At a time when most players are feeling weary, Waubonsie Valley senior forward Cade Valek still has some spring in his step.
Maybe more spring than he had a month ago.
The 6-foot-7 Valek, who has committed to play soccer at Alabama-Huntsville, was playing club soccer this winter in addition to his basketball duties as the Warriors’ main big man.
“Cade is an absolute animal,” Waubonsie Valley coach Andrew Schweitzer said. “I think it’s his soccer background. No one quite has a motor like him.
“He’s still been playing soccer up until the last few weeks, and we finally had a conversation where, ‘You know what, dude? We’ve got a chance to do something special.’ And he’s all in.”
Indeed, Valek is taking a break from soccer in order to focus on the Warriors.
“It’s been helpful for basketball just because I have fresh legs,” he said. “I haven’t been dragging as much, so it’s been good to focus everything on basketball right now, especially with the team we have and the opportunities we have.
“I don’t want to take nothing for granted.”
Waubonsie Valley fans take senior combo guard Moses Wilson’s dunking ability for granted, but they don’t often get to see Valek dunk.
That changed in a big way Friday, when Valek threw down powerhouse dunks on three consecutive possessions down the stretch to help the second-seeded Warriors close out a 70-52 victory against seventh-seeded Neuqua Valley in the Class 4A Waubonsie Valley Regional championship game in Aurora.
Wilson scored a game-high 21 points and also had six steals for Waubonsie Valley (31-2), which won back-to-back regional titles for the first time since 2007-08 and advances to the Benet Sectional semifinals to play the third-seeded host Redwings (28-5) at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Senior guard Tyreek Coleman added 12 points and six assists, sophomore guard Kris Mporokoso scored 15 points and senior guard Joshua Tinney had 12 points and four steals. Sophomore guard Mason Martin paced Neuqua Valley with (20-13) with 12 points.
Valek, a defender in soccer, doesn’t get many chances to shoot. Yet he made all four attempts against the Wildcats, who trailed 59-49 when he dunked off a pass from Wilson.
It was the start of an amazing sequence during which Mporokoso found Valek for a second dunk. After Neuqua Valley freshman phenom Cole Kelly converted a three-point play, Coleman set up Valek for a third dunk with 3:20 left in the fourth quarter.
“That’s the most dunks I’ve ever seen him get,” Schweitzer said.
Valek and Wilson have been working on their jumping in practice, which Valek said has helped. But Wilson wouldn’t accept credit.
“No, that’s all him,” Wilson said. “We sort of take pride in it. He knows he’s explosive. He knows he’s tall. So he’s been executing and getting on the end of it, for sure.
“It was a great feeling just seeing Cade getting up there. Honestly, I couldn’t have been more excited.”
Schweitzer was actually more excited about what came next. Valek took a charge with his team leading by 18 points.
“That was awesome,” Schweitzer said. “Nothing gets me more excited than a charge. It’s sacrificial. It’s putting your body on the line for your team. Loved it.”
But Valek, who finished with nine points and five rebounds, wasn’t done. On Neuqua Valley’s next possession, he made his only steal of the game and followed with his only assist — a terrific alley-oop pass to Wilson for a monster dunk with 2:45 left.
“I thought that was going over,” Schweitzer said. “But the reality is you can throw it anywhere and usually Moses is going to go up and get it.”
Wilson got the ball at least a foot over the rim.
“He gave me a little-too-perfect pass,” Wilson said. “Mind you, we’ve been working on this all practices. We finally got one down in a game.”
For Valek, it was an unanticipated exclamation point to a memorable victory.
“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that opportunity to come. But, hey, we got it. We’ll take it.”
The Warriors will take that kind of win too.
“When Kris is shooting like that and I’m getting downhill and ‘Reek and Mo are always going to do their thing and Cade’s getting rebounds, we’re pretty unstoppable,” Tinney said.
“Cade is a huge part. You don’t see it sometimes, but he does a lot, like boxing out, getting rebounds, and when we give him the ball, he does finish.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
