Joseph Yesufu of Bolingbrook is the Herald News' Boys Basketball Player of the Year

The boys basketball season ended over three weeks ago for the Bolingbrook basketball team, but Raiders head coach Rob Brost knows where he’s going to find Joseph Yesufu in the early morning hours of the day.

He’s getting shots up. He’s working on his game.

“He was here this morning. Our season’s over. This morning, when I walked through at 6:20 a.m., he was here,” Brost said. “He’s a different breed of kid in an all positive way. I’m not trying to call anyone out, but he’s here every single day. It shows in his play. It shows in how he carries himself, it shows in his discipline. And obviously, he has some gifts that he was given, but he works tremendously hard.”

That incredible work ethic, combined with his exemplary play, led to Yesufu being named Joliet Herald News’ Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Yesufu seemed to think it was strange that anyone would question his need to continue pushing even after his team’s season came to an end on March 12 in a 72-60 loss to Belleville West at the Illinois State University Super-Sectional. Belleville West went on to win the Class 4A State title.

“I still have to put in work for next year,” Yesufu said. “[The loss] is still in the back of my mind, but it just makes me want to work harder.”

That incredible and genuine work ethic obviously was one of the many things that appealed to Drake University, Yesufu’s college of choice.

Yesufu’s immaculate academic record certainly didn’t hurt the effort either. Yesufu carries a 3.9 grade-point average and is a member of the school’s National Honor Society. Yesufu plans to major in business or finance at Drake.

It didn’t take too much of a sell to get Drake on board with trying to bring Yesufu into the fold.

Brost had a previous relationship established with assistant coach Matt Woodley, and when head coach Darien DeVries took over the program in March 2018, one of Woodley’s first calls was to Brost, asking what players he might have that would be a fit for Drake.

“[Woodley] said, ‘Who do I need?’ and I told him that he needed Joseph and that he needed to get on him,” Brost said. “After I described him, he said this seemed to be too good to be true. I told them they could come see for themselves and decide. It wasn’t long before he was a top priority for them.”

Brost knows what Drake is getting in Yesufu and, more importantly, knows that he has the built-in mentality required to help him to success at the next level.

“He has the ability to allow himself to be coached, and allow himself to be corrected, and that is probably the No. 1 skill that kids don’t have when they go to the next level,” Brost said. “You can push him, you can correct him and you can take him to the next level because that’s what he wants. Having that piece is going to be a less of a transition than it is going to be for most kids.”

And then there’s that relentless work ethic.

“I really have to grind and get myself ready,” Yesufu said of his upcoming Drake experience. “College is not a joke, so I should take it like it is not a joke.”

Yesufu averaged just a tick under 16 points a game this season. And while that number doesn’t pop off the stat sheet, an understanding of Yesufu’s game is needed to comprehend that his scoring average could probably approach twice as much if he had even an ounce of “self over team” in his attack plan.

“You never have to worry about his attitude, or you have to worry about if his mind is going to be in the right place, like you have to with so many other kids his age,” Brost said. “He carries himself in such a way that he’s not drawing attention to himself. That the team always comes first.”

That team-first mentality has served him well. He and teammate Tyler Cochran, who has also been on the varsity roster since his freshman year, are the all-time winningest players in Bolingbrook history. The Raiders reached the Class 4A State Tournament in his sophomore season, and he is one of six players in program history to reach 1,000 career points, once again along with Cochran.

When asked what he hopes he leaves behind as his mark on the Bolingbrook program, Yesufu gets right to the point.

“I hope that I left a legacy,” Yesufu said. “It is unfortunate that it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but I hope that I inspired others around me and I was a great leader.”

And just like that, the conversation was over. But it was hard to be offended by the abruptness.

Yesufu’s got more shots to get up.