Weehawken senior leads Indians to Group I playoff push
Alex Montanile had high hopes and expectations for his senior basketball season at Weehawken High School. After all, Montanile had been a dutiful soldier, doing anything and everything that he was told over the previous three years, paying his dues and awaiting his turn. He figured everything would just fall into place to have a great final campaign.
But when the season began, there was an important ingredient missing from Montanile’s game – his jump shot.
"The best part of my game is my jump shot," Montanile said. "When the season started, I wasn’t playing like I should. My shot wasn’t there. After a while, it became more of a confidence problem. It was more confidence than mechanics. I became a little hesitant to shoot. It was tough."
"It wasn’t like he was taking a ton of shots," Weehawken head coach Jake McNish said. "But the shots Alex was taking just weren’t dropping. He was struggling, with his shot, with his confidence. But he was constantly working on it, staying after practice, taking shot after shot. A lot of other kids would have tanked it, given up, but Alex stuck with it. He’s just an unselfish kid who wanted to help the team."
McNish said that Montanile continued to help the Indians in a host of other ways – defensively, getting rebounds, dishing off for assists.
"We don’t have the biggest team in the world, so Alex had to play our four [power forward], getting beat up playing bigger kids," McNish said. "He was doing all the other little things for us. But you could see that [the shooting slump] was bothering him."
With that, McNish offered advice.
"You have to have a shooter’s mentality," McNish said. "He was saying that he didn’t want to shoot, but told him that he had to keep shooting it, that eventually the shots would fall."
"He showed a lot of confidence in me," Montanile said of McNish. "I was a little hesitant to shoot the ball, because I wasn’t making the shots and we had a player in Wilson [Veras] who was making the shots. I was fine doing the other things."
However, about three weeks ago, Montanile’s situation changed dramatically. Veras was forced to the sidelines with an injury. McNish turned to the rest of the Indians and told them that they had to collectively pick up the slack in Veras’ absence, but in reality, the coach had one player in mind.
"We had to have Alex step up and be more of a scorer for us," McNish said. "There was no other way. Alex would have days in practice when he just wouldn’t miss, but he couldn’t carry it over to the games. This was the perfect time for him to pick it up, with Wilson not being able to play. Without Alex, we were going to be lost."
"Coach [McNish] told us that we had to make up Wilson’s 16 points somehow," Montanile said. "We had to have different people step up and make a contribution. But I knew that this was my last year, that I had to step up and take responsibility."
Almost automatically, like it was a gift from the heavens, Montanile’s shot magically returned.
Montanile scored 27 points in the first game with Veras out of the lineup, leading Weehawken to a big victory over Becton. Since that point, Montanile has been a consistent performer for the Indians, and more importantly, a scorer, averaging nearly 19 points per game over the last seven contests.
Last week, Montanile scored 23 points, had seven rebounds and six assists in a win over Union Hill; added 16 points, eight rebounds, four steals and five assists in a win over Lyndhurst; and added eight rebounds, six steals and six assists in a victory over North Arlington.
For his efforts, Montanile has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.
Montanile has no explanation as to the re-appearance of his long-lost shooting touch.
"It’s just coincidence that I ended up getting in a zone at that time," Montanile said. "Actually, I feel better when the pressure is on me. I knew I had to do something and it happened. I think that Becton game was the big confidence boost I needed. That night, it felt like my shot was back, like it never left. It was back to normal and it’s been that way ever since."
McNish said that Montanile is a big reason why the Indians are enjoying a 19-4 season and will head to next week’s NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group I playoffs as the third seed in the bracket.
"He’s a pleasure to be around and a pleasure to coach," McNish said. "The kid will do anything you ask him to do. He’s just so unselfish and thinks of the team first. Sometimes, he’s too unselfish. I’m just glad he was able to turn his season around."
Montanile is now averaging nearly 14 points and seven rebounds per game, quite a turnaround from when he was struggling early on.
"Confidence is the key," Montanile said. "Everything feels so much better now. Basketball is fun again."
While Montanile is concentrating exclusively on basketball right now, he also has something to shoot for in the spring, as the Weehawken baseball team expects to have another solid season and a possible "three-peat" in the Bergen County Scholastic League National Division.
"That’s further down the road," Montanile said of baseball. "Right now, I’d love to win a state championship in basketball."
As long as the shots keep falling. – Jim Hague