans are on top of the action in a facility that dates to the 1920s. It underwent repairs after being damaged by a tornado in the spring of 2013.
Two of the Price brothers’ biggest fans should be in the home crowd: their parents, Chuck and Amy Price.
“We really looked forward to playing together this year,” Evan said. “We did’t talk about it a lot, but our dad wouldn’t shut up about it. He couldn’t wait to see us on the floor together.”
— Contact Dave Kane: 788-1544, [email protected], twitter.com/davekaneSJR
