Chef’s recipe for DePue: Run, boys, run

DePUE — With another boys basketball season set to begin, things will be cookin’ again at DePue High School, where head coach Charlie “The Chef” Klinefelter hopes this year’s recipe will be a winning one for the Little Giants.

“We are very young, and our three seniors have not played much,” Klinefelter, in his seventh year as DePue head coach, said. “But we hustle and have a lot of heart.”

Oscar Ramirez, Anthony Tyson and Mario Quintana are the seniors at the top of the 15-player varsity roster, and Klinefelter thinks they are ready to step up to the leadership roles needed for success on the court.

“I’m looking for Oscar and Mario to step up,” Klinefelter said. “They’ve both worked hard to get into shape. We aren’t tall, with our biggest kid at 6-0 in Quintana, but our other senior, Anthony Tyson, will be our strength underneath.”

Ramirez is keen on keeping the hard-driving legacy of the Little Giants alive.

“We lost some great teammates, like Marcus Winfert, Johnny Raya and Daniel Lopez,” he said. “But we have the heart to win as many games as we can, and listen to what Coach says.”

And what does Coach say to him?

“Run, run,” Ramirez said with a laugh. “He wants us to run down teams, make smart passes and shots and keep playing hard.”

The dual-purpose Quintana, who is comfortable with playing center or power forward, notes a significant change for this season.

“We’re definitely a lot shorter than some of the players we’ve had the last few years,” he said. “Like, I’m the tallest player out here, and I’m only 6-foot. Some of the other players I’ll be up against will be 6-2 or 6-3.”

Juniors on the varsity include Tristan Hester, Jorge Escobar, Hunter Tyson and Tony Lopez.

“Hester is a junior who transferred from Annawan,” Klinefelter said. “Then Jorge, Hunter and Tony will battle for playing time with two sophomores, Andres Moreno and Koby Hayes.”

Hester found the move to be very beneficial to him and, he hopes with his height and speed, his new team.

“At Annawan, I really didn’t get to play that much,” he said. “But when I got here, Coach fit me in. It’s a great atmosphere here, I love it.”

Sophomore Moreno is ready to play a bigger role on the varsity this year.

“Last year I played more JV ball, but got a few minutes as sixth man on the varsity,” he said. “Coach just wants me to be a facilitator on the floor. He knows I can score, so he wants me to shoot more.”

Klinefelter added, “(Moreno and Hayes) are both motors on the floor who supply a lot of energy. We hope to sneak up on teams with our speed and heart.”

Christian Escobar and Sean Fitzgerald are the other two sophs to suit up for the varsity, while freshmen Jose Rios, Victor Morales, Oscar Lopez and Issac Yanez hope to see playing time as well.

The Little Giants opened the season later than most teams, with a visit to the L-P Cavaliers Tuesday.

“It actually helps us out to have this extra week, where most teams have their third game in by now,” Klinefelter said. “It give us more conditioning. The only problem is, we don’t have any game time when it comes to playing somebody.

“We open with the huge task of taking on a talented LaSalle-Peru team, and play three games in our first week, so hopefully we do good in that first stretch.”

Looking down the schedule at future opponents, Klinefelter said, “The teams in our conference to watch most certainly are Peoria Christian, Seneca and Henry, but my surprise team that will shock a lot of teams this year will be Earlville.”

Regardless of who they face, the philosophy of “The Chef” remains the same.

“If you do basic, fundamental basketball, you’ll do fine with the kids you’ve got.”