Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Oswego East boys basketball coach Ryan Velasquez resigns after nine seasons
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- 0:05Speaker 1: Oswego East boys basketball coach Ryan Velaskaz resigns after nine seasons.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Written by Joshua we OLLLTT, this article is being read
- 0:17Speaker 1: by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Ryan Velaskaz,
- 0:24Speaker 1: who helped build Oswego East into one of the best
- 0:26Speaker 1: boys basketball programs in the Western Suburbs over the past
- 0:29Speaker 1: nine years, has resigned as head coach the Alaska's turned
- 0:34Speaker 1: in his resignation earlier this week and confirmed the decision Thursday.
- 0:40Speaker 1: Oswego East posted the job opening this week. The Alaska's
- 0:45Speaker 1: in nine seasons, led the Wolves to a nineteen eighty
- 0:48Speaker 1: to seventy one record. Oswego East won at least twenty
- 0:51Speaker 1: games in all eight full seasons with Velaska's as head coach,
- 0:55Speaker 1: not counting the COVID nineteen shortened season in which the
- 0:58Speaker 1: Wolves went ten to three. Calling it a personal decision,
- 1:02Speaker 1: Alaska has reflected that basketball has given me so much,
- 1:05Speaker 1: so many good memories. Velaska's has two kids, a fourteen
- 1:11Speaker 1: year old son who will be a freshman Oswego East
- 1:13Speaker 1: next fall, and twelve year old daughter. This was a
- 1:16Speaker 1: family decision. My son has a lot of interests and
- 1:19Speaker 1: so does my daughter, Velaska said, I made tons of
- 1:22Speaker 1: memories in basketball that I will never forget. This will
- 1:26Speaker 1: be to create memories with people that I love. In
- 1:28Speaker 1: a blink of an eye, they'll be done with high school.
- 1:32Speaker 1: The forty eight year old Velaskaz, a Sterling native, took
- 1:35Speaker 1: over the Oswego East program in twenty seventeen after five
- 1:38Speaker 1: seasons as sophomore coach. In his second season, a Wolves
- 1:43Speaker 1: team led by future pro ray J Dennis reached the
- 1:45Speaker 1: program's first sectional final. The Wolves won a program record
- 1:48Speaker 1: thirty three games in the twenty twenty one to twenty
- 1:50Speaker 1: twenty two season, losing to Bowling Brook in overtime in
- 1:53Speaker 1: a sectional final. The next year, Mkay Laurie and the
- 1:57Speaker 1: Wolves won twenty nine games and beat Bowlingbrook for a
- 2:00Speaker 1: we Go East first Sectional championship, losing to eventual state
- 2:03Speaker 1: champion Moleen in a super sectional. Swamp Nin's We had
- 2:07Speaker 1: buy in from the players and it started right away
- 2:10Speaker 1: with Velaska has said. We as a coaching staff poured
- 2:13Speaker 1: into them and had standards that we were going to
- 2:15Speaker 1: follow as a program, which helped us out with our culture.
- 2:19Speaker 1: It took a lot of hard work to do the
- 2:20Speaker 1: good things we were able to do year in and
- 2:22Speaker 1: year out. End quote. US we Go East in Velaska's time,
- 2:29Speaker 1: won thirty two consecutive Southwest Prairie Conference games, at one
- 2:32Speaker 1: point in three regional titles. Velaska's is staying on as
- 2:38Speaker 1: a health education teacher at us we Go East. It
- 2:42Speaker 1: has flown by. I wish I could do it for
- 2:44Speaker 1: twenty years. Wish I could do it forever. End quote.
- 2:47Speaker 1: Alaskas said, I have built so many positive relationships in
- 2:50Speaker 1: the community. The administration has been tremendously supportive. I am
- 2:56Speaker 1: so forever grateful for the staff, with the kids that
- 2:59Speaker 1: we have had a chance to impact over the last
- 3:01Speaker 1: nine years. Very fortunate to have basketball players that I
- 3:04Speaker 1: will always stay in touch with. It's time. It's not
- 3:08Speaker 1: a rash decision. It's something I've thought about for a while.