ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Former short guard shoots up to dominant 6-4 center

When Kevin Kallert first tried out for the basketball team at Weehawken High School three years ago, he was a short, squat 5-foot-5 shooting guard.

“His freshman year, he spent most of his time shooting from the corner, hoisting up long threes (three-pointers),” recalled Weehawken head basketball coach Jake McNish. “He was short. No question about it.”

“I thought I was supposed to be a shooting guard for life,” Kallert said. “But then I started to grow a little bit.”

A little bit is an understatement. Kallert was the human version of Miracle-Grow. It was like someone sprinkled magic dust over him and he just instantly sprouted upwards. Kallert went from 5-5 to an even six feet in the matter of one year.

“After I started to grow, I guess I wasn’t a guard anymore,” Kallert said.

But he didn’t stop growing. In the next year, Kallert added another four inches, to where he now stands a robust 6-4. Nine full inches in less than three years.

“People were asking me whether I was eating something different,” Kallert said. “It just happened. I don’t know how. There aren’t tall people in my family.”

“I’ve never seen a kid grow that much in that short of a time,” McNish said. “It was amazing.”

Kallert had to then reinvent himself as a basketball player, learning how to play the forward positions and forgoing anything he learned as a guard.

“I really never played forward or center before,” Kallert said. “I wasn’t used to it. I wasn’t used to the physical play. I had to have a different mindset. As a guard, I had to worry about shooting and passing. As a forward, I had to concentrate on rebounding and playing defense. I had to learn all about playing there. I didn’t know what to do.”

But Kallert was a quick student, much like he is in the classroom.

“He was just so comfortable as an inside player,” McNish said. “He had been a perimeter player all his life and now he was being asked to be a post player. That wasn’t easy. But Kevin was able to bang around down low and was very physical underneath. I think playing a year of football helped Kevin get ready to be physical. Plus, he does whatever I ask of him and never questions it. I always get the same effort from him.”

McNish said that he had an inkling that Kallert was ready to emerge as an inside force this season by Kallert’s performance at a summer camp at Fairleigh Dickinson.

“I saw it at FDU, when he was playing with a lot more confidence,” McNish said. “He was being assertive and taking the ball to the basket with authority.”

Kallert has continued that aggressive approach into the regular season, where he has emerged as one of the premier post performers in the Bergen County Scholastic League’s National Division.

Since the beginning of the season, Kallert has averaged nearly double digits in scoring and rebounding, helping the Indians to jump out to an impressive 7-1 record.

However, in the last week, Kallert has really stepped up his game against the frontrunners in the BCSL National race.

Kallert had 12 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocked shots in a win over Wood-Ridge and followed that up with a 12-point, 12-rebound outing against previously undefeated and first place St. Mary’s of Rutherford. Kallert then scored eight points and had 14 rebounds in a one-sided win over Northern Valley/Old Tappan last Saturday.

For his efforts, Kallert has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week for the past week.

Kallert is somewhat startled by the success he’s enjoyed as a basketball player. After all, he’s also a member of the Indians’ football team and he’s a standout slugger for the baseball team in the spring.

“I’m pretty surprised,” Kallert said. “I knew I could rebound, but I didn’t know I could score. I consider myself more of a defensive player than an offensive player anyway. I knew that I had to step up my game a little this season if we wanted to win. I felt it was a good opportunity for me to step up, because I knew we were playing in some pretty big games.”

McNish said that there’s been a series of reasons why Kallert has improved so much as a basketball player, going from averaging only four points per game as a junior to nearly 12 per game now as a senior.

“I think the confidence he’s playing with now is a factor,” McNish said. “He’s so much more assertive. Last year, he really wasn’t much of a factor. If he got the ball, he looked elsewhere almost immediately. But now, he’s bigger, stronger and quicker and using that to his advantage inside. He also gives a great effort every day. You really can’t ask for anything more than that. He’s just an absolutely coachable kid.”

Regardless of what Kallert accomplishes on the hardwood, he still thinks of himself as a baseball player first and foremost.

“I think I have my best chance of playing baseball in college,” said Kallert, who is ranked No. 6 in his graduating class and hopes to major in business or finance in college. “I consider myself a baseball player. But I like what’s happening in basketball. We’re winning and it’s been fun. I never thought this could happen to me in basketball.”

See what happens when you grow faster than a beanstalk? You could grow into a basketball star. Here’s proof. – Jim Hague