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O’FALLON – It was the end of an era this past Friday night as Edwardsville lost to Belleville West 68-44 in the IHSA Class 4A O’Fallon regional final at the Panther Dome.
Mike Waldo coached his final game as Tigers’ head coach, ending a 30-year career at the school that saw incredible success.
During his Edwardsville run, Waldo went 646-215 that saw 10 Southwestern Conference championships, 21 regional titles, seven sectional championships and five trips to the state finals. His overall record in 35 seasons stands at 727-266, which started at Marquette Catholic in 1983-84.
Waldo politely declined to talk about his future, preferring instead to talk about his players. And when talking about his players, Waldo was very proud of them, both as players and as people. And his pride showed in his descriptions.
“I’m going to tell you — these guys are such good guys,” Waldo said about his Tiger team. “My team, our team has done so well this year. We have just gotten better, and better, and better. And we have because these guys have worked hard."
Edwardsville senior basketball players - Jack Marinko, Caleb Strohmeier, Cole Scarbrough, R.J. Wilson, Craig Roberts and Tyler Calling - recently played the final Tigers’ game. The group was honored before the Tigers’ last home game.
“I’m going to tell you – when you have a year like Jack (Marinko) has had – there’s a lot that goes into that. And part of it goes into, obviously, (Jaylen) Tuggle and Malik (Robinson) have skill. So does (Caleb) Strohmeier and R.J. (Wilson). But the best thing they’ve got is: ‘Coach – another set play for Jack? No problem. Another screen for Jack? Yeah. Another set play for Jack? Yeah, I’ll pass it to Jack.’ There is such a good bunch of guys, that they just play to win. And that is hard to find in this era of ‘what about me?’ It’s never been about what about me – it’s been about what about we, the team.”
Each player on the Tigers’ roster – which includes Nick Hemken, Lavontas Hairston, Jvon Kinney, Ethan Young, Grant Schaefer, A.J. Robertson, Matt Stopka, Cole Scarbrough, Craig Roberts and Tyler Halling – all loved playing for each other and worked hard to help the team achieve.
Coach Waldo said his players this season worked diligently every day.
“In a lot of situations, you’d have parents saying ‘It’s too hard.’ You never had that, they just hoop. They just hoop, they just practice, they just play. What a good bunch of guys.
“And they got better,” Waldo continued, “Jack Malinko, Jaylen Tuggle? Oh yeah. R.J. Wilson, Strohmeier. I’m going to say one thing about Strohmeier: I alluded to the 10,000 screens. It used to be Oliver (Stephen, the three-point shooter from the 2016-17 team), now it’s Jack. Strohmeier has chased guys, and not let them get the ball for three years. You know, they say. . .the Tigers do a good job of taking your best guy away. That’s what they say. Well, that’s easy. You know what’s hard? He’s going to run all over the place, and not going to get the ball. You try that sometimes, you know how hard that is. And that guy’s done that for three years. He has just busted himself for three years.”
Very high praise indeed from one of the best basketball coaches in Illinois high school sports history.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
