Success keeps Findlay coach busy in off-season

Rob Miech

Findlay Prep coach Mike Peck in a press conference after guiding the Pilots to a 74-66 victory over Oak Hill Academy in the final of the ESPN RISE National High School Invitational at Georgetown Prep. Peck improved to 65-1 in two seasons coaching the Pilots.

By Rob Miech (contact)

Thursday, May 7, 2009 | 3:42 p.m.

Since capping a 33-0 season with a championship victory over Oak Hill Academy in the first ESPN High School Invitational a month ago, Findlay College Prep coach Mike Peck has been busy.

Henderson Mayor James B. Gibson and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman rang Peck, during a radio show, with congratulatory calls.

He and assistant coach Todd Simon are finalizing plans for the team’s banquet, and seniors Avery Bradley, D.J. Richardson and Carlos Lopez will be walking in graduation ceremonies in two weeks.

Peck and Simon also have been deluged by phone calls, e-mails and general interest from many prospects, and they’re working on next season’s schedule.

“We’re scrambling to get stuff done,” Peck said.

The 30-game schedule for 2009-10 promises to be the most ambitious under Peck, who is 65-1 in two seasons piloting the Pilots.

Twenty-six are set, including a Martin Luther King Day game against Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, which went 30-3 this past season, at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

That game, and three other Findlay contests, will be on ESPN. Findlay also will play in Ohio, and Florida and Kentucky twice.

Of the local foes, Sierra Vista will play the Pilots in February and Bishop Gorman is slated to play Findlay on Dec. 12 at the Orleans Arena.

“It’s our most competitive, most rigorous schedule,” Peck said. “I think a lot has to do with (winning the ESPN tournament). Many teams want us in their events to showcase them.”

More national recognition

Findlay was prominently featured in multiple-page, multiple-photo piece in the April 13 edition of Sports Illustrated.

Writer Phil Taylor looked at the unique arrangement between Findlay and Henderson International, and examined the benefits of a true national high school championship.

Many state federations bar their schools from participating in such a national event.

“My initial reaction or opinion was probably that it was more of a shot, or a negative, for ESPN and Paragon (the entertainment company that helped arrange the tournament) for creating the tournament,” Peck said.

“I think we sort of got dragged into that article. I know this; we got a heck of a lot of publicity out of it. I’m not ready to throw that fish back into the water.”

As far as a negative light cast on Findlay, Peck said he can’t control what other people think or say.

“I know this,” he said. “I know the ins and outs of our setup, and I know we’re not doing anything weird or wrong or bad. So people will believe what they want to believe and have opinions about our setup.

“But I know it because I walk in my shoes every day. I can’t control what they think or say. That’s frustrating, but that’s life.”

Next season

The core of the 2009-10 Pilots will be point guard Cory Joseph, and power forwards Tristan Thompson and Godwin Okonji. Rasham Suarez, a guard who will be a junior, also figures to play a bigger role.

Peck also confirmed that Nigel Williams-Goss, a 6-foot-1 point guard who is finishing the eighth grade in Clackamas, Ore., is set to be a part of the Pilots’ program for four years.

Williams-Goss is widely considered to be one of the nation’s best players in his class.

“I talk to him frequently, and he’s in the fold,” Peck said. “He’s excited. He’s been excited since last year, after he came down here for a couple of days to see our setup and how we operate.

“Throughout the year, with our success, he’s been just thrilled at the development he’s about to embark on. The No. 1 thing for him, why he pursued us all along, was with his future in mind. He needs it, he said, and he wants to get better.”

Peck said it will be rare for Findlay to have many four-year players. One or two a year, he said, no more.

Boylen leads for Okonji

Utah appears to be the favorite for Okonji, despite the 6-9 forward telling the Sun in September that he’d like to go to UNLV.

Utes coach Jim Boylen has been a regular at the Henderson International School, with which Findlay is affiliated, and he has beamed about Okonji’s tremendous upside.

It’s very likely, according to several sources, that the Rebels have not made a formal scholarship offer to Okonji.

VCU for Grayson?

Issiah Grayson, a spitfire reserve guard for the Pilots this past season, might end up at Virginia Commonwealth. After the title game in Maryland, Grayson said Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Cincinnati and Stanford were among the schools that were interested in him.

A look back

Findlay dominated the season from start to finish. It played three games, of 8-minute quarters, in Maryland. Of those 96 total minutes, the Pilots trailed for 4 minutes, 33 seconds.

Most of that – 3 minutes, 12 seconds – was in the second quarter of the finale against Oak Hill. Findlay turned that around in a big way, taking a 17-point lead on the Warriors in the third quarter.

Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said the previous time he remembered trailing by that much was in 2002 against LeBron James’s high school team in the Cleveland area.

Findlay finished off Oak Hill, 74-66, at Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, Md.