Determination helps Kerr make the grade at Grant
No one wants to be thought of as 'not good enough.'
But that's a natural feeling for athletes to have when they are relegated to the 'B' team, as in they are 'not good enough' to be on the 'A' team.
Grant junior forward John Kerr remembers that feeling very well. And he didn't like it at all.
He was a 'B' team player as an eighth grader in feeder basketball. He was a 'B' team player again as a freshman at Grant.
"I was disappointed," Kerr said. "I was mad. I wanted to prove that I should have been on the 'A' team. I wanted to prove that they made the wrong decision."
Many of the players who were on the 'B' teams with John Kerr in eighth and ninth grade aren't even playing basketball any more. Perhaps they left the game out of frustration, or to pursue other sports.
Kerr used his humble beginnings as a motivation. And now, he's a double-figure scorer and starter on a Grant varsity team that is making waves in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division. After winning just 3 games total last season, the Bulldogs are a perfect 4-0 in the Prairie (8-7 overall).
"Playing on the 'B' teams made me want to play even harder," said Kerr, who is averaging 12.5 points and about 6 to 7 rebounds per game and is shooting 60 percent from the field. "I think it made me better.
"When I was in eighth grade, I started out on the 'A' team but I never played, maybe like two minutes a game. They moved me down to the 'B' team and I was one of the better players. I got to play a lot. I rarely came out. I think that gave me a lot of confidence."
Kerr went into his freshman year at Grant with a renewed sense of optimism. But ultimately, he found himself in the same position, on the 'B' team.
"I was pretty mad again," Kerr said. "I thought I should have been on the 'A' team. It was a good source of motivation for me."
Grant freshman coach Curtis Oler was a good source of encouragement for Kerr.
Oler, now the freshman 'A' coach at Grant, was the 'B' coach when Kerr was a freshman. He could relate to what Kerr was going through.
Oler was also a basketball player at Grant, years after his father Lee Oler graduated as the best basketball player in Grant history. Many of the elder Oler's records still stand at Grant.
"Coach Oler told me about how he was on the 'B' team when he was a freshman at Grant, but that he eventually started on varsity, which is what I'm doing now," Kerr said. "I always kept that in the back of my mind."
Now Kerr has to be top of mind for opponents.
Just 5-foot-10 as a freshman, Kerr has blossomed into a 6-foot-5 presence in the paint. He can be a beast on the boards, even at 180 pounds, and has at least 3 or 4 double-doubles on the season.
"I'd like to be about 200 pounds, and I'm eating a lot and lifting and drinking protein shakes, but my metabolism is so fast," Kerr said. "I think I'm still pretty physical though."
One of Kerr's best games this season was a double-double against NSC Lake Division heavyweight Zion-Benton. He finished with 23 points in that game.
"John is a player who you can literally see getting better game to game," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "He's a very fast learner and is really starting to become a force on the varsity level.
"I remember seeing him freshman year and talking about him as a coaching staff and all of us agreeing on the fact that he had a lot of potential and a great work ethic to go with it. When you put those two characteristics together, it's no surprise he's been able to accomplish some of the things he has in the past two years and has been on the fast track for improvement."
Kerr wants to put the Bulldogs on the fast track to a regional championship. He says, now that he isn't worried about fighting his way up to an 'A' team, that some state tournament hardware is his new motivation these days.
"I'm pretty sure Coach Bosworth told us that we haven't won a regional championship since he's been here," Kerr said. "We really want to do that. I know a lot of people think that since we won only 3 games last year, there's no way we can do that.
"But we are out to prove people wrong."
Kerr certainly has experience in that area.
"I think the fact that I'm starting varsity now shows that you can achieve anything if you're motivated enough," Kerr said. "You just can't give up. And you can never be happy with where you're at. You can always get better."
pbabcock@dailyherald.com
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