Sports
Gimme 5: Oak Forest Coach Manzke Excited About Summer Basketball Turnout
Matt Manzke, boys basketball coach at Oak Forest, reflects on his passion for the sport and why he wants to help the school love basketball. This summer, his program had a good turnout for its youth camp.
Oak Forest boys basketball coach Matt Manzke knows the school traditionally has been a baseball and a football school. Now, he’s trying to show athletes why it should be a basketball school, too.
With more than 125 kids combined in 5-6 grades, 7-8 grades and incoming freshmen camps this summer, Manzke is showing Oak Forest youngsters why basketball is a great sport.
It’s no surprise that Manzke has such a zeal for the sport. With basketball having deep roots in his family, he has developed a passion for the game that he is now sharing with the Oak Forest community.
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He played high school basketball at Marist before playing at Illinois Wesleyan and Benedictine. His dad played basketball at Leo. Now, the two talk after every game to discuss what went right and wrong.
“I love basketball, I always have,” Manzke said. “My family’s a big basketball family and it’s always been my favorite sport.”
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Manzke, who teaches math, started at Oak Forest in 2001 as an assistant for Mike Brown. This upcoming season will be his fourth as head coach. With 10 years spent with the program, Manzke said the most rewarding thing to him about coaching is seeing the boys grow and mature.
“By far, the best thing about coaching is watching the players grow,” Manzke said. “Even better is then when they come back after they’re done and just seeing where they were and now where they’re at four, five or six years later.”
