Adam Shinsky knows there’s more to a story than a team’s record.
As a basketball coach, he sees it on a daily basis in practice. And when tasked with scouting, he must look past the numbers and statistics to get to the heart of what makes a team tick.
Shinsky, until recently a seven-year long veteran assistant for the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights, went to scout St. Clairsville against Brooke.
The Bruins’ program, to put it plainly, is in a slump.
Brooke has two winning seasons in the last 13, most recently in 2014.
They’ve won two sectional games in the last 20 years and haven’t reached the state tournament since 1994.
Their last first-team all-state player was state player of the year Matt Gaudio in 1991.
But what Shinsky saw on the court didn’t match-up visually with a team supposedly mired in losing.
“They haven’t won a lot the last two years, but I watched them beat St. Clairsville,” Shinsky said. “It shocked me they were only a three-win team. There is a lot of young talent there. You can tell when a team is defeated because they will roll over and give another win away.
“That’s not what I saw in their faces. They had the athleticism and the drive to do what needed to be done.”
That is one of a number of reasons that Shinsky felt putting in for the vacant Brooke coaching job was the right move for him. The school board agreed and recently announced Shinsky as its head coach.
He takes over for the late Mel Coleman, who passed away unexpectedly in July after complications from a heart attack.
The Drive Isn’t That Far
Shinsky works full-time for the Chambers YMCA and lives in the Wheeling area.
The daily commute to Bruin Drive in the north end of Wellsburg weighed on his decision initially of whether to apply.
But after he initially applied, the Shinsky family traveled to Follansbee for a pinto tourney his eldest son was playing in. A relatively short trip later, and he realized the drive wasn’t so bad.
“It’s definitely doable for me. It’s a little further than what I’m used to, but I only have to worry about being at one practice instead of three,” Shinsky said. “So, I thought to myself, if they offer it to me, I’ll take it.”
Speaking of drive, Shinsky likes what he sees from the junior high programs at Follansbee and Wellsburg. It’s another reason he listed for taking the position.
“It was one of my main factors,” Shinsky said. “Those guys have done a tremendous job in the middle-school programs. There are a lot of talented younger players coming up in that level.”
He also noted he’s seen the development of the younger players in Brooke County, who travel south to Wheeling to play in the YMCA’s youth leagues.
The future definitely could be bright in Brooke County, and Shinsky is glad he made the decision to be a part of it.
Big Challenges, Big Expectations
West Virginia begins its testing of the four-class system for basketball this winter.
Brooke just missed the cutoff to fall back to an AAA school, meaning it still must compete with Wheeling Park, John Marshall, University, and Morgantown.
That’s not an easy section to advance out of.
The Bruins also must contend with those same schools, as well as the OVAC’s finest in AAAAA on the Ohio side.
But Shinsky’s coming from a championship program with a championship mindset.
“Where I come from, we’re using to playing in that 1-4, 2-3 OVAC game. There are a lot of good teams, but there’s no reason we can’t contend for one of those spots,” Shinsky said.
Will he also be bringing any tricks or schemes he learned whilst under the tutelage of longtime Central coach Mel Stephens?
In particular, that unrelenting defensive pressure Central teams are most famous for?
“I’ve heard it called tenacious, feisty, irritating,” said Shinsky. “But I’m not Mel and never will be. In my opinion, he’s the best ever around here. He’s big on man-to-man defense.
“I’m studying up on pack-line man, and also I played for Tom Tribett in the early 2000s, and he was a master of the zone defense.”
