Sean Liszka got cut from his seventh-grade basketball team.
Now he’s one of Benet’s five starters.
“I’ve always been determined and I love basketball,” he said. “I kept working and my game kept progressing. The coaching at the lower levels (at Benet) gave me confidence and improved my skill set, and I credit coach (Gene) Heidkamp for helping me out.”
Liszka’s not the kind of player who puts up impressive numbers. Usually his most significant contributions don’t show up the box score, but they help his team win, and the Redwings (16-6) have done a lot of winning this winter.
“Sean pretty much does a little bit of everything for us. He’s a glue player for the team,” Heidkamp said. “Defensively he’s guarding the best player, or one of the best players, so he offers a lot of stability.
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“He makes good decisions, can make open shots and has a lot of the intangibles. His stats might not jump out at you but what he brings to the floor makes us better in every facet.”
Obviously the team that scores the most points wins, but the Naperville resident’s role doesn’t require him to do a lot of the scoring. He learned that when he first came to Benet, and it’s evident in how he’s playing this season.
“Since freshman year I’ve heard it stressed that it’s not always about how many points you score,” he said. “Just because you score a lot doesn’t mean you’re playing well. At Benet we stress not to be selfish on offense and spread the ball around and to play defense and rebound.”
While Benet has won seven of its last eight games, Liszka’s averaged a modest 5.1 points and only scored in double figures once during that stretch, with an 11-point outburst against St. Viator.
“I like to try to contribute the things I can control and I can’t always control if my shot is going to be there,” he said. “I’m not be the best shooter but I’ll make some shots and I’m going to go to the boards as much as I can and help out defensively.”
While teammate Danny Sobolewski’s prowess for taking defensive charges garners attention, Liszka’s ability to pester opponents is also worth noting.
“A lot of it is effort and it’s not just one person guarding the better players, we tend to do it as a team,” he said. “You get beat all the time while guarding so you have to have people in the gaps helping out and contesting shots and we’ve been able to do that.”
Still, there’s no denying that he’s developed into an exceptional defensive player, and much of that growth took place behind the scenes last year, battling against Sean O’Mara, Collin Pellettieri and Liam Nelligan.
“Playing against those guys in practice definitely got me better,” he said. “It wasn’t that I specifically worked on playing defense, but just going up against them was challenging and helped me. Defense has always been kind of where I like to take pride in my game.”
Coming into the season, Heidkamp wasn’t sure what to make of this year’s team, but he always knew that there would be a role for Liszka.
“I think we knew he’d be an important player, but we weren’t sure if it would be a starter or coming off the bench,” Heidkamp said. “He’s really earned this opportunity. He’s valuable in many different ways and when he’s not on the floor there are certainly things we miss.”